Eric Clapton paid tribute to his former Derek and the Dominos bandmate, Bobby Whitlock, following the keyboardist and singer’s death at age 77. On August 11, Clapton, 80, posted a throwback photo of Whitlock to Instagram with the caption,

Bobby Whitlock, the musician who co-founded Derek and the Dominos with Eric Clapton​, has died, according to his manager. He was 77.

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.