How do you express in but a few words the grandness of one man who came from abject poverty in the south to heights unimagined in such a short time?” Whitlock’s wife, Coco Carmel Whitlock, said in a statement to CBS News.

Stax Records signed Whitlock as the first white artist to join singers like Otis Redding and Sam & Dave at the label.

Bobby Whitlock, the singer-keyboardist and co-founder of ‘70s blues-rock band Derek & the Dominos alongside Eric Clapton, has died, according to his manager Carol Kaye. In a statement to Variety, Kaye shared that Whitlock died earlier this morning following a cancer diagnosis. He was 77.