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Rock 'n' Roll legend Chuck Berry has died at 90

Boston, MA - FEBRUARY 26: Honoree Chuck Berry performs during the 2012 Awards for Lyrics of Literary Excellence at The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library And Museum on February 26, 2012 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Marc Andrew Deley/Getty Images)

According to the St. Charles County Police Department, legendary musician Chuck Berry has died.

He was 90 years old.

Police said Saturday they responded to a medical emergency on Buckner Road around 12:40 p.m. Inside the home, first responders spoke with a caretaker who was caring for an unresponsive man and administered lifesaving techniques.

The 90-year-old man, later identified as Charles Edward Anderson Berry Sr., better known as legendary musician Chuck Berry, could not be revived and was pronounced deceased at 1:26 p.m.

Berry is widely viewed as among the most influential artists in rock 'n' roll with hits like Johnny B. Goode, Never Can Tell, and Roll Over Beethoven. Berry influenced artists like the Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, The Who and Pink Floyd.

The Beatles had hits with Berry compositions such as Roll Over Beethoven, Rock and Roll Music and Sweet Little Sixteen, and McCartney called Berry “one of greatest poets America has ever produced” in an introduction to the 2014 release of Berry’s complete studio recordings.

Photos: The Legendary Chuck Berry

Neil Young played with Berry and Richards at Berry’s 1986 induction into the first class of the Rock ’N’ Roll Hall of Fame, in which Richards said in his induction speech for his hero, “I lifted every lick he ever played.”

Late Saturday evening, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame issued a statement on Berry's passing:

Chuck Berry was a rock and roll original. A gifted guitar player, an amazing live performer, and a skilled songwriter whose music and lyrics captured the essence of 1950s teenage life. It's fitting that he was the first person inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, as he influenced everyone who has picked up a guitar after him. Today, we celebrate his life. Hail Hail, Chuck Berry.

Troubled past

Berry was born to middle class parents in segregated St. Louis. He got in trouble with the law when he ran away from home with two high school dropouts at age 17. When their tires blew out and they had no money for food, Berry wrote, one of them robbed a bakery shop of $62. Berry found a fire-damaged gun in a used car lot and robbed a barbershop for $32. Then, they held up a clothing store for $52.

With that haul, they were able to buy a tire and a rim and some food to continue their journey west. A rod blew on Berry’s 1937 Oldsmobile at 3:30 a.m. After a couple hours of standing on the roadside, waiting for someone to give them a push, a man in a Chevy coupe stopped and offered to help. Berry flashed his defective gun and told him to move over "‘cuz he was driving." The guy bolted out of the passenger door, and Berry and a buddy lined up his car to start pushing Berry's Oldsmobile back to St. Louis with the other friend at the wheel.

A state trooper was waiting for them 10 minutes down the road, alerted by the Chevy owner who had scooted out of the passenger seat and ran to a phone booth. Berry was arrested and advised by an inexpensive lawyer to plead guilty and seek mercy from the court. The trial lasted 21 minutes. Berry said he was sentenced to the maximum 10 years in the Intermediate Reformatory for Young Men near Jefferson City, Mo.

When he was paroled on his 21st birthday, Berry returned to St. Louis and eventually began singing and playing guitar at parties, then nightclubs. He discovered that whenever he’d sing country songs he’d get a big reaction, even from African-American audiences. Eventually, he and his band — including pianist Johnny Johnson — gained enough of a reputation to get asked to record for Chess Records in Chicago. Their 1955 recording of Maybelline became the first song to fuse country and the blues into what became known as rock ’n’ roll.

Fats Domino, Little Richard and Bo Diddley all wrote and recorded songs that could be considered rock ’n’ roll before Berry. But no one wrote and recorded hit songs as prolifically as Berry. With Elvis bringing a mix of R&B and country to a white audience, they created a pop cultural revolution 60 years ago this year.

Berry would serve two more sentences behind bars, once for a violation of the seldom-enforced Mann Act and another for a tax evasion. It may come as no surprise that, despite his esteemed position in pop culture, he showed signs of low self-esteem.

“There’s a famous story that Chuck was in New York and he looked across the street and saw Nat King Cole,” he said. “Nat King Cole was an idol for every black performer. And Chuck Berry had three hits in the top 10 and he was so shy to think that he couldn’t walk across the street. He did not walk over because he did not think he belonged in that world.”

Berry wrote that he actually called across the street to Cole and caught his eye. He said he was "too excited to utter another following word.”

Bobby Craig, who performed with Berry and a Los Angeles backup band at the Palm Springs Convention Center in the late 1980s, said he found Berry very aware of his place in rock ’n’ roll and was actually pretty brash.

“So I’m surprised about that story except the awe that he was probably feeling from Nat Cole,” Craig said. “He was revered in America by white people and Chuck was still a rock ’n’ roll upstart. He probably didn’t think Nat King Cole would even know about him because rock ’n’ roll was so new and it was pooh-poohed so frequently that a lot of (pop stars) actually didn’t know who they were.”

Berry was a victim of the payola and corruption that was prevalent in rock 'n' roll in the 1950's. Alan Freed, a DJ who accepted payments for playing songs on his pioneering rock ’n’ roll radio show, got credited as a co-writer of Maybelline. Berry's manager, Teddy Reig, had a deal that Berry would get $1,500 a night and 60 percent of the gate after reaching a certain attendance. Berry said they never quite hit that attendance mark. So, by the 1960's, Berry always took his payment in advance in cash and wouldn’t perform if conditions weren’t up to his specifications. The promoter was even required to find a backup band for Berry and they rarely rehearsed.

Craig said he not only didn’t get any sheet music for his show with Berry, he didn’t recognize any of the songs Berry chose to play.

“He didn’t do Roll Over Beethoven – any the stuff I remember as his hit records,” he said. “He may have slipped in a few bars, but most of the time, he was riffing it. The band had done shows with him before, so they knew the ropes. But, he fired the guitar player on the second song. When he was going into this song, he heard it wrong and played a half note above what he was supposed to be playing. Chuck just found that intolerable and he very quietly and tastefully walked over to the guy and had a word with him. Then you saw the guy pack up and, tail between his legs, walk off stage. What I felt was, I might be next! With somebody like him, you have no assurance. We have little signals to say, if it’s E flat to bring it down to E, or whatever, and he didn’t do that. He just let it ride and figured if a guy can’t figure out a key, I can’t use him.”

Richards said he was motivated to assemble his own band for Berry’s 60th birthday because he was tired of hearing him play with bands that were always out of tune. Berry infuriated Richards and vocalist Linda Ronstadt by changing the keys without warning. Hackford captured Richards and Berry arguing on film. Craig said Berry just liked to "wing it."

“I think he was making them up as he was going along," he said of Berry's Palm Springs show. "But I have to tell you, he was wonderful. I remember he made the comment when I took over a solo, ‘This boy knows what he’s doing.’ I was getting it done. I knew where I was and he knew I knew where I was going, which is why he stopped and looked at me. There’s a reason why he is an icon and that is, by the seat of his pants, he’s got it. He’s got the musicality, he’s got the voice and he’s got the charisma. He had it all.”

"There’s no question that Berry was a victim of racism and bad management,"said Oscar-nominated director Taylor Hackford. He stayed in St. Louis, when other St. Louis musicians of his generation, like Miles Davis and Ike Turner left, and he overcame his obstacles.

Hackford filmed two concerts staged for Barry’s 60th birthday in St. Louis by Stones guitarist Keith Richards. The concerts were the centerpiece for his documentary, Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll.

“I clearly had that in my film,” Hackford said. “We’re doing this (concert) at the Fox Theatre, this big, incredibly beautiful movie palace, and Chuck talked about going there when he was a little boy and they wouldn’t even sell him a ticket. They didn’t allow blacks. The fact that he’s headlining the Fox Theatre, it was very meaningful to him. (But) to me, the more meaningful thing was the nuance of it. What movie was he going to see? He was going to see A Tale of Two Cities with Ronald Colman! Chuck Berry is a very literary guy. I mean, Chuck Berry is a brilliant poet and a brilliant artist.

“Chuck Berry got ripped off on his first big hit, Maybelline. But, you know what? He learned. It’s like, ‘Fool me once, it’s your fault, fool me twice, it’s my fault.’ He never got fooled again. He made a ton of money in his life.

“He’s a dark, dark presence, and I’m not talking about the color of his skin. He was a dark guy in terms of his personality. He could be funny and unbelievably entertaining and make everybody feel like they want to party all night. Chuck was not a big drinker and he didn’t take drugs. He focused all of his energy on making money and having sex and performing. And he’s also a very sexual human being. He’s dangerous. That’s why he’s the definition of rock ’n’ roll.”

Prolific Berry Continued To Make Music Into His 90s

Just this past October, on his 90th birthday Berry announced plans to team with Dualtone Records to release his first studio album in 38 years next year. Berry announced the new album, Chuck, on his 90th birthday. He said the album is dedicated to Themetta Berry, his wife of 68 years.

"This record is dedicated to my beloved Toddy," Berry said in a media release. "My darlin' I'm growing old! I've worked on this record for a long time. Now I can hang up my shoes!"

As more information becomes available, this story will be updated.

Contributing: The Desert Sun

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