The 1990s rock band Eric Clapton couldn’t stand: “They are a load of shit to me”
No self-respecting classic rock fan is going to call Eric Clapton into question as a songwriter.
Despite a handful of questionable political and social choices throughout his career, ‘Slowhand’ has been known as one of the premiere rock stars of his time, making the guitar speak in a way that few others of his generation could match. Although he may have loved his influences from the world of rock and blues, he had no time to listen to one of the bands he could have inspired.
During Clapton’s prime, rock underwent a significant sea change after the British Invasion. While getting his feet wet with The Yardbirds, Clapton began incorporating different psychedelic influences into his sound when working with the supergroup Cream. As the afterglow of The Summer of Love began to fade, though, Clapton was about to become a solo superstar in his own right.
Breaking free of the band construct, Clapton would turn into one of the premiere solo artists of the 1970s, making his first major solo hits like ‘Wonderful Tonight’ and ‘Cocaine’ while playing on the occasional record from friends like Elton John and George Harrison. Though the times of psychedelic idealism had started to fade away, the explosion of Britpop in the 1990s started to revive that brand of rock and roll.
Since the grunge wave had crumbled in on itself, acts like Oasis were climbing to the top of the music world, bringing a retro sound indicative of the 1960s. Although the brothers Gallagher may have claimed to be fans of the 1960s era of rock music, Clapton wasn’t exactly looking to please any of his famous fans.
When asked about his opinion of the group at the time, Clapton didn’t mince words about how much he disliked them, telling Stern Magazine, “No, because there’s something scornful, self-righteous about their music that nauseates me. I like bands like Radiohead or Tricky”. As opposed to Clapton’s unbridled aggression when he was in the Gallaghers’ shoes, all he saw was a bunch of kids looking to earn some credit off of what he had already created.
Clapton’s criticism wasn’t just about sound; it was rooted in attitude. Where he had come to view music as something carrying a degree of responsibility, he felt Oasis leaned too heavily into provocation and swagger without acknowledging the pitfalls that had defined earlier generations of rock excess. To him, their approach seemed less like evolution and more like repetition without reflection.
Even so, his disapproval did little to slow the band’s ascent. Oasis thrived on that very bravado, turning their influences into chart-dominating anthems that resonated with a new generation. The tension between Clapton’s seasoned perspective and Oasis’ youthful defiance ultimately highlighted a familiar cycle in rock history, where each wave both honours and challenges the one before it.
Then again, Clapton quickly saw a rerun of the same mistakes he had made back in the day as well. Rather than throw any bile towards the music, ‘Slowhand’ was keen to criticise the Gallaghers as people, explaining, “It took more than 30 years and many deaths like Jimi Hendrix’s or Janis Joplin’s until I realised that I, as an artist, have a responsibility to society. I thought that young bands like Oasis had learned from our mistakes. Instead, they are irresponsible and arrogant. They act like hooligans. They are a load of shit to me”.
While Clapton may not be all that fond of what the Britpop giants were doing at the time, that didn’t deter them from taking over the music world. Off the strength of songs like ‘Wonderwall’ and ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’, Oasis rocketed up the charts, becoming one of the most significant musical sensations of the ‘90s.
Then again, all that was waiting for them at the bottom was burnout, with Be Here Now falling prey to all the pitfalls bands have when they get too big to fail, from multiple overdubs to a runtime that would leave any listener fatigued. Oasis’ star may have shone brighter than anyone else’s at the time, but maybe Clapton had a point about them not learning from his mistakes.
