Chuck Berry, Legendary Singer and Guitarist, Dies At 90

ST. CHARLES COUNTY, MO — Chuck Berry, the rock 'n' roll legend and a founding father of the genre who inspired such bands as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, has died, police in St. Charles County announced Saturday. He was 90.

Police in St. Charles County said officers responded to a medical emergency at a home around 12:40 p.m. on Saturday where Berry was found unresponsive. Medics were unable to revive Berry, and he was pronounced deceased just after 1:25 p.m.

Berry was a pioneer of rock 'n' roll, whose distinctive style helped define the genre with hits like "Maybellene" and "Roll Over Beethoven." As described by Variety, the songs showcased Berry's droll singing and inventive guitar licks. Berry's name is synonymous with the genre, with his songs capturing the subtleties of teenage life.

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

A showman, Berry was known for his "duck walk," where he crouched low as he moved across the stage with one leg extended and his guitar raised. He once told the Washington Post that he initiated the "duck walk" at the Brooklyn Paramount theater in 1956, basing the movement on a pose he sometimes struck as a child.

He was a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's inaugural class in 1986, along with legends like Elvis Presley, Ray Charles and Sam Cooke. A recording of his song "Johnny B. Goode" was included on a disc launched into space on the Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1977. In 1984, he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement award.

"Chuck Berry was arguably the founding father of rock and roll. Not just because he was one of its greatest songwriters and established some of the electric guitar's earliest and most memorable riffs, but also because he was one of music's most palpably exciting entertainers and biggest personalities," Neil Portnow, president and CEO of the Recording Academy, said in a statement. "His influence on the giants that followed him, such as the Beatles, Beach Boys and many others, is well documented. Chuck received a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Recording Academy in 1984, our formal acknowledgment of his immeasurable contributions to American culture. He will be greatly missed, but the gift of his music will live on forever."

Berry began playing professionally in the early '50s and headed to Chicago in the spring of 1955 in search of a record deal. One of Berry's heroes, Muddy Waters, advised him to contact Leonard Chess, the owner of the label Chess Records. In July 1955, the record came out and with it the hit single "Maybellene," and what followed after was a stream of songs that became staples in the genre.

Born Charles Edward Anderson Berry in a middle class African-American neighborhood in St. Louis, Berry began playing guitar by the age of 14 and sang at local clubs. However, as a teen, he served three years for his role in an armed robbery. While he was at the reform institution, he sang in a gospel group.

His run-ins with the law didn't end there. In 1959 he was arrested on a federal charge of taking a 14-year-old girl across state lines for immoral purposes, a violation of the Mann Act. Berry had hired the girl to work at his club in St. Louis and claimed he did not know her age. He served 18 months of a three-year sentence, and by the time he came out of jail, the British invasion of bands had overtaken his career.

He bounced back, switching record labels before returning to Chess in 1968, recording the hit song "My Ding-a-Ling,” Variety notes. In the '70s, he participated in rock 'n' roll revival tours. Legal troubles followed him once again, and in 1979 he served four months in federal prison in California for tax evasion. He was also the focus of a class action lawsuit in 1990 when a number of women accused him of videotaping them in the bathroom of a restaurant. He denied the charges but paid a settlement.

Berry continued to play at the BlueBerry Hill club in St. Louis.

Patch will update this report.

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