#bobby whitlock

The album cover itself is just so beautiful

RIP Bobby Whitlock 

November 22, 1970 - Paula Boyd and Bobby Whitlock backstage at the Derek and the Dominos concert at the Community Concourse in San Diego, California. Photographed by Jim Marshall.

Ace keyboardist Bobby Whitlock has died, age 77.

Although he released four solo albums of his own Memphis-born music, he is best known for the keyboards he played on George Harrison’s first and best solo album, All Things Must Pass, and, especially, for forming Derek and the Dominoes with guitarist Eric Clapton and playing, and cowriting six of the songs, on that band’s first and only album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.

A soulful player and songwriter.

aav.

Whitlock was best known for his work with Derek and the Dominos, a band featuring Eric Clapton and Duane Allman. The band recorded Clapton’s smash hit Layla.

He began his music career as a teenager in the studio at Stax, working with artists like Albert King, Sam and Dave, and Booker T and the MGs.

Whitlock is also the first white artist signed to a Stax contract.

Robert Stanley Whitlock (March 18, 1948 – August 10, 2025) was an American singer, songwriter and musician. He is best known as a member of the blues-rock band Derek and the Dominos, with Eric Clapton, in 1970–71. Whitlock’s musical career began with Memphis soul acts such as Sam & Dave and Booker T. & the M.G.’s before he joined Delaney & Bonnie and Friends in 1968. His association with Delaney…

Derek and the Dominos Co-founder Bobby Whitlock Dies at 77

Bobby Whitlock, the multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter who co-founded and played keyboards for Derek and the Dominos has died of cancer at 77.

TMZ was first to report the news.

Whitlock’s death leaves Eric Clapton as the only surviving Domino.

“Our sincere condolences to Bobby’s wife, CoCo, and his daughter, Faye, on this sad day,” Clapton said on the loss of his “dear friend” and former collaborator.

Whitlock was playing with Delaney & Bonnie and Friends when he first crossed paths with Clapton. This led to session work on George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass and the eventual recording of Derek and the Dominos’ only studio LP, Layla and other Assorted Love Songs, which featured seven tracks written or co-written by Whitlock.

“He wrote some of the best songs on the Layla album,” the Clapton tribute band the Journeymen said in a statement that eulogized Whitlock as a “musician extraordinaire and astonishing songwriter.”

After the Dominos’ breakup, Whitlock made four solo albums in the 1970s before leaving music for more than two decades. He re-emerged in 1999 and spent the past 20 years playing with his wife, CoCo Carmel, and other Austin-based musicians.

Whitlock’s former music director Johnny A. called his one-time boss “a force definitely, the real deal.

“We always stayed in touch,” A. said in a statement. “I will miss him.”