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Darick Campbell November 1966-May 2020

Darick Campbell was the youngest brother in the award winning
group the Campbell Brothers, the foremost practitioners in the
Sacred Steel tradition. Darick started out as a drummer, but he later
took up the lap steel and became one of its leading players. In recent
years, the Campbell Brothers band, fronted by Darick Campbell's
riveting 8-string lap steel playing, took the power and brilliance of

this African American gospel music to secular
audiences worldwide.
Darick Campbell.

The music he and his brothers played is known
as Sacred Steel and is a form of gospel music

Sacred steel music and the African American
church at Casa de Deus date back to the 1930s,
when the steel guitar was introduced as an
alternative to the church organ. Darick played
the steel loop and published an educational
video on how to play the instrument.

The Campbell Brothers created a vibrant mix
of gospel, country, rock, jazz, blues and soul.
When the group was presented at the
Rochester Music Hall of Fame in 2018, it was

accompanied on stage by pedal giant Robert
Randolph.

The Campbell Brothers became disaffected from the House of God church in Nashville, Keith
Dominion, because the Pentecostal church wanted to keep the music within its walls. The Campbells
were more and more sought after in music festivals and wanted to take their beautiful and
emotional sound to the world.

Although Darick Campbell moved to Georgia after the separation, he was a member of the House of
God in Atlanta.

In 2012, Chuck and Darick Campbell signed a contract with the sacred steel supergroup The Slide

Brothers and performed on the Experience Hendrix tour, celebrating the music of Jimi Hendrix
alongside names like Randolph, Buddy Guy, Keb’ Mo’, Dweezil Zappa, Taj Mahal and Bootsy Collins.
Slide Brothers also released an album and brought the exuberant sound to the general public through
“The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”.

Darick Campbell is survived by his wife, Pam, a daughter and a granddaughter.

Ian K McKenzie