Talk:Eric Clapton

Unsourced

 * I'm an egomaniac with an inferiority complex.


 * Given the choice between accomplishing something and just lying around, I'd rather lie around. No contest.


 * My driving philosophy about making music is that you can reduce it all down to one note if that note is played with the right kind of sincerity.


 * To have ownership of something that powerful is something I'll never be able to get used to. It still knocks me out when I play it.
 * Regarding the song Layla


 * Some people talk about me like a revolutionary. That's nonsense; all I did was copy B.B. King.


 * If it ain't Mississippi black music it ain't worth a damn.


 * You can make a Strat sound like a Les Paul, but you can't make a Les Paul sound like a Strat.

Speech at Birmingham concert
Other Sources: Virgin Media: Clapton's Shocking Rant Guardian Unlimited: The Ten Right-Wing Rockers. These statements were allegedly made on stage by a heavily drunk Clapton during a concert in Birmingham, UK, in 1976. Clapton is referring to British anti-immigration Conservative MP Enoch Powell. Clapton made similar further comments to the audience later in the evening. Clapton has never denied making these statements and has refused to apologise for his remarks or distance himself from them, although he denies that his views are racist and states that he is merely an opponent of mass immigration. This incident was the main inspiration for the formation of Rock Against Racism.
 * Previously this site reported a speech by Eric Clapton at his Birmingham concert, and attributed to John Street's Rebel Rock (1986, pp 74-5). It is in all probability a fake. Certainly it does not appear in the alleged source. There is no reference to Clapton on these pages.