Eric Clapton is a British musician of blues, rock and jazz. Before going solo, he was with several bands, including the Yardbirds, Cream, Blind Faith and Derek and the Dominos in the mid-60's to early 70's.

Sourced

• Tell me why, must I fall in love with you?
  • Fall Like Rain (from the album Pilgrim - 1997)

• Layla, you got me on my knees. Layla, I'm begging, darling please. Layla, darling won't you ease my worried mind.
  • Layla (by Derek and the Dominos - 1970)

• Would you know my name if I saw you in heaven? Would it be the same If I saw you in heaven?
  • Tears in Heaven (from the album Unplugged - 1992)

• And I say, "Yes, you look wonderful tonight."
  • Wonderful Tonight (from the album Slowhand - 1977)

• All I am certain of right now is that I don't want to go anywhere, and that's not bad for someone who always used to run.
  • "Clapton: The Autobiography"

• Music will always find its way to us, with or without business, politics, religion, or any other bullshit attached. Music survives everything, and like God, it is always present. It needs no help, and suffers no hindrance.
  • "Clapton: The Autobiography"

• Do we have any foreigners in the audience tonight? If so, please put up your hands. Wogs I mean, I'm looking at you. Where are you? I'm sorry but some fucking wog...Arab grabbed my wife's bum, you know? Surely got to be said, yeah this is what all the fucking foreigners and wogs over here are like, just disgusting, that's just the truth, yeah. So where are you? Well wherever you all are, I think you should all just leave. Not just leave the hall, leave our country. You fucking (indecipherable). I don't want you here, in the room or in my country. Listen to me, man! I think we should vote for Enoch Powell. Enoch's our man. I think Enoch's right, I think we should send them all back. Stop Britain from becoming a black colony. Get the foreigners out. Get the wogs out. Get the coons out. Keep Britain white. I used to be into dope, now I'm into racism. It's much heavier, man. Fucking wogs, man. Fucking Saudis taking over London. Bastard wogs. Britain is becoming overcrowded and Enoch will stop it and send them all back. The black wogs and coons and Arabs and fucking Jamaicans and fucking (indecipherable) don't belong here, we don't want them here. This is England, this is a white country, we don't want any black wogs and coons living here. We need to make clear to them they are not welcome. England is for white people, man. We are a white country. I don't want fucking wogs living next to me with their standards. This is Great Britain, a white country, what is happening to us, for fuck's sake? We need to vote for Enoch Powell, he's a great man, speaking truth. Vote for Enoch, he's our man, he's on our side, he'll look after us. I want all of you here to vote for Enoch, support him, he's on our side. Enoch for Prime Minister! Throw the wogs out! Keep Britain white!
  • Quoted in Rebel Rock by J. Street. First Edition (1986). Oxford: Basil Blackwell. pp. 74-75. Street's sources are editions of the New Musical Express, Melody Maker and the Guardian and Times newspapers from the time.

Other Sources: Virgin Media: Clapton's Shocking Rant
Guardian Unlimited: The Ten Right-Wing Rockers.

"I am a massive racist booby tit, yea i first realised it on tuesday, weeeeeyyy heeey mon the KKK I AM CLAPTON SEIG HEIL MEIN CLAPTON SEIG HEIL"

(These statements were allegedly made on stage by a heavily drunk Clapton during a concert in Birmingham, UK, in 1976. Clapton is referring to British anti-immigration Conservative MP Enoch Powell. Clapton later made similar further comments to the audience later in the evening. Clapton has never denied making these statements and has refused to apologise for his remarks or distance himself from them, although he denies that his views are racist and states that he is merely an opponent of mass immigration. This incident was the main inspiration for the formation of Rock Against Racism).

• Clapton went into a rap about Enoch. His initial line was "Enoch's right - I think we should send them back." I don't think he said "nigger" he said "wogs". He definitely said, "Keep Britain White". Nobody cheered, but after he played another song, he did the same again. It was extraordinary - but he stood there being overtly offensive and racist. I was completely mystified as to why this man playing black music would behave this way."
  • Author Caryl Philips, referring to the aforementioned Birmingham concert in 1976, at which Phillips was present. Quoted by author Robin Denselow in When The Music Stopped: The Story of Political Pop, Faber and Faber (1989), pp. 138-139.

Unsourced

• I'm an egomaniac with an inferiority complex.

• Given the choice between accomplishing something and just lying around, I'd rather lie around. No contest.

• My driving philosophy about making music is that you can reduce it all down to one note if that note is played with the right kind of sincerity.

• To have ownership of something that powerful is something I'll never be able to get used to. It still knocks me out when I play it.
  • Regarding the song Layla

• Some people talk about me like a revolutionary. That's nonsense; all I did was copy B.B. King.

• If it ain't Mississippi black music it ain't worth a damn.

• You can make a Strat sound like a Les Paul, but you can't make a Les Paul sound like a Strat.

About

• He is a great person, as well as a great musician. And this guy sings like he was born down below Mississippi!
  • B.B. King http://www1.gitarrebass.de/magazine/0008/top10.htm

• I think Clapton is brilliant. He's the only one who moved me. The only one who made me want to play the guitar.
  • Eddie Van Halen

• His fingers are directly wired to his soul.
  • Brian May