R.I.P. Soul Legend Jerry Butler, 1939–2025

The Ice Man was the king of Chicago soul in the ’60s and ‘70s

Jerry Butler was one of the greatest soul singers who ever lived. His rich baritone voice sounded effortless even at his most impassioned — they called him The Ice Man for a reason — and he was both a brilliant interpreter and a gifted songwriter himself. And in a pop music world where addiction, instability, violence, and other traumas are too often seen as proof of authenticity, Butler felt like an icon of stability, spending his post-stardom life tirelessly working on behalf of his community, both as a decades-long fixture in local Chicago politics and as a proud elder statesman of R&B. In every way, Jerry Butler was a real one.

Jerry Butler was born December 8, 1939, in the tiny western Mississippi town of Sunflower, a hamlet that also produced blues legend Little Milton, R&B stalwart Matt “Guitar” Murphy, prominent preacher (and father to Aretha) C.L. Franklin, and, somewhat improbably, old-school New York Times food and cooking author Craig Claiborne. Butler’s family moved north to Chicago three years later as part of The Great Migration, and settled in the brand-new Frances Cabrini Rowhouses, low-income public housing later incorporated into the notoriously poverty-stricken Cabrini-Green projects.