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It's Very Difficult To Explain The Effect The First Blues Record I Heard Had On Me, Except To Say That I Recognized It Immediately. It Was As If I Were Being Reintroduced To Something That I Already Knew, Maybe From Another, Earlier Life. For Me There Is Something Primitively Soothing About This Music, And It Went Straight To My Nervous System, Making Me Feel Ten Feet Tall.

-Eric Clapton

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It's Very Difficult To

Eric Clapton

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It's Very Difficult To Explain The Effect The First Blues Record I Heard Had On Me, Except To Say That I Recognized It Immediately. It Was As If I Were Being Reintroduced To Something That I Already Knew, Maybe From Another, Earlier Life. For Me There Is Something Primitively Soothing About This Music, And It Went Straight To My Nervous System, Making Me Feel Ten Feet Tall.

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I'm Not A Big Fan Of Lead Vocalists, People Who Sing But Don't Play. I Never Wanted To Be In A Band Where The Guy Who Was Up Front Just Sang. I've Always Thought It Better When One Of The Musicians Sings, Like Steve Winwood.

I Don't Have Half The Nerves There That I Have Anywhere Else.

When I'm Wrong It's Never Meant For You, So Don't Confuse My Love With What I Do.

I Feel A Real Need To Observe A Level Of Propriety In What I'm Handing Out. Instead Of Me Just Venting Or Spilling My Guts, I've Got To Consider How It's Going To Affect People. How It's Going To Affect Me, As Well. Because It's Like A Cycle.

I Never Set Myself Too High A Goal. It Was Always Tone And Feeling, For Me.

If You Hand Me A Guitar, I'll Play The Blues. That's The Place I Automatically Go.

When I Look For What I'm Going To Listen To I Go Backwards. I'm Always Going The Other Way You See. Most People Are Trying To Figure Out 'how Do I Get In The Fast Lane Going That Way?'. I'm Going In The Other Direction. I Wanna Find The Oldest Thing To Do.

I Think I Deliberately Sold Out A Couple Of Times. I Picked The Songs That I Thought Would Do Well In The Marketplace, Even Though I Didn't Really Love The Song.

There Are People These Days Who Can Do Things On The Guitar Which Are Beyond My Reach. There's One Guy Who Plays With Queen Who Can Do Things I Would Dream Of Doing. I Sincerely Mean That.

It's Been Very Important Throughout My Career That I've Met All The Guys I've Copied, Because At Each Stage They've Said, 'don't Play Like Me, Play Like You.'

Every Time You Pick Up Your Guitar To Play, Play As If It's The Last Time.

All I Am Certain Of Right Now Is That I Don't Want To Go Anywhere, And That's Not Bad For Someone Who Always Used To Run.

I Always Respected That B.b. Sees Music In A Very Open, Free Way.

You Were At School And You Were Pimply And No One Wanted To Know You. You Get Into A Group And You've Got Thousands Of Chicks There.

This Moment In Time, On This Tour, You Know, I'm Discovering A Lot Of New Things. And To Be 45 And Doing That, It's A Mixture Of Pleasure And Pain, I Can Assure You.

The Only Planning I Do Is About A Minute Before I Play. I Desperately Try To Think Of Something That Will Be Effective, But I Never Sit Down And Work It Out Note For Note.

I Never Met Johnny Rotten, And I Didn't Want To Meet Johnny Rotten.

I Just Like The Company Of Beautiful Women. I Have A Weakness In That Department.

Famous Musician

Music Became A Healer For Me. And I Learned To Listen With All My Being. I Found That It Could Wipe Away All Fear And Confusion.

One Summer I Remember, I Got Exposed To Chuck Berry And Buddy Holly And Buddy Holly Was A Very Very Big, Made A Very Big Impression On Me. Because Of A Lot Of Things, You Know, The Way He Looked And His Charisma.

And I Don't Like Having My Picture Taken. I'm Almost Like An Old African In That Sense. I Think It Steals A Bit Of The Soul.

It's Been Up To Me To Inspire Me.

It's Very Dependent On Your State Of Mind. And Your Emotional State As Well. And A Lot Of It Comes Pouring Out, You Don't Really Have That Much Control With It.

The First Band I Identified With From Chicago Was The Muddy Waters Band.

I Have No Problem With Religion, And I Grew Up With A Strong Curiosity About Spiritual Matters, But My Searching Took Me Away From Church And Community Worship To The Internal Journey. Before My Recovery Began, I Found My God In Music And The Arts, With Writers Like Hermann Hesse, And Musicians Like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, And Little Walter.

It Was Stumbling On To Really The Bible Of The Blues, You Know, And A Very Powerful Drug To Be Introduced To Us And I Absorbed It Totally, And It Changed My Complete Outlook On Music.

I Listened To King Oliver And I Listened To Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Archie Shepp... I Listened To Everything I Could That Came From That Place That They Call The Blues But, In Formality, Isn't Necessarily The Blues.

Loose Ladies On The Road Will Drive You Crazy, Every No, Becomes A Maybe.

From The Beginning, I Knew Intuitively That If Nothing Else, Music Was Safe, And That Nobody Could Tell Me Anything About It. Music Didn't Need A Middleman, Whereas All The Other Things In School Needed Some Kind Of Explanation.

An Obsession Is Where Something Will Not Leave Your Mind.

All Along This Path I Tread, My Heart Betrays My Weary Head, With Nothing But My Love To Save, From The Cradle To The Grave.

I Did Play A Lot Of Fingerstyle When I First Started Playing. I Could Never Really Find The Right Combination Of Flatpick Or Fingerpick, So Playing Fingerstyle Is Really The Easiest Way - Though It's Quite Strenuous On The Fingertips.

I Grew Up Playing In Clubs - That's My Spiritual Stomping Ground.

I Have Always Been Resistant To Doctrine, And Any Spirituality I Had Experienced Thus Far In My Life Had Been Much More Abstract And Not Aligned With Any Recognized Religion. For Me, The Most Trustworthy Vehicle For Spirituality Had Always Proven To Be Music. It Cannot Be Manipulated, Or Politicized, And When It Is, That Becomes Immediately Obvious.

When All The Original Blues Guys Are Gone, You Start To Realize That Someone Has To Tend To The Tradition. I Recognize That I Have Some Responsibility To Keep The Music Alive, And It's A Pretty Honorable Position To Be In.

Music Will Always Find Its Way To Us, With Or Without Business, Politics, Religion, Or Any Other Bullshit Attached.

My Identity Shifted When I Got Into Recovery. That's Who I Am Now, And It Actually Gives Me Greater Pleasure To Have That Identity Than To Be A Musician Or Anything Else, Because It Keeps Me In A Manageable Size. When I'm Down On The Ground With My Disease-which I'm Happy To Have-it Gets Me In Tune. It Gives Me A Spiritual Anchor. Don't Ask Me To Explain.

Given The Choice Between Accomplishing Something And Just Lying Around, I'd Rather Lie Around. No Contest.

I'd Love To Knock An Audience Cold With One Note, But What Do You Do For The Rest Of The Evening?

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I Don't Know If I Believe In Luck. I Think I'm Very Fortunate.

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Although They Can Do It All The Time, You Know, They're Far Better Than Me, On A Musically, On A Theoretical Music Level. You Know, They're Out Of My League.

Music Survives Everything, And Like God, It Is Always Present. It Needs No Help, And Suffers No Hindrance.

Would You Know My Name, If I Saw You In Heaven?

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Would You Know My Name If I Saw You In Heaven Will It Be The Same If I Saw You In Heaven I Must Be Strong, And Carry On Cause I Know I Don't Belong Here In Heaven Would You Hold My Hand If I Saw You In Heaven Would You Help Me Stand If I Saw You In Heaven I'll Find My Way, Through Night And Day Cause I Know I Just Can't Stay Here In Heaven

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Give Me A Guitar And I'll Play; Give Me A Stage And I'll Perform; Give Me An Auditorium And I'll Fill It.

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They Found Our Hero In The Gutter With A Diamond Ring And A Gun.

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A British Pressing With A Compilation Of The Best Stuff Really, I Mean Actually Not Only That But, These Were All Kind Of Semi Hits For The People On It In America.

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I Couldn't Believe How Good Jimi Hendrix Was It Was A Really Difficult Thing For Me To Deal With, But I Just Had To Surrender And Say, 'this Is Fantastic.'

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They Looked Great, You Know The Drawings Of The Guys Playing Looked Great And Bits Of String Around Their Necks. So It Didn't Seem To Be That Difficult A Thing To Do, Or That Inaccessible.

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Plant Your Love And Let It Grow.

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My Selective Memory Of What Drinking Was Like Told Me That Standing At The Bar In A Pub, On A Summer's Evening With A Long, Tall Glass Of Lager And Lime Was Heaven, And I Chose Not To Remember The Nights On Which I Had Sat With A Bottle Of Vodka, A Gram Of Coke And A Shotgun, Contemplating Suicide.

I Thought, 'my God, This Is Like Buddy Guy On Acid.'

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Risk Is Trying To Control Something You Are Powerless Over.

'my Father's Eyes' Is Very Personal. I Realized That The Closest I Ever Came To Looking In My Father's Eyes Was When I Looked Into My Son's Eyes.

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My Driving Philosophy About Making Music Is That You Can Reduce It All Down To One Note If That Note Is Played With The Right Kind Of Sincerity.

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I Know There Will Be No More Tears In Heaven.

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The Point Of Being At Home Is To Be With My Family As Much As Possible.

Before You Accuse Me, Take A Look At Yourself.

You Can't Mastermind Everything. You'll Go Crazy. Just Show Up And Play.

Our Love Will Rule In This Kingdom We Have Made.

The Blues Are What I've Turned To, What Has Given Me Inspiration And Relief In All The Trials Of My Life.

Only Ask And You Will Get What You Are Needing, The Rest Is Up To You.

I'm An Egomaniac With An Inferiority Complex.

Inferiority Complex

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Up Until I Became A Father, It Was All About Self-obsession. But Then I Learned Exactly What It's All About: The Delight Of Being A Servant.

It Sounds Strange For Me To Be Saying This, But I've Come Around To The Idea That Sex Really Is For Procreation.

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I Tried When I Was 13, When My Grandparents Gave Me An Acoustic Guitar, And I Tried For A Year. It Hurt So Much To Play. I Mean, The Fingertips Hurt So Much, I Gave Up.

Having Lovers And Friends Is All Good And Fine But I Don't Like Yours And You Don't Like Mine.

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