“I would be right on it”: Eric Clapton on the artist that made him change guitars
Any guitar player will tell you that they typically belong to one of two tribes: that of the Fender worshipper or that of the Gibson enthusiast. Often, the switching of allegiance from one faction to another is viewed as a scandalous act, similar to going from supporting Manchester United one day to supporting City the next. It’s simply not on. However, in the case of Eric Clapton, that guitar lore was wholeheartedly ignored.
Most people wouldn’t ever even consider the possibility that Clapton played Gibson guitars, but he was in fact a fierce member of the Gibson community until he saw one person in particular playing a Fender Stratocaster. That person was Steve Winwood, the brainchild of the Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, and Blind Faith, among others. Clapton certainly has his detractors, but to ignore his ability with a six-string is to forget a huge chunk of his career.
In an interview with Guitar World in 2008, Clapton was asked whether his move from playing a Gibson to a Fender Strat in 1970 was a tribute to Jimi Hendrix: “Yes, I think it was. Once he wasn’t there any more, I felt like there was room to pick it up.”
The guitarist continued: “Then I saw Steve Winwood playing one, and something about that really did it for me. I’d always worshipped Steve, and whenever he made a move, I would be right on it. I gave great weight to his decisions, because to me he was one of the few people in England who had his finger on some kind of universal musical pulse. I went to see him at the Marquee, and he was playing a white-necked Strat, and there was something about it…”
So, I suppose there are two levels to Clapton’s transferral to the Fender gang. In the late-60s, everyone knew who the king of the Strat was, and Hendrix really left no room for anyone else to impose on his instrument. It’d be interesting to find out whether Clapton wanted to play the Strat whilst Hendrix was alive. The Stratocaster has such a specific tone that Clapton would have known any attempt to use it would have been met with criticism. Hendrix’s death just left a vacuum for Clapton to fill.
Coinciding with this was Winwood’s influence. As bandmates in Blind Faith, Clapton bore witness to his songwriting ingenuity, which was, in his opinion, unmatched by the current music climate. Clearly, in Clapton’s eyes, Winwood operated on a slightly higher level of consciousness, and his Strat was the instrument Clapton saw as essential in the journey toward a similar musical enlightenment. And who could blame him? After all, a white-necked Strat surely contains enough beauty to tempt any Gibson disciple to commit the most frowned-upon adultery of all.
Despite being such an influential musical figure, Steve Winwood rarely gets the praise he deserves. We certainly don’t associate him with the Strat, like we do Hendrix, Clapton, or later, Mark Knopfler. But if he can inspire someone to pick up the instrument more than Hendrix, then you have to give credit where it’s due.
