Cream of His Collection

As he sits in his hotel room, it’s hard to tell which is more unsettling for blues and rock guitar master Eric Clapton: giving two-thirds of his 150 or so prized guitars to a charity auction this month or doing this interview.

Since his rise to fame in the 1960s, the Englishman has probably spoken to fewer journalists than he has hit wrong notes in a recording career that includes more than two dozen albums, including such multi-platinum collections as 1977’s “Slowhand” and 1992’s “Unplugged.” It’s an immensely tasteful body of work that has earned him 13 Grammys and a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the rock band Cream.

Clapton is by nature shy, but that isn’t why he tends to retreat from the spotlight when he’s not on stage. The guitarist, singer and songwriter believes it’s dangerous for musicians to take their eyes off their craft and become seduced by celebrity--as Clapton could have easily done in the ‘60s when fans scrawled “Clapton is God” on subway walls in London.

“I’ve always felt that if people let their egos get in the way, it can be fatal to your musical progression,” he says at one point during the interview. “I’ve even walked away from some bands because I could see that happening. . . . The [priorities] were out of balance.”

The 54-year-old musician is agreeing to this interview to draw attention to the auction of 100 of his guitars. The sale will be held June 24 at Christie’s in New York. Forty of the most notable of the instruments will be on display at Christie’s Beverly Hills Sunday through Tuesday.

Among the guitars being auctioned:

* “Brownie,” the 1956 Fender Stratocaster that he used to record “Layla,” one of his most celebrated songs. Christie’s estimated value: $80,000 to $100,000.

* Another 1956 Stratocaster that he used throughout the ‘70s, which can be heard on portions of such albums as “Just One Night” and “Slowhand.” Estimated value: $20,000 to $30,000.

* A 1956 Gibson electric that he played in concert with Chuck Berry, one of his guitar heroes, during the filming of the movie “Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll” in 1986. Estimated value: $15,000 to $20,000.

“It’s not an easy thing to say goodbye to [these guitars] . . ,” Clapton writes in the auction catalog. “But it’s time to let others share in these beautiful things that have given me such joy and brought such meaning to my life.”

The auction proceeds--expected to be in the $1-million range--will go to the Crossroads Centre at Antigua, the residential treatment center that Clapton established in 1998 on the West Indies island to help combat alcohol and drug dependency.

After years of drug and alcohol abuse himself, Clapton found relief in a U.S. treatment center in the ‘80s, and he wanted to make similar help available for others. He picked Antigua because he has a home there and was disheartened by a soaring addiction rate throughout the Caribbean. The 36-bed center uses customers’ fees to subsidize treatment for those who can’t afford it. Admittance is not limited to island residents.

Clapton could easily have chosen another way to raise the money, but he felt donating the guitars would best demonstrate his commitment to the center. He is, however, supplementing the auction by staging a benefit concert for the center June 30 at New York’s Madison Square Garden. He’ll be joined that night by such guest artists as Bob Dylan, Mary J. Blige and Sheryl Crow.

In the interview, Clapton reminisces about his role as one of the premier instrumentalists of the modern pop era as well as his own battle with addiction.

As he speaks, there’s an acoustic guitar by his side. Clapton generally plays the guitar for at least a few minutes every day--not to keep his fingers in shape but simply to express himself. It’s not technique that matters with Clapton but expression, and he has used music over the years to exorcise his pain after failed relationships or the deaths of loved ones. Several of his most notable works, including “Layla” and “Tears in Heaven,” came at particularly traumatic moments in his life.

Question: Any second thoughts about putting all these guitars up for auction?

Answer: Sure. When I saw the Christie’s catalog, I immediately changed my mind about losing one of the guitars. I think I’ll buy it back.

Q: Want to say which one? Could it be Brownie?

A: No, it’s not that one. No one would ever guess which one. It was a guitar that was with me in the house for years, one that I would pick up and play when I was lonely or had some ideas for a new song.

Q: Was it your idea to sell them?

A: No, it was a member of the center’s fund-raising committee who said we could raise a lot of money and attention for the center by auctioning off some of my guitars. I thought it was a great idea.

Q: How did you go about choosing which ones to donate to the auction and how did you decide on the number of 100?

A: I chose them, and I could have given even more, but Christie’s felt 100 was a manageable number.

Q: Let’s talk about your love affair with the guitar. What made you first want to play a guitar?

A: It was becoming popular in the late ‘50s in England. If you had a guitar, you were the life and soul of the party and that’s what I wanted to be. Plus, the guitar was on all these great records coming out from America. . . . My grandmother bought me one on [layaway] for Christmas when I was 13. It was a Spanish guitar with steel strings.

Q: Did you fall in love with it?

A: Well, the truth is I didn’t. For one thing, those strings were so hard that it hurt to play. The sound also wasn’t that thrilling. So I gave up after about a year. After a while, I started thinking that what I needed was an electric guitar. So I turned to my grandparents once again . . . and they came through. And this time I did fall in love with it. I managed to do a few things that sounded like the records I was listening to, and that gave me a lot of confidence and motivation.

Q: Who were some of your early guitar heroes?

A: For me, Buddy Holly was the first white guy. But I started to find out real quickly that all the people I really liked were black guitarists . . . Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley at first. Then I started to go back and discover earlier blues figures. There was no way to research all this at the time, so I’d just go to the record shop and read the information on the backs of albums. I’d read about the guitarists and then find their records. Sometimes, I’d buy an album if there was just a guy on the cover with a guitar. That’s what led me to people like Big Bill Broonzy.

Q: You went through a lot of bands in the beginning. The Yardbirds, Cream, Blind Faith. What were you looking for?

A: The difficult thing was finding a band where everyone could play well and had a shared view . . . which, for me, meant an interest in the blues, which was my first love. The first band I was in was the Roosters and we all liked the same music, but not many of them could really play. The Yardbirds could play, but they liked jazz and other things. We just didn’t agree when it came to things like choosing material. The same with Cream. Jack [Bruce] and Ginger [Baker] came from a strong jazz culture, so their experience with the blues was slightly patronizing. I don’t mean to offend them, but they seemed to look at it as thisprimitive form of what they liked.

The reason I went to Blind Faith was I believed Steve [Winwood] shared a similar attitude toward music and I think he does. I felt we could probably connect and go some place with that. But we weren’t strong enough to overcome a lot of the pressures . . . the money, managers, record contracts, drugs . . . and it fell apart.

Q: What was your feeling about Jimi Hendrix, who was the other guitar god of the ‘60s? Was he a pretty intimidating figure?

A: He was intimidating. Plus, he was doing what I wanted to do and didn’t have the guts to do. He was leading a band. He was singing and writing and playing, and I was only one-third of a trio in Cream.

Q: Was Derek & the Dominoes your effort to make that step?

A: Absolutely. It was like testing the waters as a front-man. But I still wasn’t ready to take the full risk, which is why it was Derek & the Dominoes, not Eric & the Dominoes or whatever. It was like I had this assumed identity.

Q: When you were writing and recording “Layla” during that period, did it feel like a special moment for you? Did you sense it would become a signature song?

A: “Layla” really was a crossroads experience in my life. I was standing there looking at so many ways to go, so many choices, musically, emotionally. I don’t know what heading drugs comes under, but it was standing in the wings as well. I was getting involved with this woman who was already married [George Harrison’s wife, Patti]. I was with a new band. I was terrified to go in any direction, which is why the drugs were attractive. It helped anesthetize me.

Q: I know it’s naive to ask, but you seemed to have everything going for you. Why did you turn so much to alcohol and drugs?

A: That’s what everyone asked . . . my family, my ex-wife, my friends. No one could figure it out. I couldn’t either until I went through recovery. Alcoholism is a disease with symptoms, including loneliness, low self-esteem and self-destructive urges--all of this is accompanied with physiological addiction. If I put alcohol in me, I start a physiological process which affects my mental and spiritual condition.

Q: How did you finally help yourself?

A: I became part of a 12-step group. The first step I took is the same that I’d recommend for anyone with this problem. I picked up the phone and asked for help. That’s the hardest thing for most people to do because another symptom of the disease is denial. It’s a disease that says I haven’t got a disease. It says, “I’m OK even though I’m laying in the gutter drinking two bottles of vodka a day.”

Q: What finally gave you the strength to make that call?

A: I broke my fishing rod.

Q: You kidding?

A: No, I fell on a fishing rod in front of two serious anglers and it was kind of the end of the line for me. I had been humiliated in so many other areas of my life because of alcohol. This was the last place I felt I still had some self-respect. If everything else failed, I knew I was still a good fisherman. So when I fell on my rod and broke it in front of these guys, it took that respect away.

Q: Since you have embarked on a solo career, you have moved in a lot of musical directions. Are you a restless musician or do you simply feel the need to keep reinventing yourself?

A: People often use that word, “reinvent.” But I don’t think I’ve ever reinvented myself. I’ve just experimented by looking at different styles of music, including country or whatever. I like the idea of trying things. It’s like going down a street where there are 20 parties going and you go into one for a while and check it out to see what appeals to you, what you can learn. Like now, I’m going to write songs for a couple of movies and then make an album with B.B. King.

Q: What about the auction? Do you think you’ll wince every time one of the guitars is sold?

A: No, I’m past that. I’ll feel more apprehensive about things being undervalued or ignored. I really love every one of those guitars. I’ll be happy if they get above their [estimated] prices and they sell. It’s a bit like your kids going to school and graduating and doing well. I don’t want any of the guitars to be rejected and sit there in their boxes. That’s what would be sad.

BE THERE

Forty Eric Clapton guitars will be on display from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday and 10 a.m. to noon Tuesday at Christie’s, 360 N. Camden Drive, Beverly Hills. Admission is free. Auction information: (310) 385-2600 or https://www.christies.com.