Eric Clapton- Proof Being A Guitar God Isn't Insulation From Being An Asshole

In the twilight of his life, Clapton's becoming a walking, talking collection of "WTF??" moments

“Clapton is God”… and, as it turns out, a seriously ignorant asshole. Who knew, right??

Truth be told, our reckoning with who Eric Clapton really is has been a long time coming.

Clapton may have been branded Rolling Stone magazine’s second-greatest guitarist of all time, and is a three-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee who has inspired legions to try to follow in his footsteps, but the shiny veneer papering over his belief systems has always been paper thin.

Clapton himself has admitted to being an arrogant, immature “blues purist” during his early career — a time when fans were scrawling “Clapton Is God” graffiti around London….

What came after that can now be seen as a long, slow decline, culminating in a series of self-inflicted wounds regarding Covid-19. Since last year, Clapton has repeatedly used his vast platform to do his utmost to undermine expert medical advice. He claimed that he was experiencing temporary adverse reactions to the Astrazeneca vaccine, but detailed symptoms he'd disclosed as early as 2013 and previously blamed on neurological problems. He has opposed lockdowns and made suspicious claims about the dangers of vaccines.

As something of a (very) wannabe guitar hero myself (my claim to fame is playing with the band at my wedding), Eric Clapton has always been “it.” The possessor of unassailable and unattainable talent, the person who could make any guitar in his hands speak in tongues, Clapton is…well, a guitar god. The Alpha and the Omega.

And, by way of his own admission, a somewhat immature deity.

If it were just Clapton, his guitar, and his surpassing talent, I’d have nothing to write. I’m not a rock critic. These days, though, we seldom experience our heroes and idols merely for the reason(s) we idolize them. Technology too often allows us to experience them in all their myriad glory and in aspects of their life that are significantly less glorious.

In Clapton’s case, it turns out that he can be something of an asshole, especially when it comes to COVID-19. That can be dangerous and deadly, but Clapton sees nothing amiss, wading into the public discussion with bad information, propaganda, and dezinformatziya.

This spring, he said in videos posted on a friend’s YouTube channel that scientific studies, expert opinions and public health recommendations extolling the importance of vaccines were “propaganda,” and most recently doubled down by vowing he wouldn’t perform to what he termed “discriminated audiences” in venues requiring proof of vaccination….

I would never deny Clapton his right to his opinions. Still, given how many people around the world revere him for his music, voicing such ridiculousness and inaccurate information can kill people.

Surely, Clapton couldn’t be that stupid. Could he?? Well, not so fast there, Sparky. He absolutely could be. And evidently is.

But many fans still seem to have been caught by surprise. In a lengthy piece this month by writer David Browne in Rolling Stone — which has treated the artist with reverence for more than half a century — Clapton is painted as a conspiracy peddler of the highest order, and a racist of the lowest.

“He’s been so relentless with this vax stuff,” Browne told me. “It’s been a year now of making statements and videos. And he hasn’t let up. And after a while it became a question of ‘what is going on here?’”

Like most people around my age, I grew up with Clapton’s music. It was everywhere, and his musical brilliance seemed to speak of someone who was f*****g brilliant in every aspect of his life.

Yeah, about that….

One thing I’ve learned as I’ve gotten older is that someone can be blessed with a singular talent in one aspect of their life, even as they’re a right moron in every other aspect of their existence.

Eric Clapton appears to be thus handicapped.

If the media is to be believed, Eric Clapton is a terrible person with some astonishingly dumb and dangerous ideas. And, oh, by the way, he also happens to be a guitar god. So what you find behind Door #2 doesn’t in any way excuse the toxic mess behind Door #1.

And so we’re confronted with a choice to either separate the man from his art in order that we may continue to enjoy his music…or do we feel guilty for enjoying it? Or is Clapton to be considered so objectionable, so odious, and so thoroughly offensive that we put him off in the corner with the likes of Michelle Shocked?

Cancel culture? Or consequence culture? Or is just two different names for the same thing?

The [Rolling Stone] article also revisits Clapton’s 1976 racist rant from a stage in Birmingham, England, where he repeatedly shouted slurs and voiced support for the British demagogue Enoch Powell, known for his divisive, race-baiting “rivers of blood” speech in 1968. Browne notes the many times Clapton has joked about or laughed off accusations of racism, as well as a 1968 Rolling Stone interview where he low-key insults Jimi Hendrix’s guitar playing and suggests the allure of Hendrix and other Black artists has to do with their genitalia.

Browne’s piece is a devastating but measured and thoughtful takedown. It digs Clapton’s metaphoric grave via thorough reporting and mounting evidence….

Clapton certainly has his defenders, especially among conservative anti-vaxxers. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, himself no stranger to crackpot conspiracy theories or race baiting, tweeted a picture of himself with Clapton backstage during the guitarist’s recent tour of red state arenas.

The fact that Clapton has been reduced to booking gigs in red states is telling. He’s down to playing where he knows there’s a greater chance of being welcomed. Because if he comes to, say, Portland, he’d have some ‘splainin’ to do, knowhutimean??

Oh, and did you know that Clapton’s a conspiracy theorist? As if things couldn’t get any worse for him, right? Now he’s in the “crazy old man” stage of his life, and it seems he’s doubling down on the crazy. And hanging out backstage with genocidal maniacs like Texas Governor Greg Abbott isn’t exactly a good look, either.

Could it be that Clapton has lost what’s left of his mind from all the drugs and young girls he did in the ‘60s (I’m speculating). No, this is who Clapton’s been his entire life- a hateful, racist asshole.

Quite possibly the worst, most blatant piece of cheap musical propaganda EVER….

It’s not just the COVID-19 dezinformatziya. Or the racism. Or the awful nativist, anti-vaccine collaboration with Van Morrison. Or his bankrolling fringe, anti-vaccine groups in the UK. It’s that this wasn’t who we thought Eric Clapton was- and now the jokes on us.

All that beautiful, brilliant music…and all those ugly, hateful beliefs.

We’d somehow convinced ourselves that he was one of us, and it turns out he’s Alex Jones…if Jones possessed the ability to make a guitar sing. Man, if that doesn’t feel like a betrayal, I don’t know what would.

And in the end, it turns out that being an aging White racist isn’t the rebellion that most of them would have us think it is. It’s not the same as being a contrarian like Bernie Sanders, who wants to tear the world down and replace it with something better. No, Clapton intends to burn the world down so it can be made safe for rich, angry White guys like himself.

It doesn’t get much more despicable than that, eh?