Clarence Carter, the blind Southern soul singer behind sentimental crowd-pleasers like “Slip Away” and the explicit “Strokin’,” has died.
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Carter passed away today, May 14, after being diagnosed with Stage 4 prostate cancer and battling pneumonia and sepsis. Rodney Hall, president of FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, confirmed the news to Rolling Stone. Hall, who frequently recorded with Carter, spoke with the family of Candi Staton, a singer and Carter’s ex-wife.
Carter was 90.
Following a string of R&B hits like 1965’s “Step By Step” and 1967’s “Tell Daddy,” Carter broke into the pop charts with 1968’s “Slip Away.” On the track, Carter sings to his married lover, pleading for a secret rendezvous: “Could you just slip away without him knowing you’re gone?/Then we could meet somewhere, somewhere where we’re both not known.”
Clarence Carter – Slip Away pic.twitter.com/KkoBSXmqjX
— Jonald Isley (@EastSideJon) May 14, 2026
Two years later, Carter released his biggest pop hit, “Patches.” The track won a Grammy for Best R&B Song and peaked at Number Four on the Billboard Hot 100. It tells the story of an Alabama boy caring for his family, who recalls his father’s final words on the chorus: “Patches, I’m depending on you son/To pull the family through/My son, it’s all left up to you.”
Clarence Carter Became a Pop Culture Icon with 1986’s ‘Strokin'”
But the soul singer wasn’t always so sentimental. Carter also recorded a number of raunchy novelty songs that, while shunned by mainstream radio, found new life years later. His 1968 track “Back Door Santa” was famously sampled by Run-D.M.C. for “Christmas in Hollis,” and the even more explicit “Strokin’” from 1986 appeared on the soundtrack for Eddie Murphy’s The Nutty Professor.
The song also appeared in William Friedkin’s sardonic thriller, Killer Joe. According to Rolling Stone, Friedkin (the director of The Exorcist) was an avid admirer of Carter. He once called “Strokin’” “one of the great American songs” and Carter the “Mozart of Southern Music.”
Born blind in Montgomery, Alabama, on January 14, 1936, Carter taught himself to play guitar after receiving one for Christmas as a child. He attended the Alabama School for the Blind in Talladega before graduating with a music degree from Alabama State College in 1960.
After his major crossover success, Carter continued to record and tour, establishing his own label, Cee Gee Entertainment, in 1996.
Carter continued to write, record, release, and tour well into his eighties. His last album, Mr. Old School, arrived in January 2020 on his Cee Gee Entertainment label. In 2024, he dropped a new single, “Danger Point.”