Top 100 Clapton Quotes
#1. I think guitar-wise, Eric Clapton was a big influence on me. I got to spend time around him. He's kind of strange, mysterious, serious and he always has played such hot guitar.
Dhani Harrison
#2. I had never been allowed to go on tour with my husband George Harrison, so had no idea what to expect when I left him to join Eric Clapton on his 1974 U.S. tour.
Pattie Boyd
#3. I went to London and performed in Eric Clapton's concert at the Royal Albert Hall. I'll work with him any time he asks me.
Carole King
#4. I thought Eric Clapton was good. He still is. Not only is he good - he's rock's #1 guitarist, and he plays blues better than most of us
B.B. King
#5. I used to play quite a good lead guitar, R&B style. Clapton and BB King are heroes.
Philip Kerr
#6. I tended to lean towards the guys who both sang and played, such as Ricky Skaggs, Vince Gill, Steve Wariner ... And at the other end of the spectrum, I had Eric Clapton in a rock and blues sense, jazz guys such as Tal Farlow and Les Paul ... Then Chet Atkins-type stuff.
Brad Paisley
#7. I was very influenced by Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, both of whom I had the pleasure of playing with and becoming friends with.
Mick Taylor
#8. I think Clapton is brilliant. He's the only one who moved me. The only one who made me want to play the guitar.
Eddie Van Halen
#9. My early influences were the Shadows, who were an English instrumental band. They basically got me into playing and later on I got into blues and jazz players. I liked Clapton when he was with John Mayall. I really liked that period.
Tony Iommi
#10. First concert I ever went to was a group called The Yardbirds. Eric Clapton is the lead guitarist.
Ron Barber
#11. When I met Eric Clapton, I was a very young girl. I was 20 years old. And we were linked for a very short time, and then we became friends. And then we lost touch, which I'm really sorry about.
Carla Bruni
#12. I'm no spring chicken. The same arthritis that ate up my left hip that finally got replaced hasn't stopped there ... And touring is a lot of work. I'm impressed when I see people like Eric Clapton out there. Gee whiz, Eric, give me a break! I know it's gotta hurt somewhere.
Steve Perry
#13. The great British blues guitarists of the Sixties - people like Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Peter Green - could play like virtuosos, but they also understood the importance of energy and intensity
Joe Perry
#14. I just wonder where I was when the talent was being given out, like George Benson, Kenny Burrell, Eric Clapton ... oh, there's many more! I wouldn't want to be like them, you understand, but I'd like to be equal, if you will.
B.B. King
#15. If I could do something with Paul McCartney it would be just amazing. Or Eric Clapton.
Jake Shimabukuro
#16. I didn't look up and say, Oh, man, if I learn how to play a guitar I could make not much money, but I'd make a decent living like Eric Clapton or somebody. There wasn't nothing like that out there.
Buddy Guy
#18. Duane Allman inspired the group to explore the extended jam format that was already a staple of the Allman Brothers act. Moreover, his ferocious slide playing motivated Clapton to turn in some of the finest guitar performances of his career
Bob Whitlock
#19. I can never make up my mind if I'm happy being a flute player, or if I wish I were Eric Clapton.
Ian Anderson
#20. I know he played on the last record but I don't wake up in the middle of the night thinking of Eric Clapton.
Jack Bruce
#21. My guitar heroes are Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck and people like that - so I've tried to make an album of Robert Johnson covers that, well, while not totally faithful for blues purists, is faithful for people like me that grew up with the '60s and the electric blues-rock versions of Johnson's songs.
Todd Rundgren
#22. I grew up on a lot of early Beatles, DC5, Cream, Clapton, Page, Beck and Hendrix.
Eddie Van Halen
#23. There are people who are great technical players like Eric Clapton, and there are people who are great intuitive songwriters like Daniel Johnston. There are sometimes people who are great at both the technique and the creativity, the two sides of the coin, maybe Jimi Hendrix.
Jeffrey Lewis
#24. Eric Clapton always wanted to come out onstage with a stuffed parrot on his shoulder.
Neil Innes
#25. There are still many great surviving talents: Stevie Winwood. Another great talent is Stevie Wonder. Another one is Eric Clapton. Another one is Phil Collins. Eminem, Kanye West I like all those people.
Ahmet Ertegun
#26. Lightnin' Hopkins was something of a fixture on the Houston coffee house scene so we were witness to eccentric blues brilliance close up. Then, believe it or not, along came the wave of the English cats like John Mayall, Eric Clapton and the Stones embracing the great American art form - the blues.
Billy Gibbons
#27. In those days, I didn't know how guys like Clapton and Beck were getting that searing blues lead sound, so I developed my style to be rhythmic and chord-based, with simple lead lines that you could almost hum.
John Fogerty
#28. I decided early on that I wanted to be Michael Bloomfield, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton - not George Harrison.
Todd Rundgren
#29. He was older and loved to play Eric Clapton's single "Change the World" on repeat while we snorted cocaine off the side of his pool table with lucky $2 bills.
Christina McDowell
#30. I'm a big fan of songs like Joe Cocker's 'You Are So Beautiful' and Eric Clapton's 'Wonderful Tonight' - songs that go straight to the point.
Bruno Mars
#31. No one's better than me. I'm not better than anyone. Whether it's Eric Clapton or BB King we look straight at each other. And that keeps it real.
Carlos Santana
#32. Punk was sort of an angry stance against things that had happened just before, against the pop of glam rock, against progressive rock. Music had become very staid and it was about the playing and people obsessed. Eric Clapton was God and we needed an enema within the art form, and punk did do that.
Gary Kemp
#33. The Beatles had some juice when it came to distortion, but Clapton was finally able to break through those early studio engineers' fear of overloading. He defined the sound that guitarists spend the rest of their lives trying to get.
Joe Perry
#34. Don't you think women would be happier if Layla had a whole chorus about Eric Clapton watching Patti Boyd trying to climb over a park fence, pissed, in order to retrieve a shoe she threw in there, for a bet?
Caitlin Moran
#35. I've heard the stories. Like, Eric Clapton said he wanted to burn his guitar when he heard Jimi Hendrix play. I never understood that because, when I went and saw a great drummer or heard one, all I wanted to do was practice.
Neil Peart
#36. I love Sutton House in Clapton, a beautiful example of Tudor architecture.
Sharon Horgan
#37. The one thing I do have is good ears. I don't mean perfect pitch, but ears for picking things up. I developed my ear through piano theory, but I never had a guitar lesson in my life, except from Eric Clapton off of records.
Eddie Van Halen
#38. 'My Father's Eyes' is very personal. I realized that the closest I ever came to looking in my father's eyes was when I looked into my son's eyes.
Eric Clapton
#39. I used to do crazy things that people would bail me out of, and I'm just grateful that I survived. But the music got very lost; I didn't know where I was going, and I didn't really care. I was more into just having a good time, and I think it showed.
Eric Clapton
#40. If you hand me a guitar, I'll play the blues. That's the place I automatically go.
Eric Clapton
#41. I know there will be no more tears in heaven.
Eric Clapton
#42. I can't play long solos anymore without boring myself.
Eric Clapton
#43. Loose ladies on the road will drive you crazy, every no, becomes a maybe.
Eric Clapton
#44. Risk is trying to control something you are powerless over.
Eric Clapton
#45. But the guitar, when you think about it, is the most versatile, really. I mean you can pick it up and take it with you wherever you go.
Eric Clapton
#46. The first guitar I ever had was a gut-string Spanish guitar, and I couldn't really get the hang of it. I was only 13, and I talked my grandparents into buying it for me. I tried and tried and tried, but got nowhere with it.
Eric Clapton
#47. It's been very important throughout my career that I've met all the guys I've copied, because at each stage they've said, 'Don't play like me, play like you.'
Eric Clapton
#48. Very much like that, and very much a loner, do you know and I didn't fit really into sport or all kind of group activities as a kid, I couldn't find a niche. And music was not really part of the kind of village curriculum it would, you know.
Eric Clapton
#49. I don't know if I believe in luck. I think I'm very fortunate.
Eric Clapton
#50. Having lovers and friends is all good and fine But I don't like yours and you don't like mine.
Eric Clapton
#51. All along this path I tread, my heart betrays my weary head, with nothing but my love to save, from the cradle to the grave ...
Eric Clapton
#52. You were at school and you were pimply and no one wanted to know you. You get into a group and you've got thousands of chicks there.
Eric Clapton
#53. And if I don't be there by morning, she'll know that I must've spent the night in jail.
Eric Clapton
#54. In my lowest moments, the only reason I didn't commit suicide was that I knew I wouldn't be able to drink any more if I was dead.
Eric Clapton
#55. My dedication to my music has driven everyone away. I've had girlfriends, but I always end up on my own. I don't particularly like it, but I don't see a way 'round it.
Eric Clapton
#56. I've got the god given talent or the god given opportunity better put, to let that out in a harmless way you know, and I don't know what it does to you, I don't really know.
Eric Clapton
#57. I thought, 'My God, this is like Buddy Guy on acid.'
Eric Clapton
#58. My driving philosophy about making music is that you can reduce it all down to one note if that note is played with the right kind of sincerity.
Eric Clapton
#59. A British pressing with a compilation of the best stuff really, I mean actually not only that but, these were all kind of semi hits for the people on it in America.
Eric Clapton
#60. And I don't like having my picture taken. I'm almost like an old African in that sense. I think it steals a bit of the soul.
Eric Clapton
#61. It sounds strange for me to be saying this, but I've come around to the idea that sex really is for procreation.
Eric Clapton
#62. So there I was in Hollywood, thinking I was doing good.
Eric Clapton
#63. When you're onstage with an electric band going through a massive P.A. system, it's very artificial. You can't really hear your own voice as it comes out of your mouth.
Eric Clapton
#64. I just like the company of beautiful women. I have a weakness in that department.
Eric Clapton
#65. The first band I identified with from Chicago was the Muddy Waters band.
Eric Clapton
#66. Let it grow, let it grow,
Let it blossom let it flow.
In the sun, the rain, the snow,
Love is lovely, let it grow.
Eric Clapton
#67. I always respected that B.B. sees music in a very open, free way.
Eric Clapton
#68. Music survives everything, and like God, it is always present. It needs no help, and suffers no hindrance.
Eric Clapton
#69. Whatever your standing in life, the most important thing is behaving in ways that help other people. It's the same with music. I am a servant of the music ... and if I get caught up in ego, I'll lose everything .. it'll burn and that's a guarantee ...
Eric Clapton
#70. The music scene as I look at it today is a little different from when I was growing up. The percentages are roughly the same - 95 percent rubbish, 5 percent pure.
Eric Clapton
#71. I did play a lot of fingerstyle when I first started playing. I could never really find the right combination of flatpick or fingerpick, so playing fingerstyle is really the easiest way - though it's quite strenuous on the fingertips.
Eric Clapton
#72. I found my God in music and the arts, with writers like Hermann Hesse, and musicians like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Little Walter. In some way, in some form, my God was always there, but now I have learned to talk to him.
Eric Clapton
#73. I feel wonderful because I see the love light in your eyes, and the wonder of it all is you just don't realize how much I love you.
Eric Clapton
#74. All I am certain of right now is that I don't want to go anywhere, and that's not bad for someone who always used to run.
Eric Clapton
#75. For me there is something primitively soothing about this music, and it went straight to my nervous system, making me feel ten feet tall.
Eric Clapton
#76. Up until I became a father, it was all about self-obsession. But then I learned exactly what it's all about: the delight of being a servant.
Eric Clapton
#77. Like a fool, I fell in love with you, Turned my whole world upside down
Eric Clapton
#78. For me, the most trustworthy vehicle for spirituality had always proven to be music.
Eric Clapton
#79. Yeah, it is, because it's a real discovery of your inner resources, you know. That's what my character is all about and what my playing is all about. But to get up there and just go inside and draw out something that makes you feel good first and foremost.
Eric Clapton
#80. I listened to King Oliver and I listened to Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Archie Shepp ... I listened to everything I could that came from that place that they call the blues but, in formality, isn't necessarily the blues.
Eric Clapton
#82. This moment in time, on this tour, you know, I'm discovering a lot of new things. And to be 45 and doing that, it's a mixture of pleasure and pain, I can assure you.
Eric Clapton
#83. Time can bring you down, time can bend your knees.
Eric Clapton
#84. It's very dependent on your state of mind. And your emotional state as well. And a lot of it comes pouring out, you don't really have that much control with it.
Eric Clapton
#85. When all the original blues guys are gone, you start to realize that someone has to tend to the tradition. I recognize that I have some responsibility to keep the music alive, and it's a pretty honorable position to be in.
Eric Clapton
#86. There are people these days who can do things on the guitar which are beyond my reach. There's one guy who plays with Queen who can do things I would dream of doing. I sincerely mean that.
Eric Clapton
#88. I often enjoy singing in an acoustic setting more than an amplified one.
Eric Clapton
#89. An obsession is where something will not leave your mind.
Eric Clapton
#90. But I did go to music really early on, even when I was 4 or 5, I was responding to music probably in ways other kids were not.
Eric Clapton
#91. I mean, the sound of an amplified guitar in a room full of people was so hypnotic and addictive to me, that I could cross any kind of border to get on there.
Eric Clapton
#92. Given the choice between accomplishing something and just lying around, I'd rather lie around. No contest.
Eric Clapton
#93. Music will always find its way to us, with or without business, politics, religion, or any other bullshit attached.
Eric Clapton
#94. It is painful to relive things that have caused emotional crises or whatever and find ways to express that musically.
Eric Clapton
#95. One summer I remember, I got exposed to Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly and Buddy Holly was a very very big, made a very big impression on me. Because of a lot of things, you know, the way he looked and his charisma.
Eric Clapton
#96. It was stumbling on to really the bible of the blues, you know, and a very powerful drug to be introduced to us and I absorbed it totally, and it changed my complete outlook on music.
Eric Clapton
#97. My selective memory of what drinking was like told me that standing at the bar in a pub, on a summer's evening with a long, tall glass of lager and lime was heaven, and I chose not to remember the nights on which I had sat with a bottle of vodka, a gram of coke and a shotgun, contemplating suicide.
Eric Clapton
#98. Our love will rule in this kingdom we have made.
Eric Clapton
#99. I never met Johnny Rotten, and I didn't want to meet Johnny Rotten.
Eric Clapton
#100. I never set myself too high a goal. It was always tone and feeling, for me.
Eric Clapton
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