WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.600 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are tuning 00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:06.620 our amplifiers, checking our cables, and turning 00:00:06.620 --> 00:00:09.240 the volume all the way up. We're looking at a 00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:12.300 figure who is practically synonymous with the 00:00:12.300 --> 00:00:15.000 electric guitar. He is the electric guitar for 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:17.399 so many people. A man often called Slow Hand. 00:00:17.640 --> 00:00:20.719 And for a brief, pretty feverish period in the 00:00:20.719 --> 00:00:24.600 1960s, he was called something, well, something 00:00:24.600 --> 00:00:27.260 even more intense. God. The graffiti literally 00:00:27.260 --> 00:00:30.339 said, Clapton is God. That's right. We are talking 00:00:30.339 --> 00:00:32.859 about Eric Clapton. But here's the thing, and 00:00:32.859 --> 00:00:34.439 this is why I was so excited to dig into these 00:00:34.439 --> 00:00:37.439 sources. If you only know the classic rock radio 00:00:37.439 --> 00:00:40.320 eights, you only know, what, maybe 10 % of the 00:00:40.320 --> 00:00:43.000 story? Oh, absolutely. 10 % is generous. The 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:45.520 stack of research we have today, it paints a 00:00:45.520 --> 00:00:47.539 picture that's so much more complex. It's often 00:00:47.539 --> 00:00:50.420 incredibly tragic. And frankly, at times, it's 00:00:50.420 --> 00:00:53.060 deeply, deeply controversial. It really is. We're 00:00:53.060 --> 00:00:55.240 going to look at the man who is the only three 00:00:55.240 --> 00:00:57.740 -time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:00.700 We've got... biographical breakdowns, deep dives 00:01:00.700 --> 00:01:03.200 into his specific gear. And yes, don't worry, 00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:05.180 we will talk about the guitars and amps. We have 00:01:05.180 --> 00:01:08.260 to. And we've got records of public controversies 00:01:08.260 --> 00:01:10.760 that, well, they haunt his legacy to this very 00:01:10.760 --> 00:01:12.959 day. So I guess the question is, where do we 00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:16.060 even begin with a life this massive? I think 00:01:16.060 --> 00:01:17.500 you have to start at the beginning. You have 00:01:17.500 --> 00:01:19.609 to start with the foundational lie. The lie. 00:01:19.810 --> 00:01:21.709 Okay, this blew my mind when I first read about 00:01:21.709 --> 00:01:23.349 it. We're talking about his childhood in Surrey, 00:01:23.370 --> 00:01:26.290 right? Right. He was born in 1945. Yeah. And 00:01:26.290 --> 00:01:28.390 Eric grows up believing that his grandparents, 00:01:28.829 --> 00:01:32.930 Rose and Jack, are his parents. And he has this 00:01:32.930 --> 00:01:35.310 person he thinks is his older sister, Patricia. 00:01:35.829 --> 00:01:38.730 But she wasn't his sister. No, she was his mother. 00:01:39.370 --> 00:01:42.280 Patricia was only 16 when she had him. His grandparents 00:01:42.280 --> 00:01:44.200 were raising him as their own to protect the 00:01:44.200 --> 00:01:47.200 family from the scandal of it all back then. 00:01:47.340 --> 00:01:49.299 And his father, who was his father? A Canadian 00:01:49.299 --> 00:01:51.420 soldier named Edward Fryer. He was stationed 00:01:51.420 --> 00:01:54.099 in England during the war, got drafted and shipped 00:01:54.099 --> 00:01:56.560 out before Eric was even born, and then just 00:01:56.560 --> 00:01:59.260 went back to Canada. Did he ever know he had 00:01:59.260 --> 00:02:02.000 a son? He never knew. The soldiers say he was 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:04.620 a bit of a drifter. A musician himself actually 00:02:04.620 --> 00:02:07.700 played piano and saxophone. But he died in 1985, 00:02:07.959 --> 00:02:11.120 never knowing he was Eric Clapton's father. Eric 00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:13.300 didn't find out the truth about any of this for 00:02:13.300 --> 00:02:16.659 years. Not until he was nine years old. His mother, 00:02:16.819 --> 00:02:19.259 Patricia, came back to visit with his new half 00:02:19.259 --> 00:02:21.300 -brother. And that's when the truth came out. 00:02:21.379 --> 00:02:23.759 I just, I can't imagine the psychological weight 00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:27.159 of that. You're a nine -year -old kid, and your 00:02:27.159 --> 00:02:29.340 entire family structure, the very foundation 00:02:29.340 --> 00:02:31.759 of who you are, it just dissolves in an instant. 00:02:31.900 --> 00:02:34.060 Your sisters, your mother, your parents, or your 00:02:34.060 --> 00:02:36.780 grandparents. It creates this profound sense 00:02:36.780 --> 00:02:39.530 of isolation. He talks about feeling like an 00:02:39.530 --> 00:02:42.270 outsider in his own home. And I think that really, 00:02:42.270 --> 00:02:44.610 I mean, really drove him toward the blues. The 00:02:44.610 --> 00:02:47.129 blues is music about pain, about being an outsider. 00:02:47.310 --> 00:02:49.110 It was a perfect fit for what he was feeling. 00:02:49.210 --> 00:02:51.430 So that's the emotional route. And then he finds 00:02:51.430 --> 00:02:54.110 the tool for expressing it pretty early on. He 00:02:54.110 --> 00:02:57.189 gets a Hoyer acoustic guitar for his 13th birthday. 00:02:57.409 --> 00:02:59.810 He does. And he almost gave up on it immediately. 00:03:00.539 --> 00:03:02.639 Yeah, it was a cheap steel string German guitar. 00:03:03.379 --> 00:03:05.379 Very, very difficult to play. The action was 00:03:05.379 --> 00:03:07.620 high. It hurt his fingers. So he put it down 00:03:07.620 --> 00:03:10.719 for two years. So what brought him back to it? 00:03:11.050 --> 00:03:14.150 Just persistence. At 15, he picked it up again. 00:03:14.330 --> 00:03:16.550 And this is where you really see that obsessive, 00:03:16.550 --> 00:03:19.189 almost scholarly personality kick in. He wasn't 00:03:19.189 --> 00:03:20.930 just noodling around. Right, the methodology. 00:03:20.930 --> 00:03:23.289 This wasn't just strumming campfire songs. Not 00:03:23.289 --> 00:03:25.650 at all. He had a portable Grundig reel -to -reel 00:03:25.650 --> 00:03:27.710 tape recorder. And what he would do was listen 00:03:27.710 --> 00:03:29.909 to these old blues records, Muddy Waters, Big 00:03:29.909 --> 00:03:32.370 Bill Brunzi, Robert Johnson, and he would record 00:03:32.370 --> 00:03:34.860 himself playing along to them. So he could hear 00:03:34.860 --> 00:03:37.580 his mistakes. Exactly. He'd listen back to the 00:03:37.580 --> 00:03:40.639 tape, hear where he was going wrong, rewind it 00:03:40.639 --> 00:03:43.879 and do it again and again and again for hours 00:03:43.879 --> 00:03:46.580 until he was satisfied. He was trying to clone 00:03:46.580 --> 00:03:49.860 the sound, the feel, the very soul of those old 00:03:49.860 --> 00:03:52.240 Chicago and Delta bluesmen. That discipline, 00:03:52.360 --> 00:03:55.039 I mean, it paid off incredibly fast. By 1963, 00:03:55.379 --> 00:03:57.960 he joins the Yardbirds. And this is really the 00:03:57.960 --> 00:04:00.900 first time the wider world hears the name Eric 00:04:00.900 --> 00:04:03.370 Clapton. But it's also the first time we see 00:04:03.370 --> 00:04:07.169 his, let's call it artistic stubbornness, his 00:04:07.169 --> 00:04:09.949 purism. The blues purist era, that's a good way 00:04:09.949 --> 00:04:12.129 to put it. The Yardbirds started out playing 00:04:12.129 --> 00:04:15.009 covers of American blues artists like Chess and 00:04:15.009 --> 00:04:17.529 Checker, which was right up his alley. He loved 00:04:17.529 --> 00:04:20.129 it. But then the band's management started pushing 00:04:20.129 --> 00:04:23.689 for a hit, for commercial success. And they got 00:04:23.689 --> 00:04:26.449 one, a song called For Your Love. Which is a 00:04:26.449 --> 00:04:28.889 great song. It's catchy. It's got that harpsichord. 00:04:29.170 --> 00:04:31.410 It's a fantastic pop song. But that's the point. 00:04:31.800 --> 00:04:34.000 It is a pop song. It was written by Graham Goldman, 00:04:34.120 --> 00:04:36.819 who later formed 10CC. He was a professional 00:04:36.819 --> 00:04:39.800 pop songwriter. To Clapton, this was the ultimate 00:04:39.800 --> 00:04:42.459 sin. He felt they were selling out. Completely. 00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:45.639 Moving away from the raw, authentic blues toward, 00:04:45.779 --> 00:04:48.680 you know, commercial pop. He hated it. He refused 00:04:48.680 --> 00:04:50.680 to even play on the track, other than the middle 00:04:50.680 --> 00:04:52.779 bridge section. So what does he do when it becomes 00:04:52.779 --> 00:04:56.000 a hit? He quits. On the very day the single is 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:58.660 released. Think about that. Your band has its 00:04:58.660 --> 00:05:01.550 first huge hit, and you walk away. That's making 00:05:01.550 --> 00:05:03.810 a statement. That is a serious commitment to 00:05:03.810 --> 00:05:06.389 your principles. But before he left, he did the 00:05:06.389 --> 00:05:08.990 band a massive favor. They obviously needed a 00:05:08.990 --> 00:05:11.670 replacement, and Clapton suggested his friend, 00:05:11.829 --> 00:05:15.269 a young session guitarist named Jimmy Page. Who 00:05:15.269 --> 00:05:17.879 declined the offer, right? He did, yeah. Out 00:05:17.879 --> 00:05:19.600 of loyalty to Eric, he didn't want to take his 00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:21.939 friend's gig. So Page turned around and recommended 00:05:21.939 --> 00:05:25.060 his own friend, Jeff Beck. That is just an unbelievable 00:05:25.060 --> 00:05:28.600 lineage of guitarists for one band. You trade 00:05:28.600 --> 00:05:30.800 Clapton for Beck and then a little later you 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:33.060 get Page in there anyway alongside Beck. That's 00:05:33.060 --> 00:05:35.519 staggering. But Clapton moves on. He needs a 00:05:35.519 --> 00:05:40.100 home that's more musically pure for him. And 00:05:40.100 --> 00:05:42.279 he finds it with John Mayall and the Blues Breakers. 00:05:42.720 --> 00:05:44.720 Okay, so this is where the legend really starts 00:05:44.720 --> 00:05:48.300 to solidify. The God era is dawning. This is 00:05:48.300 --> 00:05:52.139 it. And a huge part of it is the gear. He swaps 00:05:52.139 --> 00:05:54.160 out his equipment here, which is just crucial 00:05:54.160 --> 00:05:56.699 to the story. He moves from a Fender Telecaster 00:05:56.699 --> 00:06:00.139 to a 1960 Gibson Les Paul Standard. The famous 00:06:00.139 --> 00:06:02.699 Beano guitar. That's the one. And he plugs it 00:06:02.699 --> 00:06:06.139 into a Marshall JTM -45 amplifier. Yeah. And 00:06:06.139 --> 00:06:08.120 that combination, the humbucking pickups of the 00:06:08.120 --> 00:06:09.720 Les Paul, pushed through a cranked -up Marshall. 00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:12.180 They created this thick, distorted, sustaining 00:06:12.180 --> 00:06:14.100 sound that nobody in Britain had really heard 00:06:14.100 --> 00:06:16.540 before. That became the sound of British blues 00:06:16.540 --> 00:06:18.759 rock. And this is the era of the Beano album. 00:06:18.879 --> 00:06:21.019 Why is it called that? Well, the album is officially 00:06:21.019 --> 00:06:24.439 titled Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton. But 00:06:24.439 --> 00:06:26.579 everyone calls it the Beano album because on 00:06:26.579 --> 00:06:29.600 the cover. Clapton is just sitting there casually 00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:32.000 reading a copy of The Beano, which is a popular 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:35.240 kids comic book in the UK. He looks totally disinterested 00:06:35.240 --> 00:06:37.259 in the photo shoot. Exactly. It's like he's saying, 00:06:37.319 --> 00:06:39.180 this is just another day at the office. I'm so 00:06:39.180 --> 00:06:40.699 cool. I'm just going to read my comic. Yeah. 00:06:40.779 --> 00:06:43.240 It was the epitome of effortless cool. Cool. 00:06:43.379 --> 00:06:45.319 And while he's playing in these London clubs, 00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:49.079 his reputation just hits a fever pitch. This 00:06:49.079 --> 00:06:51.839 is when the graffiti shows up. This is it. Islington, 00:06:52.040 --> 00:06:56.360 North London, 1967. An unknown admirer, a fan, 00:06:56.579 --> 00:07:00.040 spray paints Clapton is God on a wall. There's 00:07:00.040 --> 00:07:02.319 that famous photograph of the graffiti, isn't 00:07:02.319 --> 00:07:05.019 there? There is. A photographer named John Varley 00:07:05.019 --> 00:07:07.259 captured it. And in the photo, there's a dog. 00:07:07.759 --> 00:07:10.699 Well, a dog urinating on the wall right next 00:07:10.699 --> 00:07:13.339 to the words. Which feels like a perfect, if 00:07:13.339 --> 00:07:15.779 accidental, metaphor for the nature of fame. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:18.980 It really does. And for his part, Clapton was 00:07:18.980 --> 00:07:21.870 apparently mortified by it. He later said he 00:07:21.870 --> 00:07:23.550 was embarrassed. He wanted to be the greatest, 00:07:23.629 --> 00:07:27.910 sure, but he knew he wasn't God. But the slogan 00:07:27.910 --> 00:07:31.449 stuck. It created this mythic persona around 00:07:31.449 --> 00:07:34.069 him. And that persona set the stage for his next 00:07:34.069 --> 00:07:36.529 move, which was, I mean, it was huge. The formation 00:07:36.529 --> 00:07:38.709 of Cream. The first ever super group. Right. 00:07:38.790 --> 00:07:41.050 You have Ginger Baker from the Graham Bond organization 00:07:41.050 --> 00:07:44.350 on drums, a monster of a player. And a monster 00:07:44.350 --> 00:07:47.310 of a personality. Then you have Jack Bruce, also 00:07:47.310 --> 00:07:50.569 from Graham Bond, on bass and lead vocals. another 00:07:50.569 --> 00:07:53.430 absolute virtuoso and then clapton on guitar 00:07:53.430 --> 00:07:56.290 a power trio they took the blues cranked the 00:07:56.290 --> 00:08:00.470 volume to 11 and injected this this arty psychedelic 00:08:00.470 --> 00:08:03.129 pop sensibility into it songs like strange brew 00:08:03.129 --> 00:08:06.089 and sunshine of your love they're just on another 00:08:06.089 --> 00:08:09.430 level the sheer volume and improvisational firepower 00:08:09.430 --> 00:08:11.879 of that band was unheard of We have to talk about 00:08:11.879 --> 00:08:13.819 the woman tone. This is a term that gets thrown 00:08:13.819 --> 00:08:15.779 around all the time with Clapton's Cream era. 00:08:15.879 --> 00:08:18.060 Can you break down what it actually was? Yeah, 00:08:18.079 --> 00:08:20.279 it was a very specific sound he chased and perfected. 00:08:20.899 --> 00:08:23.579 He was primarily using his Gibson SG at this 00:08:23.579 --> 00:08:26.279 point, the famous one painted with psychedelic 00:08:26.279 --> 00:08:29.379 art known as The Fool. That's an iconic guitar. 00:08:29.759 --> 00:08:31.959 It is. He would plug it into a Marshall stack, 00:08:32.220 --> 00:08:34.779 turn the volume on the guitar all the way up, 00:08:34.779 --> 00:08:37.279 but roll the tone control knob all the way down. 00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:39.759 This filters out the high -end treble frequencies. 00:08:40.019 --> 00:08:42.100 So it's not a sharp... biting sound. Exactly. 00:08:42.639 --> 00:08:46.299 It creates this thick, piercing, but also creamy 00:08:46.299 --> 00:08:49.480 and smooth sound. It's not harsh. It sounds almost 00:08:49.480 --> 00:08:51.700 like a human voice singing or like a violin. 00:08:51.919 --> 00:08:54.220 It's very vocal -like. Sunshine of Your Love 00:08:54.220 --> 00:08:56.200 is probably the most famous example of that sound, 00:08:56.240 --> 00:08:58.779 right? That main riff. That is the definitive 00:08:58.779 --> 00:09:02.159 woman tone riff. But even as Cream is basically 00:09:02.159 --> 00:09:04.460 conquering the world, Clacton is having a bit 00:09:04.460 --> 00:09:07.220 of a crisis of confidence. And that crisis came 00:09:07.220 --> 00:09:09.460 in the form of an American guitarist named Jimi 00:09:09.460 --> 00:09:11.860 Hendrix. The arrival of Hendrix in London in 00:09:11.860 --> 00:09:14.299 66 seems like it was an earthquake for the entire 00:09:14.299 --> 00:09:17.200 music scene. It terrified them. All of them. 00:09:17.259 --> 00:09:20.899 Pete Townshend, Jeff Beck, Clapton. Hendrix came 00:09:20.899 --> 00:09:23.259 in and was doing things with feedback, the whammy 00:09:23.259 --> 00:09:26.720 bar, effects pedals, things nobody had ever seen 00:09:26.720 --> 00:09:29.700 or heard before. He was a force of nature. There's 00:09:29.700 --> 00:09:31.779 that legendary story of Hendrix sitting in with 00:09:31.779 --> 00:09:34.259 cream. Yes, at the Regent Street Polytechnic. 00:09:34.460 --> 00:09:36.559 Hendrix gets up on stage with him and just... 00:09:37.100 --> 00:09:40.320 into a version of Howlin' Wolf's Killing Floor. 00:09:40.340 --> 00:09:42.559 Yeah. And he played it with such ferocity and 00:09:42.559 --> 00:09:44.980 showmanship. Clapton was reportedly standing 00:09:44.980 --> 00:09:47.240 there just slack -jawed. He said later his hands 00:09:47.240 --> 00:09:49.259 felt like they couldn't even move. He suddenly 00:09:49.259 --> 00:09:51.960 wasn't the only god in town anymore. And the 00:09:51.960 --> 00:09:54.480 band itself, Cream, was notoriously volatile. 00:09:54.779 --> 00:09:57.379 Oh, extremely. Baker and Bruce famously hated 00:09:57.379 --> 00:09:59.320 each other. They would have these epic fights 00:09:59.320 --> 00:10:01.700 on stage trying to outplay and outvolume each 00:10:01.700 --> 00:10:04.360 other. It was musically brilliant, but... personally 00:10:04.360 --> 00:10:05.980 destructive. And then there was the critical 00:10:05.980 --> 00:10:08.139 backlash. This was a turning point for Clapton. 00:10:08.240 --> 00:10:10.460 A review in Rolling Stone magazine came out, 00:10:10.500 --> 00:10:12.779 and the writer John Landau essentially called 00:10:12.779 --> 00:10:15.740 their live show boring. He criticized the endless, 00:10:15.919 --> 00:10:19.440 self -indulgent, virtuoso soloing. And Clapton 00:10:19.440 --> 00:10:22.100 read that review. He did, and it devastated him. 00:10:22.200 --> 00:10:25.679 Because deep down, he agreed with it. He was 00:10:25.679 --> 00:10:28.179 getting tired of the Guitar Hero arms race. He 00:10:28.179 --> 00:10:30.789 agreed with the negative review. He did. Around 00:10:30.789 --> 00:10:33.669 the same time, he heard music from Big Pink by 00:10:33.669 --> 00:10:36.450 the band. And that album just changed his whole 00:10:36.450 --> 00:10:39.570 perspective. How so? He heard that rootsy Americana 00:10:39.570 --> 00:10:42.690 sound, the focus on the song, the ensemble playing, 00:10:42.830 --> 00:10:46.210 the harmony vocals, the lack of ego. And he decided 00:10:46.210 --> 00:10:48.470 he wanted out of the guitar hero business. He 00:10:48.470 --> 00:10:51.269 wanted to be a songwriter, a singer, part of 00:10:51.269 --> 00:10:54.370 a real band, not a circus act. So Cream breaks 00:10:54.370 --> 00:10:56.789 up at the height of their fame, and he tries 00:10:56.789 --> 00:11:00.080 to disappear into a new band. Derek and the Dominoes. 00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:02.039 The name itself was an accident, wasn't it? Total 00:11:02.039 --> 00:11:04.279 accident. It was supposed to be Del and the Dominoes. 00:11:04.700 --> 00:11:07.139 Del was a nickname for Clapton from his friend 00:11:07.139 --> 00:11:09.899 Delaney Bramlett. But the announcer at their 00:11:09.899 --> 00:11:12.320 first gig got it wrong, introduced them as Derek 00:11:12.320 --> 00:11:15.059 and the Dominoes, and it just stuck. But the 00:11:15.059 --> 00:11:17.919 intent was clear. Anonymity. He didn't want to 00:11:17.919 --> 00:11:20.580 be the star. He wanted to be a sideman in his 00:11:20.580 --> 00:11:22.840 own band. Right. But you can't really hide when 00:11:22.840 --> 00:11:24.799 you're Eric Clapton. And you certainly can't 00:11:24.799 --> 00:11:26.940 hide when you release an album like Lila and 00:11:26.940 --> 00:11:29.000 other assorted love songs. Which is arguably 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:32.360 his masterpiece. And it is just drenched in personal 00:11:32.360 --> 00:11:36.220 drama. It is pure, raw, unrequited love and pain 00:11:36.220 --> 00:11:38.980 pressed onto vinyl. The whole album was fueled 00:11:38.980 --> 00:11:42.279 by one thing. Clacton had fallen desperately 00:11:42.279 --> 00:11:44.259 in love with Patti Boyd. Who just happened to 00:11:44.259 --> 00:11:46.139 be the wife of his best friend, George Harrison. 00:11:46.379 --> 00:11:48.919 The ultimate forbidden love triangle. He was 00:11:48.919 --> 00:11:51.340 writing her letters, calling her completely obsessed. 00:11:51.580 --> 00:11:53.899 A friend gave him a copy of the Persian story, 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:56.759 the story of Lila and Majnun, which is about 00:11:56.759 --> 00:11:59.679 a man who goes literally mad because he can't 00:11:59.679 --> 00:12:01.960 marry the woman he loves. And he saw himself 00:12:01.960 --> 00:12:05.539 in that story? He saw himself as Majnun and Patti 00:12:05.539 --> 00:12:08.120 was his Lila. That's what fueled every single 00:12:08.120 --> 00:12:11.000 song on that album. And musically, he had a secret 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:13.620 weapon, a partner in crime on this record. Oh, 00:12:13.639 --> 00:12:15.320 you cannot tell the story of the Layla album 00:12:15.320 --> 00:12:17.899 without talking about Dwayne Allman. Slide guitarist 00:12:17.899 --> 00:12:21.059 from the Allman Brothers band. Yeah. Their producer, 00:12:21.139 --> 00:12:23.559 Tom Dowd, was also working with the Allman Brothers. 00:12:23.980 --> 00:12:26.299 He played some of the early Dominoes tracks for 00:12:26.299 --> 00:12:29.519 Dwayne, and Dwayne was blown away. By chance, 00:12:29.600 --> 00:12:31.419 the Allmans were playing a show in Miami where 00:12:31.419 --> 00:12:33.799 the Dominoes were recording. And they met. They 00:12:33.799 --> 00:12:35.940 met, and it was instant chemistry. They stayed 00:12:35.940 --> 00:12:38.779 up all night just jamming, trading guitar licks. 00:12:39.299 --> 00:12:41.320 Clapton invited Dwayne to the studio the next 00:12:41.320 --> 00:12:43.399 day, and he ended up playing on most of the album. 00:12:43.600 --> 00:12:47.120 That high, weeping, bird call slide guitar you 00:12:47.120 --> 00:12:50.159 hear on the song Layla, that's Dwayne. That's 00:12:50.159 --> 00:12:53.120 all Dwayne Ullman. He pushed Clapton and the 00:12:53.120 --> 00:12:55.179 band to a level they just would not have reached 00:12:55.179 --> 00:12:57.899 otherwise. It was a... perfect fiery collaboration. 00:12:58.320 --> 00:13:00.500 But the tragedy that seems to follow Clapton 00:13:00.500 --> 00:13:02.700 around is just relentless. The album comes out 00:13:02.700 --> 00:13:06.360 in late 1970 and initially it flops. It was a 00:13:06.360 --> 00:13:08.580 commercial failure. It was a double album. No 00:13:08.580 --> 00:13:10.779 picture of Clapton on the cover. The band name 00:13:10.779 --> 00:13:13.279 was unknown. People just didn't get it. And this 00:13:13.279 --> 00:13:15.139 rejection on top of the rejection from Patty 00:13:15.139 --> 00:13:17.679 Boyd it's in him spiraling. And then the people 00:13:17.679 --> 00:13:20.259 around him start to die. It's just awful. In 00:13:20.259 --> 00:13:23.039 September 1970 just before the album is released 00:13:23.039 --> 00:13:26.210 Jimi Hendrix dies. Clapton had just bought him 00:13:26.210 --> 00:13:28.870 a left -handed Stratocaster as a gift that he 00:13:28.870 --> 00:13:31.990 never got to give him. Then, a year later, in 00:13:31.990 --> 00:13:35.450 October 1971, Dwayne Allman is killed in a motorcycle 00:13:35.450 --> 00:13:37.789 accident. It's just too much loss in such a short 00:13:37.789 --> 00:13:40.490 time. It completely broke him. Clapton withdrew 00:13:40.490 --> 00:13:43.669 into total isolation in his Surrey estate, Hurtwood 00:13:43.669 --> 00:13:47.230 Edge. He spent the next two, three years in a 00:13:47.230 --> 00:13:49.769 deep haze of heroin addiction. He barely played. 00:13:50.110 --> 00:13:52.490 He didn't. He sold his guitars to buy drugs. 00:13:52.690 --> 00:13:55.210 He famously passed out on stage at George Harrison's 00:13:55.210 --> 00:13:58.129 concert for Bangladesh. He was a recluse. Everyone 00:13:58.129 --> 00:14:00.389 thought his career was over. It took Pete Townsend 00:14:00.389 --> 00:14:02.190 from The Who to pull him out of it, right? Yeah, 00:14:02.250 --> 00:14:04.309 Townsend was horrified by what had happened to 00:14:04.309 --> 00:14:06.929 his friend. So he organized the Rainbow concert 00:14:06.929 --> 00:14:10.070 in 1973. He basically forced Clapton to get a 00:14:10.070 --> 00:14:12.450 band together and get back on stage, hoping it 00:14:12.450 --> 00:14:14.789 would reignite the spark. And did it work? It 00:14:14.789 --> 00:14:16.470 worked to an extent. It got him playing again. 00:14:16.649 --> 00:14:19.039 It helped him get off heroin. But as we know 00:14:19.039 --> 00:14:21.519 all too well, addiction is a shapeshifter. He 00:14:21.519 --> 00:14:23.980 traded one addiction for another. Exactly. He 00:14:23.980 --> 00:14:27.159 traded heroin for alcohol. And this really leads 00:14:27.159 --> 00:14:30.460 us into his solo career era, which is a massive 00:14:30.460 --> 00:14:33.100 shift in his sound, his image, everything. This 00:14:33.100 --> 00:14:37.870 is the 461 Ocean Boulevard era. 1974 a very different 00:14:37.870 --> 00:14:40.470 sounding eric clapton totally different he's 00:14:40.470 --> 00:14:43.049 in miami he's sober from heroin and he moves 00:14:43.049 --> 00:14:45.750 away from the extended blues rock solos the songs 00:14:45.750 --> 00:14:48.590 get shorter tighter more laid back more song 00:14:48.590 --> 00:14:51.129 focused and he has a massive hit with a cover 00:14:51.129 --> 00:14:53.649 of a bob marley song i shot the sheriff yeah 00:14:53.649 --> 00:14:56.519 it went to number one in the u .s and This was 00:14:56.519 --> 00:14:59.539 huge. It wasn't just a hit for Clapton for a 00:14:59.539 --> 00:15:01.840 lot of white America. This was their first real 00:15:01.840 --> 00:15:04.320 introduction to Bob Marley and to reggae music. 00:15:04.559 --> 00:15:07.059 He really helped break reggae to a mass audience. 00:15:07.240 --> 00:15:09.279 He absolutely did. And you have to notice the 00:15:09.279 --> 00:15:11.000 gear shift here, too. This is just as important. 00:15:11.120 --> 00:15:12.820 He's not playing the Gibsons as much anymore. 00:15:13.019 --> 00:15:16.080 He switches to the Fender Stratocaster. The era 00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:18.720 of Blackie begins. Tell us about Blackie. It's 00:15:18.720 --> 00:15:21.360 one of the most famous guitars in rock history. 00:15:21.850 --> 00:15:24.629 It's a fascinating story. In 1970, he walked 00:15:24.629 --> 00:15:27.169 into a shop in Nashville, Showbud, and they had 00:15:27.169 --> 00:15:30.669 a bunch of old, unpopular 1950s Stratocasters 00:15:30.669 --> 00:15:33.549 for sale for a bargain price, like $100 each. 00:15:33.809 --> 00:15:36.909 $100, wow. You bought six of them. He gave one 00:15:36.909 --> 00:15:39.429 to George Harrison. one to Steve Wynwood, and 00:15:39.429 --> 00:15:42.090 one to Pete Townsend. And he took the best parts 00:15:42.090 --> 00:15:43.990 of the remaining three, the best body from one, 00:15:44.049 --> 00:15:45.850 the best neck from another, the best pickups 00:15:45.850 --> 00:15:48.330 from the third, and he had a luthier assemble 00:15:48.330 --> 00:15:50.850 them into one composite guitar. A Frankenstein 00:15:50.850 --> 00:15:52.889 Strat. A Frankenstein Strat. And he named it 00:15:52.889 --> 00:15:56.110 Blackie. That became his main guitar for over 00:15:56.110 --> 00:15:59.470 a decade. He wrote and recorded Cocaine, Wonderful 00:15:59.470 --> 00:16:01.470 Tonight, everything on that guitar. It's amazing 00:16:01.470 --> 00:16:03.190 to think of these iconic instruments as being 00:16:03.190 --> 00:16:05.509 cobbled together like that. But while the career 00:16:05.509 --> 00:16:08.750 is rebounding in the mid -70s, the personal life 00:16:08.750 --> 00:16:12.009 is. It's still spiraling because of the alcohol. 00:16:12.309 --> 00:16:14.470 He was drinking an incredible amount. The sources 00:16:14.470 --> 00:16:17.470 say like two bottles of brandy a day plus beer 00:16:17.470 --> 00:16:20.090 and cocaine. He had this deep -seated fear that 00:16:20.090 --> 00:16:22.529 he couldn't play or be creative without chemical 00:16:22.529 --> 00:16:25.289 substances. He truly believed the magic was in 00:16:25.289 --> 00:16:27.669 the bottle, not in himself. When did he finally 00:16:27.669 --> 00:16:30.980 get help? It wasn't until 1982. He finally hit 00:16:30.980 --> 00:16:33.639 rock bottom and checked himself into the Hazelden 00:16:33.639 --> 00:16:36.019 Rehab Center in Minnesota. And even then, it 00:16:36.019 --> 00:16:38.039 wasn't a straight line to recovery, was it? No. 00:16:38.100 --> 00:16:40.500 He had a relapse a few years later. He finally 00:16:40.500 --> 00:16:44.240 went back to treatment in 1987. And he has been 00:16:44.240 --> 00:16:48.100 sober ever since. But just as he finds that stability, 00:16:48.299 --> 00:16:51.620 just as he gets his life back on track. the worst 00:16:51.620 --> 00:16:53.620 thing imaginable happens. We're talking about 00:16:53.620 --> 00:16:57.440 March 1991, the death of his son, Connor. It 00:16:57.440 --> 00:16:59.340 is. I mean, it's the defining tragedy of his 00:16:59.340 --> 00:17:01.340 life. Connor was only four and a half years old. 00:17:01.620 --> 00:17:03.779 He was in New York City with his mother, Lori 00:17:03.779 --> 00:17:06.039 Del Santo, staying at her friend's apartment 00:17:06.039 --> 00:17:08.779 on the 53rd floor of a skyscraper. And the window 00:17:08.779 --> 00:17:11.059 was open. A housekeeper had been cleaning and 00:17:11.059 --> 00:17:13.519 had left a large floor -level window open to 00:17:13.519 --> 00:17:15.839 air the room out. Connor, just being a little 00:17:15.839 --> 00:17:19.890 boy, ran past and fell. 53 floors. I can't even 00:17:19.890 --> 00:17:22.130 begin to imagine that. The sources say Clapton 00:17:22.130 --> 00:17:23.990 was just minutes away from picking him up for 00:17:23.990 --> 00:17:26.490 a trip to the zoo. He was. He arrived at the 00:17:26.490 --> 00:17:29.269 scene shortly after it happened. He described 00:17:29.269 --> 00:17:31.269 the feeling in his autobiography as going off 00:17:31.269 --> 00:17:33.690 the edge of the world. He said he felt like he 00:17:33.690 --> 00:17:36.230 had walked into someone else's life. Just total 00:17:36.230 --> 00:17:39.170 protective dissociation. And in that moment of 00:17:39.170 --> 00:17:41.809 absolute unimaginable darkness, who's one of 00:17:41.809 --> 00:17:43.609 the first people to reach out? Keith Richards. 00:17:44.109 --> 00:17:45.990 He was one of the first people to offer condolences. 00:17:46.329 --> 00:17:49.990 And Keith knew that specific pain because he 00:17:49.990 --> 00:17:53.210 had lost his own infant son, Tara, back in 1976. 00:17:53.730 --> 00:17:56.509 He knew what that was like. And instead of relapsing 00:17:56.509 --> 00:17:59.470 into drink or drugs, which I think everyone would 00:17:59.470 --> 00:18:01.950 have understood and feared, he poured it into 00:18:01.950 --> 00:18:04.769 the music. He wrote Tears in Heaven. He wrote 00:18:04.769 --> 00:18:07.369 it with the lyricist Will Jennings. And it wasn't 00:18:07.369 --> 00:18:09.289 originally meant for public consumption at all. 00:18:09.329 --> 00:18:11.990 It was just a letter to his son, a way to process 00:18:11.990 --> 00:18:13.930 the grief, to ask that question. Would you know 00:18:13.930 --> 00:18:16.430 my name if I saw you in heaven? And that song, 00:18:16.430 --> 00:18:18.789 along with the entire Unplugged album it appeared 00:18:18.789 --> 00:18:21.250 on, became this massive cultural phenomenon. 00:18:22.109 --> 00:18:24.769 Unplugged was huge. It showed this raw, vulnerable 00:18:24.769 --> 00:18:28.250 side of Clapton. He played an acoustic, slow 00:18:28.250 --> 00:18:30.930 -down version of Lila. And by stripping away 00:18:30.930 --> 00:18:33.690 all the wailing electric guitars, you were left 00:18:33.690 --> 00:18:37.690 with just the bare, painful lyrics of unrequited 00:18:37.690 --> 00:18:39.650 love. It was heartbreaking. And it swept the 00:18:39.650 --> 00:18:41.930 Grammys. It did. Record of the Year, Song of 00:18:41.930 --> 00:18:44.230 the Year for Tears in Heaven. It was this incredible 00:18:44.230 --> 00:18:47.349 artistic and commercial validation, but it was 00:18:47.349 --> 00:18:49.589 born from the most terrible loss a person can 00:18:49.589 --> 00:18:52.450 endure. And he turned that loss into something 00:18:52.450 --> 00:18:55.089 tangible and positive with the Crossroads Center. 00:18:55.250 --> 00:18:57.750 Yeah, in Antigua. Having finally gotten sober 00:18:57.750 --> 00:19:00.269 himself, he wanted to help others. So he founded 00:19:00.269 --> 00:19:03.490 a world -class affordable rehab facility. And 00:19:03.490 --> 00:19:05.849 to fund it, he made a huge personal sacrifice. 00:19:06.109 --> 00:19:08.529 He decided to auction off his guitars. Including 00:19:08.529 --> 00:19:11.349 Blackie. Including Blackie. In 2004, it sold 00:19:11.349 --> 00:19:13.809 for nearly $1 million at Christie's Auction House. 00:19:14.210 --> 00:19:16.289 All the proceeds went to the Crossroads Center. 00:19:16.640 --> 00:19:19.039 He literally sold the tools of his trade, the 00:19:19.039 --> 00:19:21.559 instruments that made him a legend, to help others 00:19:21.559 --> 00:19:23.359 fight the same demons that had played him for 00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:25.980 so long. That's a really powerful arc of redemption. 00:19:26.339 --> 00:19:28.619 But... And this is the deep dive part of the 00:19:28.619 --> 00:19:31.519 show. We can't tell this story honestly without 00:19:31.519 --> 00:19:33.859 looking at the other side of the coin. Because 00:19:33.859 --> 00:19:35.839 there are moments in Clapton's life and career 00:19:35.839 --> 00:19:38.900 that are much, much harder to reconcile. Yeah. 00:19:39.140 --> 00:19:42.589 We have to talk about Birmingham 1976. This is 00:19:42.589 --> 00:19:45.309 an incident that has quite rightly shadowed him 00:19:45.309 --> 00:19:48.170 for decades. What happened on that stage? He 00:19:48.170 --> 00:19:50.589 was performing in Birmingham, England. He was, 00:19:50.769 --> 00:19:53.549 by his own admission, extremely drunk. This was 00:19:53.549 --> 00:19:56.009 during the height of his alcoholism. And between 00:19:56.009 --> 00:19:58.710 songs, he went on a tirade. He stopped the show 00:19:58.710 --> 00:20:00.490 and started voicing his support for the right 00:20:00.490 --> 00:20:02.980 -wing politician Enoch Powell. Powell, who was 00:20:02.980 --> 00:20:05.339 infamous for his anti -immigration rivers of 00:20:05.339 --> 00:20:08.380 blood speech. Exactly. And Clapton didn't just 00:20:08.380 --> 00:20:10.319 support him. The quotes are pretty horrific. 00:20:10.460 --> 00:20:13.119 He used racial slurs. He shouted phrases like, 00:20:13.180 --> 00:20:16.380 keep Britain white. He told people in the audience 00:20:16.380 --> 00:20:17.920 that if they were foreigners, they should leave 00:20:17.920 --> 00:20:21.210 the country. It is just shocking, especially 00:20:21.210 --> 00:20:24.250 coming from a man who built his entire career, 00:20:24.329 --> 00:20:26.849 his entire identity on the music of Black American 00:20:26.849 --> 00:20:29.470 bluesmen. He worshipped Muddy Waters and Robert 00:20:29.470 --> 00:20:32.670 Johnson, yet he's on a stage shouting this. That 00:20:32.670 --> 00:20:35.109 is the great glaring contradiction at the heart 00:20:35.109 --> 00:20:37.470 of it. And the reaction at the time was immediate 00:20:37.470 --> 00:20:40.910 and fierce. That incident actually sparked the 00:20:40.910 --> 00:20:43.690 formation of the Rock Against Racism movement 00:20:43.690 --> 00:20:46.190 in the UK. How has he explained this over the 00:20:46.190 --> 00:20:48.809 years? Has he apologized? It's been messy. For 00:20:48.809 --> 00:20:50.829 a long time he just blamed the drink and drugs. 00:20:50.990 --> 00:20:53.450 He said he was deliberately oblivious to racial 00:20:53.450 --> 00:20:56.670 conflict. But later in life he did express deep 00:20:56.670 --> 00:20:59.950 shame. He called his past self semi -racist and 00:20:59.950 --> 00:21:02.250 admitted he had a habit of sabotaging everything 00:21:02.250 --> 00:21:04.349 he got involved with. He called his comments 00:21:04.349 --> 00:21:07.809 chauvinistic and fascistic. But these kinds of 00:21:07.809 --> 00:21:09.809 controversies aren't just ancient history from 00:21:09.809 --> 00:21:12.049 the 70s. We saw some of this resurface pretty 00:21:12.049 --> 00:21:14.589 recently during the COVID -19 pandemic. We certainly 00:21:14.589 --> 00:21:17.170 did. Clapton took a very strong and very public 00:21:17.170 --> 00:21:19.789 anti -lockdown stance. He collaborated with Van 00:21:19.789 --> 00:21:21.869 Morrison on a song called Stand and Deliver, 00:21:21.970 --> 00:21:23.809 which was extremely critical of the government 00:21:23.809 --> 00:21:26.450 restrictions. And he was also very vocal about 00:21:26.450 --> 00:21:29.849 his skepticism of the vaccines. He was. He claimed 00:21:29.849 --> 00:21:32.349 he had severe side effects after taking the AstraZeneca 00:21:32.349 --> 00:21:34.920 vaccine. Now, some context here is important. 00:21:35.460 --> 00:21:37.640 Clapton already suffers from a condition called 00:21:37.640 --> 00:21:40.240 peripheral neuropathy, which is nerve damage 00:21:40.240 --> 00:21:42.420 that causes severe pain in the hands and feet. 00:21:42.539 --> 00:21:44.940 He felt the vaccine made that condition much 00:21:44.940 --> 00:21:47.099 worse. But he went further than just sharing 00:21:47.099 --> 00:21:49.660 his personal medical experience, didn't he? Yes. 00:21:49.740 --> 00:21:52.119 He released another protest song called This 00:21:52.119 --> 00:21:55.039 Has Got to Stop with an animated video that criticized 00:21:55.039 --> 00:21:57.839 what he saw as the erosion of civil liberties. 00:21:58.259 --> 00:22:00.480 And then he made a public declaration that he 00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:05.160 would refuse to play at any venue that Which 00:22:05.160 --> 00:22:07.539 alienated a lot of his fans all over again. It 00:22:07.539 --> 00:22:10.279 did. It alienated many fans who saw him as moving 00:22:10.279 --> 00:22:13.240 into conspiracy theory territory and being irresponsible 00:22:13.240 --> 00:22:16.339 during a public health crisis. It really complicates 00:22:16.339 --> 00:22:18.259 the legacy, doesn't it? You have the man who 00:22:18.259 --> 00:22:21.019 auctions his guitars for a rehab center, the 00:22:21.019 --> 00:22:23.660 healer who wrote Tears in Heaven, and you have 00:22:23.660 --> 00:22:25.980 the provocateur shouting on stage in Birmingham 00:22:25.980 --> 00:22:28.759 and aligning with the anti -vax movement. It 00:22:28.759 --> 00:22:30.700 absolutely does. And when we try to assess his 00:22:30.700 --> 00:22:33.099 legacy, we really do have to look at the musician 00:22:33.099 --> 00:22:36.440 versus the myth. The myth is huge. Clapton is 00:22:36.440 --> 00:22:39.660 God, the original guitar hero. You can make a 00:22:39.660 --> 00:22:42.180 strong case for that. The Guardian newspaper 00:22:42.180 --> 00:22:45.000 once credited him with literally creating the 00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:48.619 cult of the guitar hero. Before Clapton, guitarists 00:22:48.619 --> 00:22:50.559 in England were like Hank Marvin of the shadows, 00:22:50.619 --> 00:22:53.380 very clean, very polite in the background. Clapton 00:22:53.380 --> 00:22:56.619 made the guitar visceral, loud, aggressive, and 00:22:56.619 --> 00:22:58.799 front and center. But not everyone agrees he's 00:22:58.799 --> 00:23:00.779 the greatest. There are dissenting voices. Oh, 00:23:00.779 --> 00:23:03.259 for sure. There's a famous and very harsh assessment 00:23:03.259 --> 00:23:05.680 from the veteran music critic Robert Criscow. 00:23:06.039 --> 00:23:09.039 He called Clapton a promiscuous sideman and said 00:23:09.039 --> 00:23:11.359 that for an artist of his stature, his discography 00:23:11.359 --> 00:23:14.339 is remarkably undistinguished. Promiscuous sideman, 00:23:14.420 --> 00:23:17.160 that is a burn. But then you look at who he influenced. 00:23:17.420 --> 00:23:21.440 Eddie Van Halen, Brian May, Slash. The list is 00:23:21.440 --> 00:23:23.339 endless. You cannot deny the influence. And the 00:23:23.339 --> 00:23:25.119 collaborations speak for themselves. I mean, 00:23:25.140 --> 00:23:27.180 he played the iconic guitar solo on The Beatles 00:23:27.180 --> 00:23:29.660 while my guitar gently weeps as a favor to George 00:23:29.660 --> 00:23:32.259 Harrison. A Beatle asking you to play on their 00:23:32.259 --> 00:23:35.210 record. That's the ultimate validation. It is. 00:23:35.430 --> 00:23:38.170 And he made a Grammy -winning album with B .B. 00:23:38.170 --> 00:23:40.710 King, Riding with the King. He championed and 00:23:40.710 --> 00:23:43.309 worked with one of his own heroes, J .J. Cale. 00:23:43.730 --> 00:23:46.109 The greatest of the greats wanted to play with 00:23:46.109 --> 00:23:47.910 him. And all that success has certainly paid 00:23:47.910 --> 00:23:49.609 off. We touched on the gear, but the man likes 00:23:49.609 --> 00:23:52.349 his cars, too. Oh, he loves his Ferraris. He's 00:23:52.349 --> 00:23:55.430 a massive collector. He even had Ferrari build 00:23:55.430 --> 00:23:58.829 him a one -of -a -kind custom model, the SP -12EC. 00:23:59.369 --> 00:24:02.430 The EC stands for Eric Clapton. It cost him almost 00:24:02.430 --> 00:24:05.049 $5 million. That must be nice. Okay, so we've 00:24:05.049 --> 00:24:07.990 covered the blues, purism, supergroups, the unimaginable 00:24:07.990 --> 00:24:10.130 tragedies, the addiction, the racism, the redemption, 00:24:10.289 --> 00:24:13.329 the controversies, and the Ferraris. What is 00:24:13.329 --> 00:24:15.710 the synthesis here? How do we hold all of these 00:24:15.710 --> 00:24:18.369 conflicting pieces in our heads at once? I think 00:24:18.369 --> 00:24:21.049 Clapton represents the ultimate dichotomy of 00:24:21.049 --> 00:24:24.019 that classic rock star era. On one hand... You 00:24:24.019 --> 00:24:25.880 have a man who could channel the deepest, most 00:24:25.880 --> 00:24:29.279 universal human emotions, grief, longing, love, 00:24:29.539 --> 00:24:32.339 despair, through six strings, better than almost 00:24:32.339 --> 00:24:35.519 anyone who has ever lived. He gave us a new vocabulary 00:24:35.519 --> 00:24:37.759 for the electric guitar. But on the other hand... 00:24:37.759 --> 00:24:40.920 On the other hand, you have a man who often struggled 00:24:40.920 --> 00:24:43.220 mightily to navigate his own life and his own 00:24:43.220 --> 00:24:46.859 flaws. He was, as he put it himself, often deliberately 00:24:46.859 --> 00:24:50.220 oblivious. He could be self -destructive, hurtful, 00:24:50.259 --> 00:24:52.920 and deeply offensive. It really brings up that 00:24:52.920 --> 00:24:55.839 eternal, difficult question. Can you separate 00:24:55.839 --> 00:24:58.940 the art from the artist? Can the man who wrote 00:24:58.940 --> 00:25:01.819 the gentle, healing, universal notes of tears 00:25:01.819 --> 00:25:04.920 in heaven be reconciled with the man shouting 00:25:04.920 --> 00:25:08.000 racist bile on that stage in Birmingham? I don't 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:09.640 think they can be fully reconciled, honestly. 00:25:09.900 --> 00:25:12.259 I think they just have to coexist. And as a listener, 00:25:12.319 --> 00:25:14.079 you have to sort of hold both ideas at the same 00:25:14.079 --> 00:25:16.859 time. You have to accept the music for its undeniable 00:25:16.859 --> 00:25:19.740 power and beauty, while also acknowledging the 00:25:19.740 --> 00:25:21.759 profound flaws of the vessel it came through. 00:25:21.900 --> 00:25:24.119 That is a lot to chew on. So here's a final thought 00:25:24.119 --> 00:25:25.880 for you. The next time you hear the opening riff 00:25:25.880 --> 00:25:28.119 of Lila, I want you to listen to it differently. 00:25:28.559 --> 00:25:30.500 Don't just hear the classic rock anthem that's 00:25:30.500 --> 00:25:32.440 on every movie soundtrack. Hear the context. 00:25:32.920 --> 00:25:35.740 Hear the context, hear the desperation, hear 00:25:35.740 --> 00:25:38.059 the unrequited love for his best friend's wife, 00:25:38.259 --> 00:25:40.900 hear the ghost of Dwayne Allman's slide guitar, 00:25:41.099 --> 00:25:44.099 and remember the chaotic, brilliant, and deeply 00:25:44.099 --> 00:25:47.079 troubled life that fueled every single note of 00:25:47.079 --> 00:25:49.160 it. It definitely adds a whole new layer to the 00:25:49.160 --> 00:25:51.960 track when you know the story. That's all for 00:25:51.960 --> 00:25:53.680 this deep dive. Thanks for listening and keep 00:25:53.680 --> 00:25:54.960 exploring. See you next time.