Eric Clapton reveals the first major turning point in his career: “Nurtured the gift I had”
When we talk about rock stars from the 1960s, we can’t help but see them the way they are today. The likes of Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger will forever be rock royalty, with emphasis on the “royalty” part. They might as well be landed gentry. Old, incredibly rich men with all the power and influence in the world. This wasn’t the case in their heyday. When each of them were coming through, they weren’t just spirited kids with something to prove; a lot of them were working class; they were young, too. Shockingly young in some cases.
We often think of the teenage pop star as a modern phenomenon—at least when it comes to serious artists who write their own songs and shape their own sound. But the truth is, many of the biggest musical breakthroughs of the 1960s came from artists still in their late teens or early 20s.
Put it this way: When Olivia Rodrigo came through with ‘Driver’s License’, she was 17, about to turn 18, which was basically the same age that Eric Clapton was when he received his big break in music. Of course, having an international hit single and joining a jobbing blues band are two very different prospects. However, only one of them would secure the nickname ‘God’ for their musicianship, and it wasn’t the former Disney starlet.
After getting noticed at 16 for his busking, Clapton joined his first band a year later, an early R&B band called The Roosters. His first national exposure though came from the band he joined at 18, The Yardbirds. His work in the Yardbirds put the teenager on the map as a guitarist to watch out for, yet still the band didn’t quite match Clapton’s ambition.
He stayed with The ‘Birds until he was 20, a time when a band came calling that changed everything. Over four decades later, he’d describe what joining John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers meant in a 1998 interview with Larry King. He described the band as “very important”.
Adding: “Maybe the first real turning point because I met someone who encouraged me, who nurtured the gift I had and taught me a lot of stuff about how to maintain and run a good band.”
He’s not wrong about this; Clapton was learning bandleading from the very best. Considering he was about to form Cream and be the peacemaker preventing Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker from murdering each other, he needed nothing less. In all seriousness, though, there is something genuinely heartwarming about looking at that 1960s rock scene and seeing so many teenagers and 20-somethings being allowed to go wild.
Through it all, they create music that not only stays true to their vision but also sells by the truckload. I have no interest in sounding like one of those tiresome purists who think music peaked in 1967. Great, cutting-edge music is always out there for those willing to seek it—now more than ever.
However, in the 1960s those new voices were getting a chance to be heard at a national level. In a current music scene that sees a lot of those avenues to creativity and success blocked off in favour of more privately educated stage school kids whose parents are investment bankers, perhaps there’s something we can learn from that.
