it's 1963 and all across England it's a
new cup of tea in clubs around London a
rock slide of raw energy called The
Rolling Stones is raising the stakes for
rock and rollers cool cats with attitude
are grooving on modern jazz mods on
scooters are soaking up R&B and American
tinted soul and beneath it all runs a
river of blues born in the American
South and introduced during and after
the war by servicemen and Voice of
America Radio into this strange brew
steps a teenage guitar player from the
tiny village of Ripley in Surrey he has
a sound that electrified everyone who
hears it a tone that makes bandmates and
producers step back and off and
audiences fall at his feet his name is
Eric Patrick Clapton and to this day
according to fans and musicians around
the world nobody but nobody comes close
the first time in person was at a club
in London I had my back when I heard the
guitar player started playing a blues
solo I figured there was nobody in
England who could play what I was
hearing
who was English man I said yo guitar
player sure can play the blues and
Wilson bigger says my guitar player is
having a drink at the bar so I turned
around and I saw this young man with
an angelic face and they had his eyes
closed and he was playing this
incredible boobs although there's
something about his playing that moved
everybody simple as that
we call it the pocket where he placed
the notes and it didn't matter if it was
live or if it was in the studio it was
just impeccably placed Eric Clapton in
my opinion is the number one rock
guitarist
[Music]
- really in many ways was one of the
figures who introduced musicality into
rock and roll and you had to really
seriously deal with him in the way that
you might have to deal with a jazz
classic
he had this big thing on America I think
we all did British teens like Eric born
just after World War Two envied the
freedom and opulence the US seemed to be
enjoying all the English people wanted
to go to that because they look such a
good life you know sunshine and beach
babes and England was drab and dreary at
that time I mean I guess you've got to
realize that musically that's where the
inspiration was coming from the blues so
powerful and so undeniable and so
American there were a lot of young
people who started to buy whatever blues
records were available in England
whatever they could get Eric Clapton was
certainly among the first what British
blues fanatics may not have heard was
the conflict behind the music America
was divided American blacks had their
music that they would listen to on their
black radio stations and then whites had
their own music it was called its record
so they let the white people deliver the
black guys doing it what Eric Clapton
heard in the Blues would change his life
in return he changed the lives of many
blues players whose music he popularized
in October 1963 when Eric Clapton joined
The Yardbirds they were intended as the
ambitious producer Giorgio Gomelsky
'he's answered to the Rolling Stones
when the stones left his club to tour he
was one act short so they vacated the
club Jamel ski came down and booked us
on the spot to take over the cordetta so
in a way that was our big break Eric was
just 18 when singer Keith Relf recruited
him for the band his grandmother had to
sign as his legal guardian Rose was
worried about Erin devoting his life to
music but she had faith in her Rick even
buying him his first two guitars on
installment powered by Eric's guitar The
Yardbirds were in the media twin crowd
phenomena their weekly rave ups at
London's Crawdaddy and marquee clubs
became the hottest ticket in town
in the Richmond Athletic Club they
danced and at some point in the evening
you know kids would take their shirts
off and they'd walk these pins you know
it is mayhem around this time Eric
earned the nickname slow hail the
American strings were not available to
us so you sort of customized a guitar
but the strings were weak it was
inevitable that Eric would would break
two or three it became a standing joke
actually is that the audience very good
may scream and we're just slow hand
cutting and and that's how you got
that's how you got the name
Slowhand from day one Jamel ski had big
plans for the yardbirds
Eric went from playing weddings and
coffee bars to a full-time schedule of
touring and weekly club dues recording
two albums in the first 18 months five
live Yardbirds recorded in 1964 with a
mic swinging from a fishing pole is
still rated one of the best live albums
ever recorded in 1963 the yardbirds were
invited to back up a bona fide American
blues man Sonny Boy Williamson we got
hooked on on this wonderful black
American music but we were white
musicians you know I mean there was lots
of suburbs from the suburbs playing with
the rough-edged Williamson shattered
certain romantic notions but it only
deepened Eric's respect for the
emotional honesty and pure musicianship
of the blues Williamson was touched as
well he went back to America and he he
there was a story told to Robbie
robertson of the band he said these
white boys they want to play the blues
so bad and they do yeah certainly on
that occasion for all their talent and
popularity The Yardbirds hadn't yet hit
the top of the pop charts but they were
determined to and so was their manager
in 1963 the band opened for the Beatles
Christmas concerts in London things were
starting to rock and roll
there was a publisher in the audience
and he had this acetate er for your love
which he gave to Giorgio and so we
always had on this is great this is
we're likeness but not Eric - Eric the
catchy song was a disaster when I was
actually actually the fanatic at that
point fanatic and wanting to get deeper
and deeper and deeper into the blues and
he didn't really understand that perhaps
we wanted to do other things and you
know it may not sound quite like the
blues but we wanted to we wanted to
forge our own identity there was an
ultimatum issued and I said well okay
I'll leave for your love became exactly
what it was intended at a massive
international pop hit the yardbirds went
on to enjoy several years of pop stardom
- guitar legends consecutively filled
Eric's pots first Jeff Beck then Jimmy
Page founder of Led Zeppelin Eric's
decision to walk away was the first
dramatic standoff in a struggle between
blues and popular music that would rock
his career and his personal life for the
next 40 years
Eric Clapton's mother gave birth to him
in the front room of her parents home on
March 17 1945 when she was 16 his father
was a piano playing Canadian soldier who
had no intention of marrying her in fact
he was already married for two years Pat
was the entire villages favorite topic
of gossip then she left Eric to be
raised by her parents and moved to
Germany to start a new life when Eric
was nine Pat visited Ripley with a
six-year-old son from her new marriage
Eric learned that the people he called
mum and dad were not his real parents
hat on this first meeting thought it
would be easier on Eric if he didn't get
too attached to her so she treated him
as her little brother even in public the
experience was more than confusing it
was shattering Eric changed dramatically
after his mother's visit he was moody
and aloof his schoolwork began to slip
he had always sensed that people in the
village treated him as if he were
different now he knew why you have to
realize that in 1962 the situation that
Eric was in was more taboo Eric began to
wear his different nurse an attitude
I actually took an instant dislike to
Eric because I thought this guy was so
you know cocky and he was so sure of
himself and okay and it's a trench coat
on by his early teens
Eric was pretty much a loner he spent
his free time drawing building model
airplanes and riding his bike
obsessively his other pastime was
listening to music on TV and radio and
playing records enthralled with American
blues artists like Big Bill Broonzy
BB King Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy Eric
tried teaching himself to play the
guitar by copying the records
frustrated by his lack of progress after
about a year and a half he laid down the
guitar but kept listening when later in
his teens he heard the haunting call of
blues man Robert Johnson's voice and
guitar his response to Johnson's music
was so powerful he almost couldn't
listen and yet he couldn't stop I felt
to most of my youth that my back was
against the wall and the only way to
survive that was with dignity and pride
and courage and I heard that in certain
forms of music I heard it most of
unlikely as it seemed Johnson seemed to
share the loneliness and alienation of
an English schoolboy on a quest for his
identity eric was unmotivated in school
but at 16 his artistic talent got him a
spot in Kingston school of art on
probation Kingston's proximity to London
offered access to nightlife and a music
scene a dream he had nursed since age 13
began to take shape what struck me was
about Eric he was always really straight
boys he knew all the places to go the
music scene was irresistible he hung out
in the Ealing and flamingo and hundred
clubs with many of the young musicians
who would later revolutionize British
and then American pop music his circle
included Jimmy Page Steve Winwood Ginger
Baker Jack Bruce Jeff Beck Pete Townsend
players like Eric were rotating in and
out of pick-up bands during intermission
at the club's Eric was far too busy
practicing new licks and polishing his
look to spend much time on school
warnings from the school and his family
had no effect when the end-of-the-year
portfolio review came up Eric just
seventeen years old was dismissed from
Kingston college he was shocked he was
broke he was blue
by day he worked laying bricks with his
grandfather then practiced guitar with a
ferocity that disrupted the whole family
sleep he would work you know whole week
on a four note phrase for Eric playing
the blues wasn't a choice it was a
calling as always one man with his
guitar versus the world no alternatives
whatsoever other than just sing and play
to ease his pain and I echoed what I
felt in many aspects of my life despite
his own insecurities Eric had begun to
sense a depth of talent and artistic
ambition within himself that compelled
him to push beyond the horizons of The
Yardbirds well-crafted pop so when they
pressured him to make a pop record they
were asking him to give up the one thing
in his life that felt undeniably real
within a month of quitting the yardbirds
veteran blues scholar and band leader
John Mayall recruited Eric for one of
England's top blues band John Mayall's
Bluesbreakers Eric rapidly became
Mayall's frontman recording a landmark
British blues album Clapton is God
graffiti began to appear on walls and in
subway station just think while I've
gone too far I never accepted the fact
that I was the best guitar player in the
world I always wanted to be the best
guitar player in the world but that's an
ideal and I accept it as an ideal they
may well call him god but eric has true
humility it's not for long he knows that
he's a very simple man Jack Bruce who
also played with the Bluesbreakers had
little use for Eric's purist approach to
the blues I was a kid from Glasgow with
the classical training and who had
played a lot of jazz so I wanted to
apply the things that I knew to but
using the language of the blues
Bruce opened Eric's eyes and ears to new
possibilities
the straight-ahead blues repertoire that
had felt so essentially a year ago now
felt restrictive Clapton was ready for
the next challenge Jack Bruce and Ginger
Baker would provide it in June 1966
drummer Ginger Baker invited Eric
Clapton to form a new band with him Eric
was intrigued but only on the condition
that bass player Jack Bruce be included
little did he know that he is walking
into a minefield so Tina had to approach
me but gingerly had fallen out in fact
northern fallin eyes he had kinda
threatened me with a knife the
notoriously volatile chemistry between
Bruce and Baker and the musical energy
it generated put Eric at the center of
one of the wildest rides in rock history
well it was a very quick step wasn't
everything from being with John Mayall
which was very textbook blues to going
into it sort of jazz-rock fusion band we
went to gingers a little house and we
set up in his front room and we just
played together and it was obvious from
the very first few notes really that
there was something there something
special
[Music]
Eric who quickly realized that their
combined talents we're the best British
popular musicianship had to offer
suggested the band's name from their
first major concert at the National Jazz
and Blues Festival at Windsor in July
1966 cream left audiences breathless
creams freeform jams quickly became
legendary none of this was the band
leader so no one would say stop it
alright enough so if one of us took off
Atlantic Records quickly grabbed cream
for the American market Robert Stigwood
was working for Paula Graham at the time
and I turned her eyes that now that's
what we need in the elevated company of
Baker and Bruce Eric's plane continued
to evolve in a kind of journey that you
take your audience on as a soloist was
was really the point of what creme was
about and it was very excited one night
at the London Polytechnic the band was
introduced to a young American guitarist
and this guy came up to me and said I'm
Jimi Hendrix can I'd like to sit at your
bank and I said okay Clapton was eager
to meet Hendrix also and of course he
blew us all away I mean he was playing a
guitar behind his head with his teeth
and upside down and quite incredible you
know it got to all of us the stakes were
raised for cream and their virtuoso
guitarist he and Hendrix continued to
inspire and nudge each other forward
until Hendrix's untimely death in 1970
and it wasn't only guitar ideas that
Eric shared with Hendrix Eric said one
of us has got to have curly hair and I
said well it's not gonna be P so every
day I'm glad it was me having seen the
pictures the first time I heard it
Clapton play guitar I said well he's a
great guitar player somebody's gonna
have to do something about those tant's
at the time he was in the curly-haired
stage and the platform shoes about this
tall in the pink stretchy pants
crane toured Europe to rave reviews it
was time to conquer America
Eric took advantage of everything New
York City had to offer from Bien's in
Central Park to BB King at cafe au go go
I met this young handsome guy very young
and everybody said that's Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton so we sit and talk seemed
like we became friends then Eric
especially loved groupies I think we all
learnt about groupies in New York yeah
there was some groupies in New York all
right three days before the band's visas
were to expire Atlantic studios sent for
cream who proceeded to record the
mind-expanding Disraeli gears the
psychedelic brilliance of Disraeli gears
was a breakthrough for Eric and cream
influencing musical history for decades
to come there is this sense of this kind
of blues psychedelia this root sea deep
music was also going to take you to a
kind of Wonderland creams music was so
unique that Atlantic Records at first
rejected sunshine of your love which
became an anthem of the summer of love
and one of Atlantic's biggest selling
singles at first Eric had found creams
brinkmanship challenging but now he
often left the stage frustrated and
dissatisfied we always wanted to impress
each other in the band so that could
lead to a lot of rivalry we were not
that interested in the audience to be
honest with you it wasn't about that
cream was one of the world's hottest act
the musicians could not believe the
enthusiasm of American audiences
or the fun you could have as a 22 year
old millionaire in the drug and free
love capital of the United States but
offstage the cream had begun to sour
Bruce and Baker were so fiercely at odds
that they often had to travel separately
I just have to leave the studio and go
down there and top as much spirit down
my body as quickly as possible to stop
myself from killing Jack I think it was
really hard on Eric because it was
between between gingery me probably
non-stop
I remember once he was reduced to tears
somewhere in Scandinavia as profits
increased management stepped up both the
tour schedule and the demands for a new
album we never had any time off three
days of the studio right Leroy began as
fatigue increased relationships
disintegrated even further rumors about
a breakup surfaced and were denied but
in his heart Eric had major doubts about
the music he and cream were purveying to
their adoring fans in fact he had
already developed a new passion Clapton
was listening to a very different kind
of music at that point it was listening
to the band and their focus on these
beautifully simple in their way of
almost folkloric songs so he didn't need
to be Eric Clapton is God he didn't need
to be that anymore you want them to be a
great songwriter Eric secret desire for
escape was granted through an uncanny
incident in May 1968 he gave a rather
high-handed interview to Rolling Stone
magazine that he quickly came to regret
the self-satisfied note of his remarks
was deflated by John Landau's review of
a recent cream concert in the same issue
he's talking about how excessive and ego
driven and over-the-top the band had
become feeling like a very well paid
fraud
Eric literally fainted in a restaurant
when he awoke he had decided once again
walk away in two years with cream Eric
Clapton had scaled the heights and
landed bruised and very rich just 23 he
bought a lavish Country Estate in Surrey
he planned to rest and recover from the
emotional whirlwind of cream but within
weeks opportunity was pounding not
knocking on the door Steve Winwood from
traffic began stopping by to jam soon
Ginger Baker wanted in then bass player
Ric Grech signed off as soon as the
record company's got win a dubious Eric
found himself packing for a tour with an
official media powered supergroup while
the name speaks for itself to the blind
faith as the short-lived blind faith
tour rolled on Eric spent most of his
time with the support van Delaney and
Bonnie
Eric was with us coming and hanging in
the Holiday Inn and he had never hung
out in a Holiday Inn and drank scotch
and coke and smoked who in some
Mississippi people I'm sure was an
unusual experience the relationship with
Delaney permanently changed Eric's
direction as an artist until now he had
played guitar almost exclusively the
fact was he doubted his singing ability
Eric's got a beautiful voice it's not
all wrong raunchy
oh that road-weary sound that way I
guess we all I wanted it when I was
young
after hearing Eric performed his moving
composition presence of the Lord with
blind faith Delaney convinced Eric that
he was not only a superb songwriter but
a stellar singer Clapton has always
looked for father figures or guides
Delaney gave Clapton the confidence to
sing blind faith made one album together
Delaney produced Eric's first solo album
and they toured Europe together before
moving on Eric's fascination with
Delaney and Bonnie
went deeper than fans could have
imagined he told me one time had you
your upbringing and that really prepared
me because I mean I grew up you know I
chopped cotton and did all those things
you know for him
I heard all that singing in the fields
and stuff he says you got your moves
from the fields and I got mine from
records after buying his home Eric had
planned to settle down with Alice Ormsby
Gore the daughter of a British Lord but
life was never that simple for Eric
Clapton hey what you doing he's I'm
sitting here getting my hair cut not
working out can I come visit you for a
couple of days and the rest as they say
is what you call it rock and roll
history
Bobby Whitlock's visit blossomed into
Derek and the Dominos Eric's new band
took shape during the recording of
George Harrison's album all things must
pass Eric had played on Beatle George
Harrison song while my guitar gently
weeps now Harrison invited Clapton and
Bobby to join him on his first solo
album soon two more ex-members of
Delaney's bands showed up it became a
landmark event in every sense during the
recording sessions Eric fell wildly in
love with George's wife fashion model
Pattie Boyd Harrison at first patty had
no idea how serious Eric's intentions
were but as their flirtation became an
affair it brought more pain than joy it
seemed like it was an impossible quest I
mean you don't fall in love with the
wife of the Beatle George knew that I
knew and everybody knew that everybody
knew but nobody ever said anything about
it in the meantime
Derek and the Dominos had begun playing
small clubs the band's name came from a
friend's nickname for Eric he's talked
about you know the idea that you know
Derek was this character that I had to
invent you know to kind of avoid being a
frontman and to avoid admitting to
myself that I was in love with my you
know best friend's wife the dominoes
soon headed for the states where they
made the brilliant double album Layla
and other assorted love songs Eric
Clapton in many ways is a very typical
English guy you know he's not very
comfortable with his emotions you know
but in Layla I think was just too much
for him
taken from a Persian love poem in which
a man Mangin loses his mind for love of
a woman he can't have the title song is
a cry from the heart she was later and I
was mashed
but while Eric and the Dominos were
creating extraordinary music the stress
of Eric's personal situation had begun
to wear on him he turned to drugs with
typical Clapton intensity that done that
set which I watched I thought all got
along to the dressing room but when I
opened the door well everybody was like
in a strange state but glazed eyes and
not of this planet we never spent any
money on this stuff people weren't happy
to give it to us so they could be next
to us we all went through that thing we
were boys young men thinking we were
totally invincible as if Eric wasn't
already close enough to the edge in July
1970 his friend Jimi Hendrix died in a
drug and alcohol induced coma a few
months later Eric's grandfather Jack
died leaving him shaken shortly
afterward came the news that Dwayne
Allman who played the searing slide
guitar on Layla had died in a motorcycle
accident and Eric was still living with
Alice longed for patty it was it was a
stressful situation and things blew up
trying to record in the second to do our
second album Eric words were exchanged
between he and the drummer Jim Gordon
and put his guitar down said I'll never
play with you again walked out the door
for the next two years
Eric locked himself into his home and
locked the rest of the world out he
wrote some music built model airplanes
and developed a massive heroin habit as
did Alice Eric may have viewed these
dark days as a necessary rite of passage
and we got the idea about being a junkie
because of his Robert Johnson and
although he didn't be like that he had
suffered and he felt like this was part
of something that he had to do in my
limited way I tried to get Eric to stop
I
Eric I still do and of course it pained
me to see that he was being devastated
by drugs Clapton was at that point the
point at which he's gonna either wake up
or die I'll tell him I said Eric you can
ride a blue song in the back of a limo
you don't have to live this thing George
Harrison and Pete Townsend who had known
Eric since each of their earliest days
as musicians were among the few visitors
allowed in Pete Townsend devoted himself
to saving Eric and Alice from
self-destruction Alice's father helped
Townsend stage a huge benefit concert as
a ploy to get them out of the house the
rainbow concert broke the cycle
encouraged by Townsend Eric decided to
get clean most importantly he later said
that during his treatment he learned
that his talent came from his soul and
not from drugs Eric Clapton has been
through that and has come out and plays
beautifully today to me proves that it's
not the drugs that did it the artist is
the one who's responsible drug-free and
physically fit
Eric plunged into recording and touring
in 1974 he released a new album that was
a commercial and artistic triumph 461
Ocean Boulevard took a mellow more
melodic approach showcasing Eric's
talents as a songwriter it included a
cover of Bob Marley's I shot the sheriff
that essentially introduced white
audiences to reggae music so what drove
Clapton still in recovery from a brush
with the deadliest of drugs to plunge
directly into drinking
[Music]
[Laughter]
as a young man eric clapton burnt to
sing the blues ever since then he had
been questioning his choice not his
technical ability but did he have the
emotional chops the music deserved to
him the edge was not just a musical
style to him the edge was a way of life
tinier Lee killed him some people well
there's a lot deeper and darker than
others but the high step that they
attained if they lived through that was
pretty awesome from the mid 70s to the
early 90s
Eric earned his right to sing the blues
not from his fingers or his throat but
from his heart it was a period of
artistic searching and personal
reckoning brilliant peaks and perilous
lows
Eric's hugely successful 1977 album
Slowhand yielded the love song to Patty
wonderful tonight he had the honor of
touring with his adopted musical father
blues icon Muddy Waters sharing the
stage for a last performance
shortly before muddies death Eric also
came close to dying of bleeding ulcers
and to trashing his career for somebody
who has the identity problems that Eric
left and that stuff from when he was a
kid something always looms is the answer
whether it's the blues or this woman or
you know that style of music that's the
thing that's gonna tell him who he is
finally to those closest to air it was a
demolition derby
fueled by substance abuse and self-doubt
even while kicking heroin Eric had begun
drinking heavily he just exchanged one
major serious deal for another one
alcohol believe was more destructive on
his body than anything else that he had
ever done after nine years of longing
Eric and Pattie finally married in 1979
but Eric found the adjustment difficult
the reality of it inevitably was you
know was not the promise of you know
whatever the mystical dream of Layla was
though he adored Pattie Eric had been a
massively successful rock star since the
age of 18 he was used to doing and
having whatever and whomever he desired
Patti's inability to bear children
further complicated matters by the
mid-1980s Clapton had fathered two
children outside of his marriage at one
time he asked Pattie to share a home
with him and the mother of his son the
Italian model Laurie delsanto Pattie
declined
[Music]
while Eric always insisted that his
drinking was under control the facts
told a different story in 1976 at a
concert in Birmingham
Eric endorsed Enoch Powell a reactionary
politician known for his
anti-immigration rhetoric for somebody
who is you know had his life changed and
who has devoted himself to black music
they're especially problematic his
remarks sparked the founding of an
organization called Rock Against Racism
that still fights bigotry in the UK Eric
explained his behavior as the ranting of
a drunk but the incident wasn't easily
forgotten by fans or the press
I don't think Eric Clapton is a racist
at all alcohol confused him it clouded
up his brain as Eric turned out a series
of unfocused projects fans and friends
began to wonder if Slowhand had lost his
mojo there's definitely a time after
it's like big successes you know I shot
the sheriff time where it did seem to
lose lose direction a bit I mean I did
make a couple of studio albums with him
and I didn't personally think they were
very good a close friend of Eric's gary
brooker of Procol Harum has provided a
mixture of acceptance and plain speaking
since they first became friendly at a
pub near Eric's home I mean always had
the greatest respect for him as a player
and like you mister guy I never thought
he was a deity after Eric's first
attempt to quit drinking in the early
80s Brooker introduced him to a hobby he
remains typically fanatical about at the
time was fly-fishing on Austin if you'd
like to come out I thought okay you know
the fresh air a bit
another thing that brought solace to
Eric during these difficult years was
the laid-back atmosphere at the local
pub where he could hang out with Brooker
and just be himself he said he's best
when he's when he's happy and having a
laugh
you know he can get very serious
particularly about his music sometimes
that's a good thing
broker's friendship and the informal
blues jams he put together in local
venues offered Eric a much-needed break
from his high visibility high-intensity
public life nobody's ever gonna see him
as a sideman in a stadium anyway but in
village holes he can be after many
attempts Eric mastered his drinking in
1987 clean and sober
Eric returned to Patti but too much
damage had been done by 1988 they were
divorced before his death in the early
80s the great blues man Muddy Waters had
become a surrogate father to Eric
whenever Clapton felt lost muddies
advice was simple play the blues but
even when playing the blues
Eric still wasn't plugging in
artistically is he gonna be pulsing or
Oh osses innovate finally in 1985
Slowhand returned Eric gave a brilliant
performance at Philadelphia's Live Aid
concert that won him a new generation of
young record buying fans Eric seemed to
be finding his way back home his 1989
album journeyman paid tribute to his own
journey to the lifelong dedication of
his blues heroes and to the honest
workmen like his bricklayer grandfather
whose attention to detail and mastery of
craft inspired Eric as a teenager but
once again the walls of his life were
about to cave in by 1991
Eric had decided to be more of a
hands-on father to his son with lorry
delsanto on march 19th
he took Conor to the circus in New York
City for the first time on March 20th he
was still savoring the experience when a
phone call from lorry informed him that
Conor was dead he had fallen from an
open window on the 53rd floor of a
high-rise apartment building
[Music]
clapton packed one acoustic guitar and
headed for Antigua to grieve as always
it was the music that brought him back
from the edge Eric Clapton has never
been an easy artist to categorize he is
an experimental entity
he's always redefining himself they can
look at every picture and never see a
picture that way he looks the same it
was like a chameleon always looking for
that blues thing to some he is the
quintessential blues man he's shown that
a person don't have to be black to do
good blues you've shown they has a soul
that the blues singers have to others
the greatest rock guitarists of all time
the song tears in heaven written after
his son Connors death captures the
essence of Eric Clapton as an artist and
a man I was falling in love with it I
still don't believe I'm not gonna see
him in a couple of weeks with it's pure
emotion and simple direct beauty it is
the blues and pomp both personal and
universal it is the heartfelt song of a
mature journeyman who has lived the
blues the most important thing is that I
honor my son's memory you know I want
him to be remembered and I want to
remember him through good music since
picking up his first guitar in 1958 Eric
has often struggled to express what he
feels in his soul through his guitar and
his voice
I think the soul of the blues
isn't the person and I think it it takes
a certain person to bring it out
emotionally and their voice and in the
guitar playing perhaps for him reaching
artistic maturity may mean knowing when
not to struggle when to step out of the
way whether it's being a bricklayer or
whether it's being an artist the only
thing that gets in a way of that is the
artist when he stands aside and that's
that what we can't see or hear or touch
or feel or anything take over then true
beauty takes place you close your eyes
and listen to the music and it takes you
to where you want to go how wonderful
Clapton's contribution to music hasn't
gone unnoticed in 1993 he was awarded
five Grammys for his MTV Unplugged album
and performance he is the only artist to
be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame three times after losing Conor
Eric had a choice and he chose life in
the sense I was lucky to have him the
reality of his existence that maybe
stopped drinking and taking drugs and I
spent four years with him as a sober
human being and still AM though he no
longer lives the flamboyant life of a
rock superstar he uses his wealth and
influence to benefit causes that matter
to him in 1997 he founded the Crossroads
Recovery Center in Antigua a rehab
facility that offers free treatment for
local residents in need when Eric put
his famous guitar Blackie up for auction
it raised nearly a million dollars for
the crossroads Center eric has
consistently paid tribute to his musical
influences in 2000 Eric recorded with BB
King and when we got together we had a
good time so like when I was going to
church a sanctified meeting and in 2004
he released a tribute to
is all-time blues hero Robert Johnson
he's a big part of what the Blues is
today and he's turned on millions of
people to the music and you know
countless guitar players I used to say
that they reimpose back into the United
States and then when they became to us
then white America paid attention
especially young people he continues to
be an adventurous pop artist exploring
new sounds and collaborations as they
spark his interest Eric Clapton is
always full of surprises I think like
last year found myself playing in his
garden learnt two hours of new material
like teddy bears picnic and you're a
pink toothbrush our stirring rendition
of sitting in the rain for a kid's party
and it was thoroughly enjoyable and he
played the best I've ever heard him play
most importantly Eric Clapton appears to
be a happy man as many men his age
prepare to be grandparents
Clapton finally has a family in 1999 he
fell in love with a 25 year old American
graphic designer
Melia McHenry had a daughter with her
and got married today he is a devoted
father of two young daughters and to his
daughter Ruth born in 1986
bond pleased for it just as a person
he's enjoying his life and and that he
sees where the important things are now
he doesn't owe us anything he's done it
he could just sit at home and enjoy his
family and he'll be out now again I know
Eric Clapton has met the devil at the
crossroads and walked away with his soul
he seems nicely but we've yet to hear
him attack something really very
challenging I think that's so there's
something something to come yet on the
other hand we're none of us getting any
younger and
got to come up with a critic way they
treated me
[Music]
Eric Clapton continued in the
philanthropic spirit when he headlined a
benefit concert for the victims of the
tsunami in Asia the benefit held in
Wales raised almost two million dollars
for the people affected by the December
2004 tragedy then in May 2005 Clapton
teamed up with his former cream
bandmates for a reunion at London's
historic Royal Albert Hall the very same
venue where the original supergroup
performed their last show together in
1969 the reunion concert drew fans from
around the world
proving that cream does indeed rise to
the top