The musician Eric Clapton considers his “number one” peer
The guitar greats are often spoken about in god-like terms, with some so heavily mythologised that they are considered entirely peerless. Typifying this notion is Eric Clapton, old ‘Slowhand’ himself, the man who repackaged blues for Western audiences and opened the gates to the rock explosion.
After breaking through in the early 1960s with The Yardbirds, Clapton quickly rose to be London’s most revered axeman. Fusing technique with feel, his expressive noodling changed the face of the electric guitar and inspired all those around him. After leaving the band in 1965 to join John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, he would only bolster his reputation as the best around, with his two friends, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, coming in joint second place behind him.
A restless creative force, after quitting the blues powerhouses, Clapton formed Cream with the pair of perennial enemies Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce. Although the rhythm section’s constant warring would eventually be the group’s undoing, with Clapton exasperated by being the peacekeeping force, all the while trying to creatively steer the group and deal with his personal issues, they created history and pioneered psychedelic rock.
They, alongside The Jimi Hendrix Experience, pushed guitar music to new scintillating heights. With innovative tracks like ‘White Room’ and ‘Sunshine of Your Love’, the Stratocaster-wielding Clapton was Earth’s most celebrated player even at this early point in his career. His good friend Hendrix might have risen as the most exhilarating fretboard voyager, but he remained the veteran that everyone respected.
After Cream’s acrimonious split, Clapton founded the supergroup Blind Faith in 1969, Derek and the Dominos the following year, and embarked on his solo career within 12 months. Continuing to refine his blues rock style, tracks like ‘Layla’ and ‘After Midnight’ from this period remain some of his signature cuts. It’s remarkable, but there was still much artistic triumph to come, not to mention some of the most sticky and notorious personal junctures of the guitarist’s life. This included his drunken racist outburst in 1976, a distillation of just how bloated the archetypal rock star had become.
Years before his cultural standing came into question with his gross xenophobic rant, Clapton was of a stature few could reach. Thanks to the power of his guitar playing, he rose to legendary status, and in many of his fans’ eyes, he remains unrivalled for what he did for the instrument, rock music at large and because of the sheer amount of classics he’s written.
However, to be fair to Clapton, he knows he is not peerless. In a 2015 interview with Uncut, the blues aficionado listed four musicians he considers his equals. True to form, they aren’t the household names other prominent guitarists might mention. Like Clapton, they are blues fanatics, deeply entrenched in the genre’s purest form.
Clapton said: “I would acknowledge the people who grew up listening to the same stuff as I did, those are the ones that I would be in tune with. People like Jimmie Vaughan, Doyle Bramhall, Derek Trucks, Robert Cray. Though they’re younger than me, those guys. So people who are more well-versed in blues, that’s who I identify with as my peers.”
For Clapton, Vaughan—the older brother of the late master Stevie Ray—is who he deems his “number one” peer. He explained: “Definitely Jimmie Vaughan, he’s probably at number one, and Robert’s not far behind. These guys have stayed true to their principles all the way through. So commercial success hasn’t really swayed them off the path.”
