Bobby Whitlock, Derek and the Dominos founder, dies at 77

Bobby Whitlock, who co-founded the pioneering rock band Derek and the Dominos alongside Eric Clapton and launched a profitable solo profession that concerned collaborating in periods for George Harrison, has died. He was 77.

Whitlock's loss of life on Sunday was confirmed by Clapton, who shared a photograph of his previous bandmate and lifelong buddy on Fb with the caption, "Our expensive buddy Bobby Whitlock, has handed away at 77, our honest condolences to Bobby's spouse CoCo and his household on this unhappy day… RIP Bobby xxx."

The musician's supervisor, Carol Kaye, told Variety that Whitlock died at 1:20 a.m. on Sunday, after a quick battle with most cancers.

Whitlock was born on March 18, 1948, in Memphis, the epicenter of blues and soul music, from which the rock and roll that Whitlock helped pioneer would spring.

He made historical past younger, changing into the primary white musician to be signed to the legendary Stax Information label, which helped break the careers of Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Booker T. & the MG's, and extra.

"All people at Stax would come over to listen to me play on the Cabaret Membership at College," Whitlock told The Los Angeles Beat in 2012. "Memphis was an ideal place to be at that time limit. Music was simply in all places. It was thick. There was at all times one thing occurring. Nice music was at all times being performed or made by someone. Arthur Conley or Wilson Pickett can be on the town, and I at all times had my ear to the bottom at what was taking place at Stax."

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Whitlock would play regionally alongside fellow Stax artists till assembly the collaborator who would change his life in 1969. That 12 months, Whitlock joined the touring band of Delaney & Bonnie, the musical undertaking of husband and spouse crew Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett. One other member of that band was Eric Clapton, with whom he'd kind the band Derek and the Dominos alongside bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon — additionally members of the Delaney & Bonnie touring group.

Whitlock sang and performed keyboards for the short-lived band that nonetheless produced a sterling traditional, 1970's Layla and Different Assorted Love Songs. Although the album's signature single, "Layla," is usually credited solely to Clapton, the music originated with Derek and the Dominos. The album additionally produced the hits "Anyday," "Bell Backside Blues," "Why Does Love Obtained to Be So Unhappy?" and "Inform the Reality," all of which Whitlock co-wrote with Clapton.

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Whitlock would go on to take part within the periods for George Harrison's 1970 triple album All Issues Should Cross and play John Lennon's 1969 "Peace for Christmas" live performance, and hit a Beatles trifecta by showing on Doris Troy's self-titled 1970 album, which was launched by the enduring band's Apple Information label.

The musician went solo in 1972 with a self-titled album that featured contributions from every of the Dominoes. He would launch 14 albums as a solo artist, three of them reside, one in every of them collected recordings, and 6 with CoCo Carmel, his companion of a long time whom he married in 2005.

Whitlock was at all times good-natured about his typically being ignored when the historical past of rock and roll is being written, telling Boomerocity in 2024, "I knew my enter, and I used to be good with it. I used to be all proper with myself, whether or not anyone ever acknowledged something I've ever achieved or not, I used to be good with it. I've acquired an ideal life. I paint day by day. I'm actually good with doing what I do. It's simply one other extension of who I’m. And I've been blessed in every manner, in all places I flip round, you already know, it’s simply nothing however a blessing for me."

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