Eric Clapton shares emotional tribute to John Mayall: “Thank you for rescuing me from oblivion”

24 July, 2024

The Bluesbreakers (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Eric Clapton has shared an emotional tribute to the late John Mayall.

The news of the pioneering British blues and rock musician’s death was shared today (July 24). Mayall passed away aged 90, shortly before he was due to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Now, Clapton has taken to social media to share a moving tribute to his “mentor”, who took Clapton under his wing to play in his band the Bluesbreakers in 1965. Clapton, who at that time had left his own band the Yardbirds, would released 1966’s ‘Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton’, and would later depart to form Cream.

“I want to say thank you chiefly for rescuing me from oblivion, and god knows what,” he said in his tribute video. “I was a young man, around the age of 18 or 19, when I decided I was going to quit music,” Clapton said in his video tribute to Mayall.

“He found me and took me into his home and asked me to join his band, and I stayed with him and I learned all that I really have to draw on today in terms of technique and desire to play the kind of music I love to play. I did all my research in his home, in his record collection.”

Clapton went on to call Mayall his “mentor,” continuing: “I played with his band for a couple of years, with Hughie [Flint, drummer] and John [McVie, bassist], and it was a fantastic experience. He taught me that it was okay to just play the music you wanted to play without dressing it up or making anybody else like it. To listen to myself.
“He taught me all I really know, and gave me the courage and enthusiasm to express myself without fear, without limit,” he added.”And all I gave him in return was how much fun it was to drink and womanize when he was already a family man. I wish to make amends for that.
“I shall miss him, but I hope to see him on the other side. Thank you John, I love you, I’ll see you soon, but not yet.”
In other news, Clapton has spoken out about Roger Waters’ political views, saying: “It takes a lot of guts, and he suffers from it terribly”

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