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(Credits: Far Out \/ YouTube Still)<\/p>\n
Tue 9 December 2025 12:00, UK <\/p>\n
With age often comes perspective \u2013 ideally, a chance to reflect, take accountability, and grow. For Eric Clapton<\/a>, that\u2019s been true in some areas of his life, but in others, not so much.<\/p>\n When the history books have noted down your every move, it must be tough having your bad behaviour locked in and immortal now. Especially for the most famous musicians around, their every fight and fall-out is noted down.<\/a> Fans and music historians make that their business to archive artists\u2019 lowest moments and analyse them year on year to understand what went wrong with a certain act or how a particular event came to be.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to forget that at the heart of it all are simply real people. I can\u2019t imagine what it must be like to have a snappy comment thrown out on a bad day be captured forever in history, but for the biggest rockers around, they can, as grouchy spats are noted into timelines.<\/p>\n As the years went on, Clapton has reflected on that more and more, reconsidering how he behaved back in his youth and coming to regret it. Now an old man, he looks back on his early days in his 20s, a time when his career was just beginning to boom, and feels embarrassed.\u00a0<\/p>\n He\u2019s not embarrassed by the music; instead, it falls on the version of the man who was making it, as Clapton\u2019s impression of his 20-something self isn\u2019t the one he wishes he could have. Rather than pride, he looks back with remorse that even sent him reuniting with his old bandmates to make it better.<\/p>\n \u201cI went through all those things very quickly,\u201d he said, reflecting on how his early career passed in a parade of bands he started and then swiftly quit or collapsed, adding, \u201cI mean, Cream was like a year and a half or something, and even with John Mayall<\/a>, I was only half there.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, he can not only see his lack of commitment, but can see how unfair and frustrating that must have been for his bandmates \u2013 especially Mayall. \u201cI was so unreliable, so irresponsible. I would sometimes just not show up at gigs, and that\u2019s how Peter Green would be asked to play\u2014because I was not there,\u201d he said, now feeling shame at that behaviour.<\/p>\n As he\u2019s matured, Clapton knows it wouldn\u2019t and shouldn\u2019t stand today. He\u2019d never accept that kind of lazy behaviour from any of his collaborators now, and so, in the reflection of that, he\u2019s grown embarrassed that it was ever the impression he gave others of himself, ashamed that he once had the reputation of being careless and unreliable.\u00a0<\/p>\n The feeling of shame was so intense that he even went to fix it. \u201cI went to see John last year to actually make amends. I\u2019d been looking back and realised how badly I\u2019d behaved,\u201d he said as he went running to John Mayall, apologising to him before the singer passed.<\/p>\n