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on the basis of fair use in education.
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The following is the transcribe of the first interview Clapton
did after the death of his son, Conor. It was only aired on
Canadian radio and the interviewer is a DJ called Red Beard. It
was aired around October-ish 1991

ERIC CLAPTON - IN THE STUDIO - THE STORY OF 24 NIGHTS


Hello l'm Eric Clapton and you are cordially invited now to spend
24 nights in one.

Red Beard - HGW does one sum up the importance of Eric Clapton's
recording career. While others have dedicated entire books to the
subject, how can I possibly do justice here. I mean, is it enough
to tell you that by the tender age of 18 Eric Clapton was already
being heralded for his prowess as a guitar player, second to
none, or in his 28 year recording career Eric Clapton has left
his indelible mark on rock and roll, with John Mayall' s
Bluesbreakers, The Yardbirds, Cream, Blind Faith, Derek and the
Dominoes and his own formidable solo efforts.

On the occasion of '24 Nights', his latest live release, Eric
Clapton did me the honour of talking about this exemplary piece
of work and about somethings he's got coming up in the near
future. Over the next two hours we will hear excerpts from that
conversation, as well as a 8reat deal of the superb new music on
"24 Nights`, including tunes from his days with Cream, Derek and
the Dominoes and selections from his own solo albums up to and
including I 989's; "Journeyman".

The double CD "24 Nights" was the culmination of a series of live
shows Eric Clapton performed at London's legendary Albert Hall in
early 1990 and again in early '91. During this period Clapton was
touring in support of "Journeyman'` and as we chatted in his New
York hotel room recently. Eric told me how this led in part to
the song selection for 24 Nights at the Royal Albert Hall.

Et - The main idea really was borne out of the enjoyment of doing
'Journeyman" itself. 'cause it felt to me! When we were making
the record that there wasn't really maybe more than two songs on
the album that weren't made for live performance and there were
several things on 'August" which, when we tried to approach them
live, just didn't work. Now, the thing with making, "Journeyman"
was that was borne that in mind as we tried to make it like we
were playing them on stage and so when we got time to put that
tour together, the first thing that came to me, the first thing I
wanted to do, was to dress up the songs, to see how they would
take shape, for instance like "Running on Faith", "Pretending"
and these things ideal for the stage and I was really interested
to see if they were going to change, few they were going to
change etc. etc. and "Old Love", I mean it was dying for long
solos and things like this so those were the priorities and then
just to feel round them, to go through that long long map of my
history and sort out which songs everybody enjoyed. You see, it's
important to find out from everybody in the band what the
consensus is on my older material. And it's really quite
surprising what they come up with, I mean they won't let me, I
know it's Nathan's song, but they won't let me drop `'Can't Find
My Way Home" and they love "White Room" and then you go from
there. You owes in a sense, you owe those songs to be performed
and I'm very protective about it I don't want to let them go, and
they've evolved and so it's like how do you do it, without going
into three and four hour sets, so that you've got your new
material and you're also paying tribute to the older stuff and
doing stuff that everyone wants to hear and everyone wants to
play. It was a problem, it was a nice set of problems and I've
got to face them again next year with the next tour.

(Plays "White Room" ).

Red Beard - From "24 Nights", the new double CD from Eric
Clapton, that's a sizzling rendition of the Cream classic "White
Room". "White Room" was originally sung by Jack Bruce of Cream,
Eric Clapton and keyboardist Greg Phillinganes handled the vocals
in concert. Back when he was in Cream, Eric will tell you, he
didn't realise how good some of the material was. As a result,
it' s only been in the last few years that Eric started
performing Cream tunes such as "White Room" in concert.

EC - It took, oh, a whole series of events to bring that song
back to my attention because when I was in Cream I was very young
and I wasn't particularly taking much notice of what was going on
to be honest with you. I was in my own little world, just a
guitar player with a rock band The time that we existed and were
working and touring we didn't have all this mania that exists now
for the 60's. Cream was just a little known band from England a
little less, in fact a lot less, than The Who, and we weren't
aware of what we were and I, especially, wasn't aware of how good
the song writing was and all these songs were just vehicles for
me to play riffs in and play solos. And when Cream broke up and
time went by, that was, to me, gone, stuff gone in the past and
it wasn't until I did the Letterman show, as a guest of Paul
Schaffer's band, that the peculiarities and the niceties of that
song were introduced to me. He said "well let s do that for fun'
and I heard it as though I was a complete observer. You know,
very objectively listened to them play it and then pined in and
found it was a great song. And I actually had to learn the words.
You wouldn't believe it, I had played that song with Cream for a
year and a half/two years and didn't even know what the words
were, you see. So that was the reason for that and I hope, as
time goes by, that other things come up like that because it's
not good to always play songs that you have your own series of
reasons to play. It's actually nice to get inside someone else's
skin and see what they like about it. So you can look at it
afresh really.

(PIays "Bad Love").

RedBeard- That's 'Bad Love". Coming up, we'll find out why it
took 42 shows to record "'4 Nights l.

The impetus for Eric Clapton's new live CD was a series of
performances he has been doing each year since 1987, at The
Albert Hall in London. Originally a three night stint, the length
of stay grew to 18 nights in 1990, consisting of six nights with
Eric's touring nine piece band six nights with a trimmed down
four piece version and finally three nights each with a group of
legendary blues players, plus the National Philharmonic
Orchestra.

It was after this two week session in February 1990 that Eric
initially intended to release a live album but for various
reasons it didn't come off as planned. He explained why he went
back and recorded nearly a month' s worth of shows for "24
Nights" and why it never nearly happened again.

EC - I went off on tour right afterwards and toured the world and
really stashed the whole thing mentally and it was shoved under
my nose and it was released from my under my nose last year as a
sort of veto situation like "if it's ok, we'll put it out, if
there's anything you think you are not happy with let us know"
and I let it ride for a couple of weeks and I, I'm not very good
at doing this, I am not very good at facing myself in a live
situation. I put it off and put it off and I finally sat down and
listened to it and I thought it was awful. I just thought it was
dreadful and a lot of that had come out of the fact that the show
went on the road a lot of the numbers had evolved albeit better
or worse but they were different and I thought, God, with all
this change that has taken place while we've been out in South
America, America and Europe, can we really release this as an
album of how things stand. Because they are not Iike that any
more. And on top of that I thought my performance was very stiff,
vocally and instrumentally and so I said to the record company
"tell them that it's/I'm not up to scratch". I think this was the
easiest way of postponing the whole thing, I don't think my
performance is good enough and I think the answer is to go in
with tape machines for all of the shows next year and we make it
a mammoth thing, with more nights of orchestra, more nights of
blues and record every night. And with that, we can't lose. We've
got to have it and maybe we did maybe we didn't! I don't know
I've actually got to say in all honesty, if I'm doing this
interview in an honest way, I don't know what happened really, I
was pretty tired when we got to the Albert Hall but we did it, I
mean it was a battle to pull it all off and I think my emotions
were so drained by then, that when it came time to look at this
thing and address it as another product, I wasn't interested any
more! I really had to stash it again.

This would mean that the album was on hold for, god knows, I mean
it probably wouldn't have got Iooked at by me until the end of
this year and I had Russ Titleman in with me and at the outset I
had an inkling at how this would go, so I gave him as much
authority as I thought he needed and I gave him the idea that he
might have to do this on his own, when it came the time for
selection and things like that.

And then, as you know. not long after we finished I came out here
to see my son and that was a major turning point in my iife.
Music became a kind of side issue. It was something I couldn't
and wouidn't deal with. When we brought my son home to England,
to bury him, there was a studio situation, with Russ in there,
with his tapes of 24 nights of songs and mixes and something had
to be done, decisions had to be made. Because I had such a
grievous situation, I went to the studio and I found I actually,
it was like out of the frying pan, into the fire, I couldn't deal
with it. So I handed him the whole thing and said "take it away
and do with it what you will" and he' s done a masterful job, I
think. This, in an unfortunate way, because of the death of my
son, was something I didn't want to have to go through like this
but I did relinquish because of that but, you know, I am not
proud of that, I couldn't handle it. It couldn't be done any
other way but I would much rather have dealt with it myself.

(PIays 'Sunshine of Your Love')

EC (talking over end of song) - I'll like it one day, that's all
I can say for now. I mean, because I am expected to promote this
record and I know that that' s a fair expectation but it' s also
very difficult for me because my feelings about it are so wrapped
up and involved with this loss that I've had that it's a dark
area for me to deal with and it will be a long time before I can
hear it as it's own entity, without thinking of all the other
stuff that followed immediately afterwards. This will be a very
memorable album for me because of what happened. I just wish that
I could like it as much as it deserves to be liked by the man who
made it. I know that will come. It was the same as when we did
"Just One Night", it didn't mean a damned thing to me because I
was going out and playing that stuff every night. And, yeah fine,
so you've got a tape of it, big deal, but this is a bit more than
that and because of the situation I think it will take me a
couple of years before I can listen to this before thinking of
what it means, and it will just be music to me. And I look
forward to that day.

Red Beard - Featuring the triple lead vocals of Eric Clapton,
Bass player, Nathan East and keyboardist, Greg Phillinganes,
that' s "Sunshine of Your Love". One of three classic Cream songs
on Clapton's new iive CD "24 Nights". Still to come, Slowhand
will tell us why "24 Nights" is absolutely live.

As we learned a few moments ago, it was quite literally up to
producer, Russ Titleman, to sift through what have been mountains
of tapes, choosing what would eventually go on to what would
become the one hour and 45 minutes CD of "24 Nights".

Although Titleman had quite a bit of freedom when it came to
choosing tracks, he was not allowed to fix any rough spots in the
studio. Eric Clapton explains why.

EC - It's much more appealing to me, for all its mistakes, if
it's genuine. It's much more appealing. I just think it's
healthier and I think you've just got a better taste in your
mouth because you don't have to lie. If I had to answer this
question, the same question, but why did you feel it necessary to
over dub the keyboard player, I would feel awkward about
answering that question. Because you're right, is it that bad
that you have to repair it, that's the thing. And if you do feel
you have to repair it, then you face a new set of problems
because what happens when you get a master musician like Nathan
East or Greg Phillinganes to go in and replace their part. You're
inviting them to treat the whole thing differently. You're giving
them a certain amount of licence to further that musical object.
You could change it but the whole thing is altered.

{Plays "Bell Bottom Blues")



Red Beard - Accompanied by the National Philharmonic Orchestra,
conducted by Michael Kamen, that's Eric Clapton with the Derek
and the Dominoes classic "Bell Bottom Blues".

As I mentioned earlier "24 Nights" was recorded at the Royal
Albert Hall, which was built by England's Queen Victoria in
honour of her consort, Prince Albert, after his death in 1861.
Having heard so much about the Albert Hall, I asked Eric Clapton
to give me some background on the London venue named after Prince
Albert.

EC- When he died the whole point was that Victoria was so in love
with him that she built this hall and also a monument opposite in
the park, which is a magnificent piece of Baroque, gothic
Victorian architecture. As is the hall itself and they really are
very very good strong landmarks in the history of London, you
know. At a time towards the end of the industrial revolution when
England was going through vast changes. The Empire was starting
to wane and somehow when you play here, you still feel the
vibration of the strange things that have happened in that hall.
Not just classical music but, I mean there's a picture on the
wall of the dressing room of a marathon tournament that took
place at the turn of the century which shows two men running
around the inside of the Albert Hall. Flat out. Running the
marathon. I think a French man and an English man!

Red Beard- Inside the Albert Hall?

EC - Inside the Albert Hall! So, it's the hangover of a very
weird time. See, if you're English and you know about the period,
which I don't to be honest, but it's the time of Jack the Ripper
and it was the time when London had a very very proper facade but
inside this facade there was all this seedy stuff going on, so
that's the place where I came to play but I don't really know
what it is that drew me back. I think the first time I played
here was with Cream perhaps, when we were breaking up and it's a
strange sort of circumstance that the hall happened to be the
venue but it came up again and again and again throughout my
career and whenever we would opt for playing in London, we would
always draw straws for which venue was the best and the Albert
Hall takes it because it has all of this stuff that has stored
up. It' s like an atmosphere that you can feel.

Red Beard - After hearing about the fascinating history of the
Albert Hall I was also curious about playing there. So I asked
Eric Clapton about the ambience and the acoustics of the Royal
Albert Hall.

EC - The acoustics I've never had a problem with and funnily
enough it's one of the few places where I know in the world where
they have classical music and rock 'n' roll, it works for both
and at the same time too, because I've worked with the orchestra
there and although we have to be very careful how the guitar is
mechanically inserted in, it seems to be very flexible. And in
terms of the ambience of it, I don't know, it's just got this
night-club thing. You see from the artist's point of view, it's
one of the few places where you can play where you can see all of
the audience and actually feel that you're in amongst them.
Because when you're on that stage, you've got them behind you,
you' ve got them all around you in boxes, going up to what is
called the Gods with standing as the top and the stalls and it' s
lit in a way that you can see all the people in the boxes, if my
family come, I can see them.

Red Beard- Even with the stage lighting?

EC - Even with the stage lighting. So, better than anywhere else,
you feel like you're in among the crowd. And the people who are
right in the front are right at your feet and the people in the
stalls along side you can actually walk on stage if they felt the
mind to. Red Beard - Literally?

EC - Literally. It's on the same level, so the last seat in that
particular row is on the stage.

(Pays "Watch Yourself")

Red Beard- Yeah! recorded on Blues Night at the Albert Hall,
that's Eric Clapton with Buddy Guy' s composition of "Watch
Yourself". Joining Eric on guitar, for that particular song was
the author, the legendary Buddy Guy along with Robert Cray, as
well as Chuck Berry's long time piano player, Johnnie Johnson.

During my recent conversation with Eric Clapton, I found him to
be extremely open and forthcoming. This particularly surprised me
with regards to subjects with which I expected him to be somewhat
guarded. Like the death of his son, Conor. And his friend, Stevie
Ray Vaughn. Both or whom were killed in the past year or so.

Since Clapton was with Vaughan on the fateful night in August
1990 and because he seemed comfortable in talking about it, I
asked Slowhand to tell me about Stevie Ray's abilities as a
musician at the time of Stevie Ray's death.

EC - Oh beyond anything I could even describe, I think the best
way to describe it was just to have been in my shoes, in the
dressing room, watching the monitor, with the door open and hear
him from the stage and see him on the tv, knowing that I had to
go up later and play and what was happening was that I was
actually so bowled over and so in love with this guy, who was
playing on stage from the heart completely, you know. I started
to feel ashamed of what I was going to go on and do. I was going
to go up there and play Cream songs and do little bits of
different kinds of music and there was this guy playing one kind
of music, in one kind of way, and it made me kinda feel, well
God, are you ever going to get to that point, the point you are
watching right now. And I don't know if that many people ever do
because I enjoy in my life playing all kinds of stuff. I know I
play blues probably easier than anything else, you know
everything else is a bit of a learning experience but I do dabble
around in other areas, rock 'n' roll, country and this 'n' that
and song writing but none of it has that oneness that Stevie Ray
had.

Red Beard - In your experience, have you seen or heard others get
to that point where the emotion that's in the music is almost
palpable, you can almost feel it?

EC - Very rarely. Very rarely and usually it's a question of
balance, a question of how many things there are in a mix. You
know, whether the person is in good mental health whether in good
physical shape whether their motives are clear. You know, all
these things that wrap up the character and embodiment of the
human being with this gift and the state he is in at that time
when you are seeing that performance. With all those things in
question it's a very rare experience but Stevie Ray on that nigh;
and many nights before, I m sure, had all of these things in
control and was a master of everything. Everything. And there are
a lot of other people I've seen who have some of them, but maybe
they've had a couple of drinks before they went on, or maybe
they've got a. headache or maybe they're, you know, they're tired
or maybe they're in great physical or mental shape and living a
good life but they haven't got the right musicians in the band,
or the songs aren't right, you see there are so many elements
involved and when I recall that night, there was nothing
required, there was no room for improvement

(Plays "Wonderful Tonight")

EC (talking over end of "Wonderful Tonight") - I felt that when
we talked about me going into the studio to listen to this stuff,
you know after my son died Russ was rolling things by me saving
"we've got this version of this and this version of that, listen
to this, listen to that" and I didn't really enjoy any of it? I
really didn't enjoy the experience. I didn't want to be there,
until this came up. I actually went to sleep in the studio. I
laid down on the couch and went to sleep . It was the first
healing experience I had after my son, was to lie there and just
drift off. Had their been one chink, one discord in it, then that
wouldn't have happened. As it was I just nodded off and went into
a very blissful sleep until the song ended and then I woke up.
So, for me, that was the first decision I actually made was that
that (song) must go on the album.

(Song continues)



Red Beard - With what is, no doubt, the definitive version of the
1977 classic, that's Eric Clapton with "Wonderful Tonight".

Whether you're talking about the songs done with the four piece
band, the nine piece band or with the National Philharmonic
Orchestra, the heart of Eric's group consists of drummer Steve
Ferrone, Bass player Nathan East and keyboardist Greg
Phillinganes. It was Nathan and Greg who, along with Phil Collins
made the "August" album with Clapton and who did most of
"Journeyman" as well and as Eric told me, he had his eye on
Phillinganes and Nathan for quite some time.

EC - Well, when I had talked with Phil Collins about making
another album after "Behind the Sun", we had decided to make a
collaboration with Warner Brothers in LA to work with known top
musicians. I had in fact already met them. It was my dream band
to have Phil on drums, Greg and Nathan and that would be it, this
quartet. Phil didn't really know how it would work out, but he
seemed pretty sold on the idea too and then we went in and made
the album. It was just a joy to see how it sprung up from being a
theoretical line up to a physical working one and we decided well
before the end of the session that we would tour. This was
problem for Phil, we really had him over a barrel, because he is
so committed to his own stuff and to Genesis, for him to say
'"Yes, we'll tour". It meant a great deal of soul searching for
him.

Red Beard - His life is booked' .

EC - Absolutely.

Red Beard - His life is booked two years from now!

EC - Easily. I think that that was the sacrifice that he had to
make, you know, to come whether with us really bonded the band
and we went out as a quartet? right after making the record and
toured for quite a little while and the idea then was that every
year, on a certain occasion, not especially then thought of as
the Albert Hall, but on some occasion; whenever possible, we
would reunite and celebrate that first joy and that's what we do.

(Plays ''Badge")



EC (over song) I never really counted myself as a pop musician to
begin with? it was something that slipped into my life time and
again and I toy with it but it never really was a serious option.
Making music was always a series of changes and explorations for
me which has nothing to do with trend, nothing to do with
saleability, it was really me discovering me.

(song continues)



Red Beard - The third of three Cream classics on "24 Nights",
"Badge", a song he co-wrote with his great friend, George
Harrison. More on Harrison later.

You have no doubt been noticing that the musicianship on "24
Nights" is impeccable and among the outstanding players is one Mr
Robert Cray, just how good is Robert Cray? Well, to hear Eric
tell it, Eric would be delighted to become president of the
Robert Cray fanclub!

EC - What can I say about Robert? He must get sick of hearing me
compliment him.

Red Beard (laughing) I doubt it!



EC: - He hears it and he reads about it and I just think he is
the best. He has more finesse in his little finger than I have
got in my whole body. It's just a tremendous inspiration to me
that he's alive and playing on and working you know, working at
being a writer. He's a serious serious man. Very serious about
what he's doing. Very measured and very deliberate, with a total
sense of responsibility to his stuff, you know. He's just a
straight forward great singer, great player, great composer. What
a joy, isn't it, really, people should never take this for
granted.



Red Beard - Amen. Whilst Eric is singing the praises of Robert
Cray, Bon Jovi guitarist, Richie Sambora, has been telling anyone
who will listen how happy he is that Slowhand agreed to do a
session on Sambora's new solo album. However. the self effacing
Clapton is not as quick to accept praise as he is to give it.

EC - It's tough doing that stuff, it really is tough because
there is no guarantee that it will work. It takes a lot of blood
sweat and tears to make those things work usually. Because how
much we have our connections and our origins in the same place.
we know we all come from Robert Johnson oĢ whoever it is that
inspired us. When we get together there can be miles of musical
difference, you know, the outsider here won't see but the actual
experience of meeting head on can be difficult. You know! you
have to make a lot of compromises and you have got to bend your
thing this way and that before it will fit. I do sessions like
this and it's always the same. Even with a person who will be of
my same thinking and temperament, even when Robert and I worked
together on ''Journeyman", there is still that bridge to cross
between one individual's way of seeing the music and the others.
I put this to the test too much, sometimes I think

The most recent was Kate Bush because I had no idea what she
wanted from me really. And I adore her music. And for me, in my
fantasy head I could see a way of doing it. I can see how it can
be done in here! in my head, but you give me the guitar and then
lay down the track and tell me just do what I feel is right, then
I've no idea. I really had to hand it over to her to tell me what
to do really. And I was surprised by the outcome. So it is really
risky sometimes, it can be very frustrating.

(Plays "Pretending")

Red Beard - That's "Pretending", played by the extended nine
piece band. Even though "24 Nights" has just been released, don't
go thinking we've heard the last of him for a while. Actually, we
are barely going to have a chance to get used to "24 Nights" by
the time his next project comes out. You see, Eric has been
working on the music for a film starring Sam Elliott, Jason
Patric, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Greg Allman. Although the
soundtrack album isn't due till next Spring. The movie itself is
out much sooner.

EC - The film is called "Rush" and will be out in December, I did
the score, it's a film based on Kim Wozencraft's story where this
lady who became an undercover narcotics agent in Texas, a little
town in Texas, and ended up becoming hooked on Heroin and other
drugs, then spent two years in prison as a result of a corruption
situation. They took the book, which was a big seller here, and
wrote a script and made a movie of it. Lili Zanuck has made a
great job of' directing the thing, she's a fan, thank God, and
called me to do the music.

Red Beard - Eric's been quite busy of late. In addition to the
film score Clapton also recently played on albums by Johnnie
Johnson and Buddy Guy. Both of whom performed during the Blues
Night of Eric's Albert Hall show. Plus, he contributed a song to
the new Elton John/Bernie Taupin tribute CD, called "Two Rooms".

And Clapton's currently getting ready to hit the road for three
weeks in Japan with his old friend George Harrison.

Since this is George`s first tour in 17 years, the ex-Beatle is
understandably nervous and therefore hasn't scheduled shows in
other parts of the world. I asked Eric Clapton if he anticipates
a decision at the end of the three weeks as to whether the tour
might come to North America.

EC - I think so, yeah, he won't necessarily have to voice that
opinion to anybody! I mean I'm not going to, well I probably will
actually, but it's not a set thing that I will walk up to.