Clarence Carter, the blind soul singer-songwriter whose hits included the sentimental “Patches” and the raunchy “Strokin’” and “Slip Away,” died on May 13. He was 90.
Carter’s death was confirmed by Rodney Hall, president of FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Rolling Stone reported.
Bill Carpenter, a spokesperson for Carter’s ex-wife and former fellow singer Candi Staton, also confirmed his death. He died of natural causes at a hospice facility in Atlanta, but Carpenter added that Carter had recently been diagnosed with Stage 4 prostate cancer, according to the magazine.
Clarence Carter, the blind Southern soul star whose songs were often as emotionally profound as they were delightfully bawdy, died Thursday, May 14. He was 90.https://t.co/Y270TVxpRP
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) May 14, 2026
“He was family,” Hall, the son of FAME founder/music producer Rick Hall, told AL.com. “He recorded here for four decades. Even after he stopped working with my dad, he’d still come rent the studio out.”
Born in Montgomery, Alabama, on Jan. 14, 1936, The New York Times reported. His parents were sharecroppers, and Carter was blind as a youth.
He taught himself to play bluesy guitar as a child and later attended the Alabama School for the Blind in Talladega, according to the newspaper. While at the school, Carter learned to transcribe musical arrangements in Braille.
Carter’s biggest hit was 1970’s “Patches,” a sentimental, plaintive story about a poor country boy who took over his family’s farm as a teenager after his father’s death.
The song, which mixed brass instruments, a staccato gospel-tinged organ and soul harmonica with Carter’s raspy voice, peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
His 1970 “Patches” album was also his highest-charting on the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 44.
“I think ‘Patches’ really etched me into the music world,” Carter said in a 2010 interview. “Where people are probably going to remember me for a long time to come. Which I always wanted -- but I never knew it would happen that way.”
Carter’s other crossover hit from R&B was “Slip Away,” which peaked at No. 6 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.
He enjoyed a renaissance when his 1986 song, “Strokin’,” was featured in the 1996 remake of “The Nutty Professor” and the 2011 film “Killer Joe,” Rolling Stone reported.
William Friedkin, who directed “Killer Joe,” said in a 2014 interview that “Strokin’” was “one of the great American songs,” adding that Carter was the “Mozart of Southern Music.”
The song’s sexually explicit lyrics prevented the song from getting much airplay, but it still sold more than 1.5 million copies and became a favorite in bar jukeboxes, according to the Times.
Carter’s other suggestive numbers included “Snatching it Back” and “Making Love,” both released in 1969; and “Back Door Santa” (1968).
“Back Door Santa” was sampled by Run-DMC in the rap group’s 1987 holiday single, “Christmas in Hollis,” AL.com reported.
Soul legend and Alabama native Clarence Carter has died at 90. Carter, who was born in Montgomery and attended Alabama School for the Blind and Alabama State University, is known for hits such as "Strokin'" and "Patches."
— AL.com (@aldotcom) May 14, 2026
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Carter released his debut single, “Tell Daddy,” in 1967, Rolling Stone reported. It became a big success after R&B legend Etta James released a single in response later that year, “Tell Mama,” that peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100, according to the magazine.
Despite his blindness, Carter’s confidence never wavered.
“I’m determined to do what folks say I can’t, and it has to do with a lot of factors, especially when you’re blind,” he told the Times in a 1998 interview. “I remember hearing a lady say to my mother one day when I was a kid, ‘I guess you’re going to have to take care of him the rest of your life.’
“I never forgot that because I was determined that before the lady left this earth she’d know my mom wouldn’t have to take care of me.”
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