The one band Eric Clapton would have loved to join: “That would have been great fun”
Eric Clapton was never satisfied being in one place for too long. He had always been comfortable being a blue journeyman throughout his lifetime, so his time as a solo artist was an inevitability after working in one supergroup after the next. Still, ‘Slowhand’ was willing to play with anyone that he felt was a natural in their craft, and there were some people that he had on his wishlist of jam sessions.
Then again, Clapton’s approach to rock and roll was always going to be as a free agent rather than a consistent band member. He may have worked his magic on albums with Cream, Blind Faith, and Derek and the Dominos, but it was always a matter of time before he started working on something different, whether that was adopting the mannerisms of The Band on his later projects or getting more introspective as he gets older.
But his approach to guitar was always more consistent than his fellow blues players. Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck had the same breeding ground that he did, but whereas they branched out into their own individual styles, it was easy to see Clapton have one foot trailing back into the blues at every corner. Even when he was making tunes like ‘Tears in Heaven’, he also made sure to include songs like ‘Nobody Loves You When You’re Down and Out’ on his Unplugged record.
His songs had become a lot more concise as he got older, but he knew that nothing could beat a good jam session, and the Grateful Dead were among the kings when it came to that. Eventually, Clapton said he wanted to see what they could do with him sitting in, saying, “I would have loved to have played with them actually. That would have been great fun, just to pick up some of that vibe that — just to figure it out.”
Even for someone of Clapton’s calibre, though, it’s virtually impossible to figure out every single facet of what makes The Dead work. Their entire appeal comes from each of them jamming and finding some kind of musical communion between themselves in the audience whenever they play, and while Jerry Garcia may have been one of the few people who understood everything, life without him has made it a lot more difficult for fans to decipher what their music is about.
There were consistent rumours for a little while that Clapton would be one of the perfect replacements for Garcia after his death, but he wasn’t looking to replace another legend. It would have been the equivalent of him taking for someone like Jimi Hendrix or Eddie Van Halen, and as much as some fans may have approved, there would have always been people looking over their shoulder wondering why he was trying to fill in for another legend.
That said, Clapton does at least approve of the kind of people that Dead and Company were working with when going around the world later. John Mayer may have seemed like a slightly strange fit for the group, but ‘Slowhand’ was always a great admirer of what the soft-rock crooner could do, even saying that the young guitarist didn’t realise how much power he had behind the fretboard.
However, there’s still time for the remaining members of Dead and Company to work something out with Clapton as the years go by. It’s never going to be the same now that Phil Lesh is gone, but it’s also not impossible to think of Clapton coming into the fold, if only for a nice tribute to the group.
