Eric Clapton Quotes

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Eric Clapton

Profession : Musician

Birth : March 30, 1945

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

I'd love to knock an audience cold with one note, but what do you do for the rest of the evening?

Eric Clapton

From the beginning, I knew intuitively that if nothing else, music was safe, and that nobody could tell me anything about it. Music didn't need a middleman, whereas all the other things in school needed some kind of explanation.

Eric Clapton

The toughest thing about being a celebrity, I suppose, is being polite when I don't want to be.

Eric Clapton

I don't know if I believe in luck. I think I'm very fortunate.

Eric Clapton

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

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

I just like the company of beautiful women. I have a weakness in that department. And I suppose because I am fairly well off and a famous musician, I'm up for grabs. And that makes me an eligible bachelor in the press.

Eric Clapton

I remember when I thought of singing as the bit that went between the guitar playing - something I couldn't wait to get out of the way. Singing was originally like a chore that I didn't really enjoy.

Eric Clapton

I feel a real need to observe a level of propriety in what I'm handing out. Instead of me just venting or spilling my guts, I've got to consider how it's going to affect people. How it's going to affect me, as well. Because it's like a cycle.

Eric Clapton

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

I remember hearing Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Big Bill Broonzy, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley and not really knowing anything about the geography or the culture of the music. But for some reason it did something to me - it resonated.

Eric Clapton

I grew up playing in clubs - that's my spiritual stomping ground.

Eric Clapton

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

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

In playing, I suppose my greatest gift was to express the way I felt or the willingness to express myself.

Eric Clapton

There's a desire in me to express something - to match what I hear in my head.

Eric Clapton

To sing in a lower key is harder work. You have to use your diaphragm more.

Eric Clapton

The first band I identified with from Chicago was the Muddy Waters band.

Eric Clapton

I never met Johnny Rotten, and I didn't want to meet Johnny Rotten.

Eric Clapton