Eric Clapton Recalls Losing His 4-Year-Old Son Traumatically: “It’s Disturbing Me”
In a new interview with BBC Radio, the English rock legend Eric Clapton has recalled losing his 4-year-old son traumatically and revealed how he’s been dealing with it.
Eric Clapton was the co-founder, lead guitarist, backing lead vocalist of his rock band Cream. Throughout his tenure with his band, Eric Clapton had performed in 4 studio albums of the band, which means he played in every Cream albums.
Outside of Cream, Clapton is heavily known for his solo career. The 18-time Grammy Awards nominee musician has released twenty studio albums. Selling more than 280 million records worldwide, Eric Clapton released his debut self-titled album in 1970. His latest album was 2018’s Christmas album Happy Xmas.
In 1991, one of the most saddening incidents happened in the musician’s life. His 4-year-old son, Connor Clapton, fell from the 53rd-floor window of a building in New York City and passed away traumatically. After his son’s tragic death, Clapton had released Tears in Heaven in honor of him.
However, during a recent interview with BBC Radio, Clapton has opened up about writing Tears In Heaven in honor of his son. When the interviewer said, “You wrote ‘Tears in Heaven’ and had all that time where you had suffered addictions, that most traumatic event of all actually turned you around,” the musician admitted that he was saddened deeply.
“I had, I brought him home from New York with the Italian side of his mother’s family, and we went through the process of the funeral, and when they left,” Clapton says.
“And that I had this little Spanish guitar, I became attached to that. And I went away. I went off to Antigua, and I rented a little cottage there, in a sort of a community.
“And I just swatted mosquitoes all day and played this guitar and stayed there for almost a whole year without much contact with the outside world.
“I tried to heal myself, and all I could do was play and write these songs, and I rewrote and re-performed them again and again and again until I felt like I’d made some sort of move towards the surface of my being.”
Eric Clapton Mentions What Disturbed Him About Song
Later then, the legendary musician has touched on the recent thing that disturbed him. Saying that it was deep living those tough times, Clapton added that playing Tears In Heaven is overwhelming.
“And then I was able to come out,” he adds. “It was so deep, and I had thought that I had taken care of it until I saw [the 2018 movie] ‘Life in 12 Bars.’
“And it’s very disturbing for me, but beautiful at the same time, the way it’s handled in the film. The footage I haven’t seen of him before, which is difficult to watch, with the underlying music.
“And playing ‘Tears in Heaven,’ I mean, it’s overwhelming, and I’ve got to go and do it again in a few days’ time.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Eric Clapton has commented on B.B. King‘s live album, Live At The Regal. In the past, he had confirmed that he used the album as a primer before his performance. Now, he stated that it was very relaxed album.
“I think it might have been the fact that it was a live recording, and that’s really, really profound, to be able to play that way in front of an audience,” Clapton said.
“I mean, I’ve been around long enough to know that you can create an illusion in the studio, or even with a small hand-picked audience, which I did, I did an album like that where there was a small audience.
“And it was very relaxed, but this was early on when I only knew about recorded blues that was in the studio.
“And to hear someone play like that in an open forum with a live audience and to be so impassioned and technically superb, and it was a music I loved, it was blues taken to a level I didn’t even know existed, it was very important to me.”
Back in this early October, it was confirmed by Ozzy Osbourne that Eric Clapton will be featuring on Osbourne‘s upcoming album.
“On this new album, I’m working with Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Tony Iommi, and Zakk [Wylde],” Osbourne said.
“You just write the song and you just ask them to sing [or play] what you [give them].
“The good thing is it’s interesting to work with somebody else. But the bad thing is – if it don’t work, you can’t [just let it go] ’cause they’ll get all pissed off.
“Eric Clapton, on this new record, one of the lyrics was about Jesus, and he wasn’t sure about that. But it was all right in the end… [The solo he did] is very good.”
It’s obviously a bummer if your kid falls out an open window and dies. We all feel bad about Eric’s loss in that regard. What I wonder about is how Eric feels about the loss of his audience. Don’t know what the kid was like, but his father is an idiot. I guess he and dip shit Van Morrison can hang out and keep each other company.
I’ve loved Eric Clapton since 1967-8. His band “Cream” was trailblazing. Those of you people who don’t really know anythig but “idiot” music, corporate music, Bill Gates media….will never feel what he felt when his friend Jimi Hendrix died, & Duane Allman, the pain of being on smack, and clean, yrs later, conner’ s death .. People who hate him for his views on vacciñes and arena rules, are the same “idiots” who yell about the Bil ofRights, though only one in twenty can even recite the rights. And those are generous odds. B.B. King loved Eric. Enough said. Through his foundation Crossroads, Eric helped many old Ill, poverty-stricken blues musicians Bet nobody feeds on that fact of Eric’s l8e. Your Trash-everyone- who-isn’t -a -cl9ne culture is so prevalent, so sad
We’ve arrived at a place in our nation’s history where your freedom to choose whether or not you want to be vaccinated has become devisive and polarizing. Sure, you can decide not to be vaccinated but that decision comes with a cost. The cost of being maligned largely by those that HAVE been vaccinated. The evidence of this prejudice is rampant throughout all media outlets and is indicative of where society is today… our freedom to make personal choices should be honored in America and that is not the case any longer. No one has ever been forced to have an influenza vaccination in the past which has an even worse mortality rate than Covid, but now we’ve allowed others to try to mandate that the vaccination be required for all. The more we allow politicians to control what we do and how we think, the more freedom we lose. Once those freedoms are lost, they will be lost forever.
Fuck you, asshole.
Seems like Greg Adams is the idiot
Do you actually think that Eric Clapton gives a crap about losing audience after losing a child. Losing a child is the worst thing that happens to a parent. I should know my wife and I lost a beautiful son. Using the word “bummer” caught me off guard. Sounds so cold and nonchalant. For everyone who has lost a child you cannot believe the depth of despair and Darkness we all live in. Shame on you
Don’t much care about his opinion on vaccinations or actions taken in that regard. I love his playing.
Thank you Anthony for replying to that reptilian who made those discussing comments about Eric’s tragic loss what a lowlife that Greg is
Clapton the true OG of dicks.
I don’t agree with his views about the vaccine but his kindness and compassion for others is to be commended. He’s help so many down on their luck musicians. JJ Cale comes to mind. He’s a entertainer not a virologist. Take your medical advice from doctors not entertainers. Thanks for the music Eric. I love you and all you’ve done
I know what it is like to loose a son. I lost my son when he was 5. No parent should have to go through that. I find it hard to believe how cold he sounded. Luckily he had the money to disappear from life and write a song. Wish I had that kind of luck to do that. I stayed home and took care my other sons and family.
I’m very very sorry for him losing his son I can’t imagine losing a child but what in gods name would there be a window open on the 54th floor with a four year old child in the house or apartment nobody was watching him or watt where was the mother