Yuri Martianov/Kommersant via Getty ImagesRock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry is dead at age 90, according to St. Charles County, Missouri police. No cause of death was given.
A post Saturday just before 6:00 p.m. ET on the police department’s Facebook page reads, “St. Charles County police responded to a medical emergency on Buckner Road at approximately 12:40 p.m. today (Saturday, March 18). Inside the home, first responders observed an unresponsive man and immediately administered lifesaving techniques. Unfortunately, the 90-year-old man could not be revived and was pronounced deceased at 1:26 p.m.
“The St. Charles County Police Department sadly confirms the death of Charles Edward Anderson Berry Sr., better known as legendary musician Chuck Berry.” The post concludes, “The family requests privacy during this time of bereavement.”
Born Charles Edward Anderson Berry October 18, 1926 in St. Louis, MO, Berry popularized rock and roll with 1950s rock standards including “Rock and Roll Music,” “Johnny B. Goode,” “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Maybellene,” fusing blues, rockabilly and R&B into a sound that helped define the genre, coupled with guitar virtuosity and showmanship that was emulated by countless performers in the decades after.
Berry was a member of the very first class inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. He received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1984 and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2000.
Berry’s music even made it into outer space — his 1958 hit “Johnny B. Goode” is the only rock and roll song included on the so-called “Golden Record” affixed to the Voyager spacecraft that was launched into the cosmos in 1977.
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