I think celery seed is critical to home-made BBQ sauce.

I generally start with store-bought tomato puree and cook with some or all of the following:
celery seed
garlic
chili (ranging from plain chili powder to something smokier like chipotle peppers)
choricero pepper
sugar/molasses
tamarind extract/paste
worcheshire sauce (which is one way to come up with tamarind, but why not just start with the tamarind?)
soy sauce
vinegar

You could probably replace the Franks with some hot sauce and ketchup?

Okay - let me rephrase the terminology...I'm looking to make deep fried chicken wings tossed in a spicy sauce after removing from the deep fryer. I find that Frank's is a little too over powering...for some reason, pubs in Toronto Ontario seem to have the recipe for this type of sauce down...

Could I just add that "barbecue" is a very touchy, regional hot button topic in this country. Are we talking Kansas City, Memphis, St. Louis, Carolinas (or God forbid, Texas)??? It's way different in each place.

So like a buffalo sauce? I found this on a forum here, http://www.copykatchat.com/recipe-requests/27203.htm; and the notable recipe

HOT WING SAUCE:
1 cup Frank's cayenne pepper sauce
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/8 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons water
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons cornstarch

Combine all ingredients except egg yolk, water, and cornstarch for sauce of your choice in a small saucepan. Heat sauce over medium heat until boiling, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat and allow it to cool, uncovered, for 10 minutes.

While sauce cools, vigorously whisk egg yolk with 2 teaspoons water in a medium bowl for about 2 minutes or color is pale yellow. Whisk in cornstarch until dissolved. Drizzle sauce mixture into egg yolk mixture in a steady stream while rapidly whisking. This will create a thick, creamy emulsion that will prevent oil from separating. Cover sauce and chill until needed.

Whenever I've made barbeque sauce, it's always been tomato-based. I usually start with some canned tomato sauce and add any number of the following flavors:

Apple cider vinegar
Cloves
Mustard (either seeds or prepared mustard)
Red pepper flakes
Black pepper
Brown sugar
Allspice
Hot sauce
Onion
Worcestershire sauce

I'm really a big fan of mustardy barbeque sauces. I'd get a good mustardy sauce going and then increase the heat with a high-quality hot sauce that has good chile flavor and some red pepper flakes.

I'm looking for a hot and spicy BBQ sauce to use for deep-fried chicken wings...I used to work as a short order cook in pubs that specialized in chicken wings (they won awards on their sauce) and am looking to reproduce that experience. Imagine the wings come out of the fryer and are tossed in the BBQ sauce, put in a pie tin and top broiled via Salamander broiler (to finish them off) and then dropped in a basket with carrots/celery...serve with Bleu Cheese dressing...my mouth is watering.

I make my own all of the time! This is how I start and then of course adjust to your own taste.
BBQ sauce: ½ cup ketchup 2 tbs Dijon mustard 2-3 dashes hot sauce (Louisiana style or Tabasco) 4-5 drops liquid smoke 1 tbs chili powder 1 tbs Worcestershire sauce 1 tbs blackstrap molasses

Try this amazing and easy barbecue sauce:
http://www.food52.com/recipes/6400_dead_guy_sauce

First thing is to decide what you want to put it on and what base you want for the sauce. For example, being a Carolina boy I consider barbecue to be pulled pork with a vinegar based sauce, but you're looking to make ribs you'll probably something with a tomato base.

So what are you looking to do?