One of my music heroes, Bobby Whitlock, passed away today at the age of 77. Not superstar famous, but he is legendary in music circles. He started out in the late '60s playing with
Memphis soul acts such as
Sam & Dave and
Booker T. & the M.G.'s before he joined
Delaney & Bonnie and Friends in 1968, where he got to know Clapton.
He was the keyboardist on Clapton's first solo almum in '70, which led to him doing most of the keyboard work on George Harrison's epic All Things Must Pass solo album. He then helped Clapton co-found
Derek and the Dominos and record the Layla album, for which he wrote or co-wrote half the songs. He wrote and sang the final song on the Layla album, "Thorn Tree In The Garden" which is just a materpiece and arguably the saddest song in rock history.
Whitlock struggled with heroin and alcohol addiction during that era, but eventually got clean and sober. He almost certainly had opportunities to have been a much bigger star, but seemed happier without all the stress and drama. He continued to record and do shows until recently, but spent much of his time painting. He routinely posted his paintings on social media and was quite good. I never met him, but did belong to a couple of Facebook groups he was in and chatted with him a time or two and we both commented on a few of each other's posts. He seemed like a very normal, decent, likeable guy.