Bobby Whitlock, the songwriter and musician who co-founded Derek and the Dominos with Eric Clapton, died Sunday at age 77.
Whitlock’s manager, Carole Kaye, confirmed his death after a brief illness at his home in Texas, according to a statement provided to Variety and ABC Audio.
“He passed in his home in Texas, surrounded by family,” Kaye said.
Whitlock was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and began his career playing gigs in the city and recording for Stax Records. It was at Stax where he met Delaney and Bonnie Bramlet, who invited him to move to Los Angeles and join their backing band as a keyboard player, he recounted to the Austin Chronicle in 2006.
“When I got there, they had Carl Radle on bass, J.J. Cale on guitar, Leon Russell on keyboards, and Bobby Keys on horns. It was like a dream,” he told the Austin Chronicle.
Delaney & Bonnie soon opened for the rock supergroup Blind Faith, which included Clapton. Whitlock and Clapton connected after the tour, leading to Whitlock moving into Clapton’s home in England in 1970, Whitlock said. There, the two co-wrote many of the songs for “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs,” the only album by Derek and the Dominos.
That same year, Whitlock appeared on George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass,” playing keyboards and contributing backing vocals.
Whitlock also released several solo albums through the mid-1970s and in later decades with his wife, CoCo Carmel.
“My love Bobby looked at life as an adventure taking me by the hand leading me through a world of wonderment from music to poetry and painting,” Carmel told TMZ. “I feel his hands that were so intensely expressive and warm on my face and the small of my back whenever I close my eyes, he is there.”
Clapton expressed his “sincere condolences” to Whitlock’s wife and family in a message posted on Facebook.