The British guitarist Eric Clapton had commercial success with almost every band he was in, as well as in his solo career. In the music business since the early 60s, he had the chance to witness the evolution of music, meet his heroes, and make some truly good friends along the way. As the decades went by, he naturally began to lose some of them as they passed away.
He talked about many of those friends over the years, but once named two who, according to him, had the most profound effect on him when they died.
The 2 musicians’ deaths Eric Clapton said affected him the most
Freddie King
“Apart from family, the most profound effects of people passing on me were Freddie King and J.J. So those characters for some reason have been very, very deep in my musical psyche all my life,” Eric Clapton said in an interview in 2015 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
During the same conversation, Eric explained how important artists like Freddie King were for his evolution as a musician.”My kind of scholarship in a way, like being at school. (Was) to find out where it started (The Blues). I would go back to Muddy Waters, to all the people that came from Mississippi, Chicago. (I would) try to examine it and learn every aspect of it.”
Eric Clapton continued:
“I think that’s what is fascinating about guitar playing, the blues, Rhythm & Blues and Rock and Roll. There isn’t a record made that has any soul that didn’t come out of the Blues. (…) It was very scary but incredibly exciting (to meet the old Blues players). All I could do was to play like them, especially people like Freddie King, I copied him all my life,” Eric Clapton Clapton told Hege Duckert in 1989 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
As Clapton said, he had the chance to meet and play with Freddie King in the 70s. He even helped the American musician to get a record deal with RSO Records. Then his final two albums were released, with Clapton playing in the song “Sugar Sweet” from the “Burglar”, released in 1974. The musician passed away two years later at the age of 42.
One of Clapton’s favorite songs of King’s career was “I Love The Woman”. The track was released in 1960 as the b-side of the single “Hide Away”. He once said that hearing that song for the first time was one of the most life-changing moments of his life.
J.J. Cale
The second musician mentioned by Eric Clapton was the influential American artist J.J. Cale, with whom the guitarist collaborated a lot. Some of his biggest hits were versions of Cale’s songs, like “After Midnight” and “Cocaine”. They became good friends over the years and Clapton’s admiration for him only grew bigger. They made the collaborative album “Road to Escondido” in 2004. Then in 2014, Clapton led the tribute album “The Breeze”, to honor Cale. The musician had died one year before at the age of 74.
In the interview to promote that record, he recalled that right before Cale’s death, he was preparing to go into the studio. So he changed the focus of the sessions, in order to make a tribute album. (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) “I flew to California and attended the funeral. As I was traveling I thought: ‘This is all synchronistic to be true. I’ve got the studio time and not really very much to do with it. (Then) I’m gonna go and watch my dear friend be lowered to the ground. I can’t not use this in a respectful way. As the hours went by on the flight I started to formulate, arrange the album,” Eric Clapton said.
During the same conversation, Clapton also explained why Cale was so important for music. “I just had to make this music (because) people around the world are unaware to a certain extent of how important he is in the tree of the musical history of this country and the world. The effect he’s had on people in a very subtle way in the way they sing, play guitar and make records.”
Eric Clapton continued:
“I thought his guitar playing in my earlier years were quirky and a little bit light, almost as if was an afterthought. It’s only in becoming older or maybe just a little bit more mature about what’s needed musically that I see that he was a master. A master of understatement to be sure but still the power,” Eric Clapton said.
Clapton was not the only famous artist who covered J.J. Cale’s song. Lynyrd Skynyrd for example successfully made a version of “Call Me The Breeze”. Until his death in 2014, Cale released 15 studio albums.
