One of the greatest guitarists and songwriters of all time, Pete Townshend was a fundamental part of The Who and his ideas meshed perfectly with the sound that Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon and John Entwistle helped create. They were key figures in the British Invasion of the mid-60s, influencing countless musicians around the world.
As a result, Townshend had the chance to witness many incredible bands and artists rise to fame during that time and over the years he has spoken about some of them. One of these artists is the legendary British guitarist and singer Eric Clapton.
What is Pete Townshend’s opinion on Eric Clapton
Pete Townshend and Eric Clapton have been good friends since the 60s and they have praised each other many times. “I really do love Eric a lot, otherwise I wouldn’t have involved my life with him so much. And I don’t see him doing anything wrong at all. I really enjoy what he does.”
“I don’t think it’s necessarily the maximum of his potential. But then I don’t see why he should work at the maximum of his potential, because that’s not what he’s pursuing. He’s pursuing a kind of music that has more to do with finding a groove or expressing an emotion,” he said in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in 1982. During the same conversation, Pete noted that Clapton was sometimes concerned with things that he particularly didn’t care about like for example not being featured anymore on lists of the best guitarists in the world.
Although he likes Clapton’s music, he wasn’t a fan of Cream, the supergroup which besides the musician also had Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce. “I think that – partly because of his (Keith Moon) drumming style, I had to play a really, really solid, tightly syncopated. But nonetheless tightly metronomic style of guitar playing. I was driving him rather than him driving me. There was no space, really, for fancy leads. As soon as I started playing single notes, everything seemed to fall apart.”
Pete Townshend continued:
“I have to say, that was my experience listening to Cream. It felt to me that sometimes it sounded so empty. I thought they would’ve been so much better if they had a Hammond player. I always loved Eric’s playing, but not always his sound. It always felt to me like it was a bit muffled, in the Marshall days. That’s why I prefer Traffic and Blind Faith. I like the sound of that,” he told Guitar.com in 2021.
In his 2012 autobiography Who I Am, Pete Townshend described Clapton as a tremendous artist. He mentioned him alongside Elton John and Tina Turner as examples of musicians who were easy to work with because of their talent.
The blues guitarist and singer appeared in The Who’s 1975 film adaptation Tommy. He portrayed a preacher and performed “Eyesight to the Blind.” It was a particularly interesting casting choice, considering the most famous phrase fans used to describe him at the time: “Clapton is God.”
Clapton is grateful to Pete Townshend for helping him get sober
Pete Townshend was a fundamental person to help Eric Clapton to get sober back in the 70s. The musician told that story in an interview with Sue Lawley in 1989. (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) “Pete actually dug me out of the hole that I was getting deeper into. I think he was actually instrumental in getting me to look up life as a proposition again. Because I had gone into a real hermit-like existence.”
“”Wihtout my knowing, Pete organized all my old mates musicians to put on a concert specifically to get me out of it. To get me back on my feet again. I carried on after we did the Rainbow concert which was that (one). Then afterwards I carried on but actually sold the seed of optimism back in my mind,” Eric Clapton said.
Then Pete chimed in, saying:
“We really missed him and there’s this feeling that was a genuine waste of talent. I don’t know whether anybody really was concerned with the fact that at that time he had a drug problem or not. Everybody in the music industry at some time or rather has had one or is intending to have one (laughs).”
During that same conversation, The Who’s guitarist and songwriter recalled the first impression he had of the musician when he first saw him at a bus stop in the 1960s. “I know when I first saw Eric. Because when we started to work in the 60s we were working kind of in isolation but there were lots of exciting things happening in London. The Stones were working, The Yardbirds were out there somewhere. There were lots of interesting things happening. Lots of interesting Blues bands happening and I heard about this man who was a myth. Eric Clapton was a myth in Richmond where we play, even in 1963. I remember seeing him on a bus stop. (He was) looking very, very posy, I thought,” Pete Townshend said.
During that TV interview, they performed the Muddy Waters song “Standing Around Cryin’” together. But it wasn’t the first time they had shared the stage. Back in 1973, they played together at the Rainbow concert and in 1974 Pete and Keith Moon appeared as special guests at Clapton’s shows. In 1986, both were part of the Ian Stewart tribute concert, and more recently, in 2007, Pete joined Eric at the annual New Year’s Eve Dance at the Woking Leisure Centre in Woking, Surrey.
