March 30, 2004
Eric Clapton Turns 59
by Tom Watson
—Eric Clapton1
Eric Clapton, turns 59 today - on tour, healthy, and with a recently released CD, Me and Mr Johnson, that pays tribute to the music that's played a major role in his life.
The blues.
Being on tour and healthy at the age of 59, the Journeyman has beaten the odds.
Being alive at 59, Eric Clapton has beaten the devil.
... at the age of 18 I didn't expect to live beyond 25, you know, and when I did I was very surprised... —Eric Clapton2 |
Eric Clapton had good reason to question his longevity at the age of 18. He had already tasted fame and fortune, and, like other famous travellers of his generation - Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison - had taken several steps down a road that would lead to potentially lethal addictions.
It would be more than 20 years later before that 18-year-old musician would stand at his personal crossroads and choose a fork that would lead to survival, recovery and triumph.
March 30, 2004. A 59-year journey with more than a few miles of bad road - "from the cradle".
—Eric Clapton3
Born March 30, 1945, in Ripley, Surrey, England, to an unmarried 16-year-old girl, Patricia Molly Clapton, Eric Patrick Clapton would never know his father, who, according to an Ottawa Citizen reporter, died in the mid-eighties, most likely unaware that the British blues icon was his son.
Illegitimacy being short of acceptable in post-war Britain, for the first nine or so years of his life Clapton is told that the maternal grandparents who raise him are his parents, and that his essentially absentee mother is his "older sister".
Gabriel Grüner: You never got to know your father and mistook your grandparents for your parents for a long time?
Eric Clapton: Yes, that's still haunting me. I'm jealous of people who are raised with close family ties. Even if they are quarrelling all the time, at least there's someone when they get home in the evening.4 |
A childhood that results in a painful self-image.
"I saw myself in two mirrors for the first time... and I was so upset. I saw a receding chin and a broken nose, and I thought my life is over. This is like at the age of eight, you know." —Eric Clapton5 |
A few years later the shy, introverted Clapton would hear soothing voices from the most unlikely of places: the Mississippi Delta.
Eric Clapton discovered the blues.
David Frost: Why the blues? Was it the cry of pain in the music?
Eric Clapton: I can see that that's probably what it was. It was some kind of... it was me identifying with some, some kind of cry of suffering, yes - pain, because I had a very confused, tumultuous childhood. I mean no one has a perfect childhood but mine...[end of sentence]5 |
Despite his success with other styles of music, the blues has always played a major role in Clapton's life...
I wanted to be in Freddie King's band or Buddy Guy's band, that's the band I wanted to be in - the real thing. I didn't want to be in a white rock band, I didn't want to be in a black rock band, I wanted to be in a black blues band... —Eric Clapton2 (referring to his experience with The Yardbirds) |
...and been the source of another challenge.
I am qualified to sing the blues, because of what has happened to me, but I still don't think I'll ever do it as good as a black man. And there's racial overtones in that, I'm afraid, but that's the way it is. I'll do my best, but that's all I can do. —Eric Clapton2 |
With John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, the electric guitar becomes his second voice and Clapton uses it to spread the gospel of the blues a few more miles.
But while Clapton's star is rising, somewhere along the road the guitar-god falls in step with the devil.
I had everything a man could have at the age of 25. I was, you know, with a wonderful wife, cars and a beautiful home, a successful career. But I wanted to die and I don't understand that... and I tried, you know, to kill myself with drink and drugs. —Eric Clapton5 |
Seems the devil often stands along the road of fame and fortune, seducing those that pass.
In Eric Clapton he finds a willing pilgrim.
Well I think it ties in with that, you know, having discovered that I didn't like who I was that I had to go and, you know, bend myself to make myself attractive to other people. And I found that when I drank, or took drugs or whatever, or changed myself from the inside out, that I felt I was more acceptable to other people. —Eric Clapton5 |
After his stint with Derek and the Dominos, Clapton would end up drinking two bottles of brandy a day and using heroin. Carl Raddle, the group's bass player, would end up dead from alcohol poisoning.
In 1987, Clapton enters a drug-rehabilitation program. He becomes a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. A successful member.
Though his path from 1987 to 2004 has brought its share of both profound tragedy and remarkable commercial success, Eric Clapton has kept the devil at bay. Only those who live with the devil on their shoulder can know the strength required to take one clean step at a time.
March 30, 2004. The Journeyman, healthy, touring, and a family man since 2001, turns 59 and walks another mile.
A good place to be on a long, hard road.
____
1. 1998 Larry King Live television interview.
2. 1994 interview by John Pidgeon (From the Cradle Tour Guide).
3. 1991 (October) Rolling Stone magazine interview.
4. 1998 (February) Stern magazine interview.
5. 1994 David Frost television interview.
[Image of Eric Clapton from the 1998 Pilgrim Tour Guide.]
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Published March 30, 2004 12:01 AM.