Eric Clapton talks on past and future

“I’ve had quite a lot of pain over the last years,” reveals Clapton

“It started with lower back pain and turned into what they call peripheral neuropathy, which is where you feel like you have electric shocks going down your leg. And I’ve had to figure out how to deal with some other things from getting old.”

If this is starting to sound like an encounter with a moaning pensioner at the bus stop, it’s probably worth remembering that Clapton is not just one of the most fêted instrumentalists in rock history, he’s also in the record books as one of its epic caners.

In my lowest moments, the only reason I didn’t commit suicide was that I knew I wouldn’t be able to drink any more if I was dead.”

Because I’m in recovery from alcoholism and addiction to substances, I consider it a great thing to be alive at all,” he declares. “By rights I should have kicked the bucket a long time ago. For some reason I was plucked from the jaws of hell and given another chance.

“There are only few things I’m really proud of”

Here Eric Clapton judges the time spent with Cream together with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker.
That of the Cream was a real blitz. From 1966 to 1968 Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker released four albums, disbanded and consigned themselves to history. Their first album, “Fresh Cream”, was released on December 9, 1966.

“I thought the John Mayall album was better than the Cream stuff. To be honest, I thought we were really weak, on record.

There were just a few things that I was really proud of now as then. Most of that. they were on the last album [“Goodbye” from 1969].

The band didn’t have much time to play together before releasing their record debut and the British guitarist – the only member of the group still alive – believes the band would need more time in the studio to perfect the harmony.

I don’t know. I think we got lost pretty fast with Cream. It was all smoke. We were just trying to make it work. We didn’t really have a leader. I think that. that was part of the problem.

Leadership changed in the blink of an eye. One minute it was me, the next minute it was Jack, the next minute it was Ginger. There was no consistency. Before we even went far we had become a supergroup. It was that thing of trying to catch up with your own myth. ”

In October 1963, Anthony Topham quit The Yardbirds and was replaced by 18-year-old art student and guitarist Eric Clapton, fresh from The Roosters. With Clapton on board, The Yardbirds would become one of the most accomplished rhythm and blues bands in the UK, and serious rivals to the Rolling Stones.

"We used to do an instrumental [by Memphis Slim] called Steppin’ Out, or we’d do funny stuff like play [Howlin’ Wolf’s] Smokestack Lightning next to [pop song] Hang On Sloopy! And it was often about creating these artificial crescendos, and that would prompt a lot of pseudo-virtuoso lead guitar playing.