16 Facts About Junior Walker

Junior Walker performed as a session and live-performing saxophonist with the band Foreigner during the 1980s.

Junior Walker began playing saxophone while in high school, and his saxophone style was the anchor for the sound of the bands he later played in.

Junior Walker's career started when he developed his own band in the mid-1950s as the Jumping Jacks.

Periodically, Nicks would sit in on Jumping Jack's shows, and Walker would sit in on the Rhythm Rockers shows.

Nicks obtained a permanent gig at a local TV station in South Bend, Indiana, and asked Junior Walker to join him and keyboard player Fred Patton permanently.

When Nicks was drafted into the United States Army, Junior Walker convinced the band to move from South Bend to Battle Creek, Michigan.

From that time on, Junior Walker sang more on the records than earlier in their career.

Junior Walker toured the UK in 1970 with drummer Jerome Teasley, guitarist Phil Wright, keyboardist Sonny Holley and the youthful Liverpool UK bassist Norm Bellis.

In 1979, Junior Walker went solo, disbanding the All Stars, and was signed to Norman Whitfield's Whitfield Records label, but he was not as successful on his own as he had been with the All Stars in his Motown period.

Junior Walker later recorded his own version of the song for the 1983 All Stars's album Blow the House Down.

Junior Walker's version was featured in the 1985 Madonna film Desperately Seeking Susan.

In 1988, Junior Walker played opposite Sam Moore as one-half of the fictional soul duo The Swanky Modes in the comedy Tapeheads.

Junior Walker died of cancer at the age of 64 in Battle Creek, Michigan, on November 23,1995.

Junior Walker is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Battle Creek under a marker inscribed with both his birth name of Autry DeWalt Mixon Jr.

Junior Walker was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1995.

Junior Walker's "Shotgun" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002.