The pandemic behaviour of guitar legend Eric Clapton, who has gone full anti-lockdown, anti-vaccination, and anti-masking, has undeniably damaged his reputation.
Clapton, one of rock’s elder untouchables, is being attacked by friends and fans like never before over his forceful and controversial stand on Covid-19 protocols.
Has the multigenerational 76-year-old hitmaker jeopardised his legacy as suggested by The Washington Post?
In a critical piece, “What Happened To Eric Clapton?”, The Washington Post quoted several musicians and acquaintances who have known Clapton over the years as saying the musician provoked the criticisms.
They said while Clapton has long stayed out of politics, it has been more than a departure to hear him questioning scientists on anti-vaccine websites.
Will his latest release, “The Lady in the Balcony: Lockdown Sessions”, a series of live acoustic renditions of past hits, be outshone by his Covid-19 comments?
It doesn’t help that Clapton has used his celebrity to unleash virulent attacks on lockdowns, spread absurd claims about vaccines, and supports a group of UK musicians who play shows spreading the anti-vaccine message.
He took a lot of heat for his stance, made high profile in a Van Morrison-written single, “Stand and Deliver,” as well as his own single, “This Has Gotta Stop.”
The songs targeted the authorities for trying to control a global pandemic by temporarily shuttering concert halls, restaurants, and other public spaces.
Clapton wanted “Stand and Deliver”, his first protest song in 56 years of recording, to be included in his latest album. The record label didn’t want it.
Earlier this year, Clapton complained that his friends were abandoning him. In August, The Queen guitarist, Brian May, branded him and anti-vaxxers “fruitcakes”.
This month, his blues peer, Robert Cray, ended his friendship with Clapton, saying: “I’d just rather not associate with somebody who’s on the extreme and being so selfish.”
Last month, Rolling Stone magazine, that had featured Clapton on its cover in glowing terms in the past, tore him to bits for complaining about Covid-19 rules and making unsubstantiated claims about vaccines.
A 45-year-old racist rant during a concert in Birmingham, England, that remains a patent bruise on Clapton’s career was emphasised in the article.
Onstage, Clapton who was pals with African American stars such as Jimi Hendrix and BB King, roared the fascist party’s slogan, “Keep Britain White”.
He apologised for his outburst that was directed at Africans, Arabs, and Jamaicans during a surge of immigration in the 1970s, blaming it on a drinking problem so severe he often considered suicide.
Now teetotal for nearly three decades, Clapton, who once revealed that he would drink a bottle of cognac by midday, before snorting cocaine from a knife by lunch, is saddled with a long list of health problems.
He disclosed he was suffering from nerve issues in his hands and legs to hearing loss, saying he could feel the clock ticking and was desperate to squeeze in as much playing as he could.
But instead of engaging with his missteps, Clapton has seemingly chosen to seek public adulation with “The Lady in the Balcony’ album.
The project got underway after Clapton – a three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, once as a solo artist and as a member of The Yardbirds and also Cream – was deprived of his annual Royal Albert Hall fix due to Covid-19.
It sat well with his pledge not to perform at gigs where attendees had to show proof of immunisation against coronavirus.
Clapton got vaccinated in February. The first shot floored him for a week, delaying work on the album.
The second jab was horrific. His hands and feet were either frozen, numb, or burning.
He suffered for two weeks, fearing he would never play again, according to a June interview.
When he could play the guitar again, he rounded up three of his most regular bandmates, bassist Nathan East, keyboardist Chris Stainton and drummer Steve Gadd.
They huddled for a month in Cowdray House, a regal manor in the middle of a polo club in West Sussex, England, to record what became “The Lady in the Balcony”.
The musicians performed to an audience of one – Clapton’s wife, Melia – in the balcony.
Russ Titelman produced his first Clapton album since 1994’s “From the Cradle”, but it is unlike the best-selling live release ever, “Eric Clapton – Unplugged”, that he shaped in 1992 as three songs are played with electric guitars.
Clapton’s intense joy was one of the many reasons “Unplugged” sold over 25 million copies.
In his latest effort, his happiness is somewhat missing across several of the 17 tracks but it still has that “Clapton feel” and looks a winner.
“Man of the World” written by Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green, features the line “I’m not saying I’m a good man / Oh but I would be if I could.”
“It’s a song about yearning for love, but one has to wonder if Clapton is aware of how his statements, past and present, have hurt people,” declared Blues Rock Review.