Chuck Berry, rock 'n' roll icon, dead at 90

Updated

Rock 'n' roll legend Chuck Berry has died at the age of 90, Missouri police say.

The St Charles County Police Department announced his death in a post on their Facebook page.

"The St Charles County Police Department sadly confirms the death of Charles Edward Anderson Berry Sr, better known as legendary musician Chuck Berry," it said.

Police said they were called to a medical emergency at a Buckner Road address about 12:40pm on Saturday (local time).

"Inside the home, first responders observed an unresponsive man and immediately administered lifesaving techniques," the police department said.

"Unfortunately, the 90-year-old man could not be revived and was pronounced deceased at 1:26pm.

"The family requests privacy during this time of bereavement."

Berry was one of rock 'n' roll's most influential guitarists and performed his signature duck walk move — bending his knees and bobbing his head — across more than 4,000 concert stages.

Elvis Presley was the king of rock 'n' roll, but Berry was known as its father.

"If you tried to give rock 'n' roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry," John Lennon once said.

Bob Dylan called him "the Shakespeare of rock 'n' roll" and he was one of the first popular acts to write as well as perform his own music, which melded elements of blues, rockabilly and jazz into some of the most timeless songs of the 20th century.

With songs like Sweet Little Sixteen, Maybellene, Roll Over Beethoven and Johnny B Goode in the late 1950s, Berry helped lay the foundation for modern rock music and was a major influence on scores of 1960s bands, including the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and musicians including Bruce Springsteen and Keith Richards.

When Richards inducted Berry into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, he said: "It's very difficult for me to talk about Chuck Berry because I've lifted every lick he ever played."

"This is the gentleman who started it all."

Berry, who marked his 90th birthday in 2016 by announcing he would release his first album in 38 years, listed T-Bone Walker, Carl Hogan of Louis Jordan's band and Charlie Christian from Benny Goodman's band as his guitar influences — but his lyrical style was all his own.

Punchy wordplay and youth-oriented subject matter earned him the nickname "the eternal teenager" early in his career.

Berry, who was in the first class of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees in 1986, came along at a time when much of the United States remained racially segregated, but it was hard for young audiences of any colour to resist a performer who delivered such a powerful beat with so much energy and showmanship.

ABC/Reuters

Topics: death, arts-and-entertainment, music, united-states

First posted