Eric Clapton has said that he was inspired to express his anti vaxxer and lockdown views through his music.
Clapton has been very outspoken in his views against lockdowns and the vaccine. He released anti lockdown track "Stand And Deliver" with Van Morrison in 2020.
The singer has also detailed his views on the vaccine and lockdown last Summer. He also released another anti lockdown track "Heart of a Child" with fellow anti vaxxer Robin Monotti. More on this here.
Speaking to The Real Music Observer, Eric Clapton has now shed more light on his vaccine and lockdown views through music and the subsequent criticism he has received.
“My career had almost gone anyway. At the point where I spoke up, it had been almost 18 months since I had kind of been forcibly retired", he said.
"And I joined forces with Van. I got the tip that Van was standing up to the measures. And I thought, ‘Why isn’t anybody else doing this?’ And we go back; I’ve known him since we were kids. And I contacted him. I said, ‘What do you think? What’s going on?’ And he said, ‘I’m just objecting, really. But it seems like we’re not even allowed to do that. And nobody else is doing it.’ And I said, ‘You’re kidding. Nobody else?’ And he said, ‘Nobody else.’ And I said, ‘All, I’m with you. Is there anything I can do to help? Have you got any songs?’ And of course, it was a silly, stupid question ’cause he writes two songs a day or something like that".
Clapton also added, “And he sent me ‘Stand And Deliver’, which he had already… I didn’t know he had already recorded it. So I thought, ‘Oh, man. I’m getting an unreleased Van Morrison song.’ I was over the moon anyway. And it was during the process of talking about that to another musician, and then getting me excited, and then sharing that news, and I found that nobody wanted to hear that. And I was kind of mystified because I seemed to be the only person that thought that was an exciting or even appropriate idea with what was going on".
Eric Clapton als had this to add.
“That challenged me even more. ‘Cause I’m a bit like him maybe. I’m cut from the cloth where if you tell me I can’t do something, I really wanna know why I can’t do it. And it seemed like I’d had a wall built around me".
"But I thought, ‘I’m gonna do this.’ But I did make concessions. I did take out lines or change lines a little bit just to pacify those that I really didn’t wanna hurt, people I didn’t wanna hurt or scare. And needless to say, my family and friends, they got scared, and I think they were scared on my behalf".
Eric Clapton also spoke about how he was able to express his anti vaccine and lockdown views through writing music. He also took aim at some allegedly biased media.
“Then I remembered seeing little things on YouTube which were like subliminal advertising; it had been going on for a long time – that thing about ‘you will own nothing and you will be happy.’ And I thought, ‘What’s that mean?’ And bit by bit, I put a rough kind of jigsaw puzzle together. And that made me even more resolute. So I went from that to looking at the news stuff that was coming out in England and the UK, we have BBC, and it used to be an impartial commentary on world affairs and state affairs. Suddenly it was completely one-way traffic about following orders and obedience".
“And I felt really motivated, musically", he added. "It instigated something which really was laying dormant. I was just playing live gigs up until the lockdown without really being socially involved in any way. Then these guys that were in power really started to piss me… and everybody… I have a tool, I have a calling, and I can make use of that. So I set about it and started writing", he said.
