Soul Pioneer Solomon Burke Dead at 70

The so-called king of rock and soul, Solomon Burke, has died at the age of 70 at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, apparently soon after his LA flight arrived. The cause of death is unknown. Burke rose to prominence in the '60s when he penned "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love," recorded the hit "Cry to Me" for Dirty Dancing, was a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and had won a Grammy as recently as 2002, reports the AP.

Solomon still toured extensively, and was due to perform in Amsterdam. "It's like turning back the hands of time instantly," he writes on his website. "We can be in the middle of singing something from my recent Like A Fire album, and they'll call out Stupidity from 1957 and we're back 50 years!" Burke is survived by a whopping 21 children, 90 grandchildren, and 19 great-grandchildren. "Loving people," he recently said, "is what I do." (More Solomon Burke obituary stories.)