Eddie was a tremendous admirer of Clapton, but when he spoke about his first concert, he also expressed his displeasure. The guitarist admitted that the Derek and the Dominos performance wasn’t as ‘strong’ as he had anticipated after seeing them with Eric Clapton. Clapton let him down after the concert as well. Eddie went behind the scenes to see Clapton, but he had already departed and they were unable to do so.
He said the following about attending his first Eric Clapton live performance:
“The first concert I saw was Derek and the Dominos with Eric Clapton. To be honest with you, I was expecting something more powerful. If I would’ve seen Cream, I probably would’ve been blown away, because that’s the era of Clapton that I really loved.
The show was more of a Doobie Brothers Kind of thing — there was like this tambourine and bongo player. The power wasn’t there. Al and I tried to get backstage; unfortunately, Eric had already left, but we did get to meet the tambourine player! Swear to God!”
Eddie seems to have just loved Clapton in terms of his music. Though he was immensely affected by him and tried to express his gratitude by dedicating songs and solos to Eric, he was not shown affection and admiration by Clapton. Eddie’s influence on the music industry is well known now, therefore it is startling to learn that his hero once turned him down and let him down.
Watch the video below: