Clapton - autobiography!

I just finished reading Eric Clapton’s autobiography “Clapton”.

 

 

 

 

 

When I was a teenager I viewed Eric Clapton as pretty much the perfect guitar player. Although sometimes I strived for more experimental guitar playing, I could always count on Eric for precise ‘by the book’ guitar techniques. Around the time that I started listening to him, he released the “Unplugged” album which brought to mainstream the song “Tears in Heaven”.

 

When this song came out it seemed like all adults looked at Clapton as the “mature” artist that they wished their kids listened to. They would much rather have their kids listening to Eric than the current trend of bands such as Guns ‘n Roses. This seemed to be the consensus in my neighborhood. Adults would not question him as a role model based on the fact that he could write a song as beautiful and moving as “Tears in Heaven”.

 

Little did they know that Clapton did enough drugs and drank enough booze to make Guns ‘ Roses look like the Brady Bunch.

 

I think that Eric’s substance abuse history was the biggest revelation when I got older and started to learn the truth about my music idols.

 

Not many adults figured a guy who wrote songs like this would be the same guy that would snort heroin for years only to give it up to take on a heavy drinking habit in its place.

 

This autobiography shows Eric Clapton as a man who is full of regrets. He always talks about how bad he treated one person or how bad he must have looked in a certain situation. Only in the epilogue of the book does he mention that he has come to peace with his past and looks forward with a positive attitude.

 

If he only knew that so many people respect him for what he has overcome. Many of us have battled addictions and I can only be impressed that somebody that had gotten as deep into substance abuse as him could turn 180 degrees and become a leader in the world of recovery.

 

This autobiography is great with all the details, everything from joining John Mayall up to the years of the books release in 2007.

 

I don’t know what is more impressive, the fact that he had such a successful career or the fact that he could even find time to write or perform with all the time spent on the bottle and on drugs.

 

This was an exciting book to learn about the star Eric Clapton, but even more, a motivational book of how anybody can overcome addiction.