In the past few months, Eric Clapton has repeatedly spoken out against the corona measures and the vaccine. He finally released the song “This Has Gotta Stop” in August last year – now he has explained his motivations for the piece of music.
With the title he processes what he says is a “catastrophic” reaction to the AstraZeneca vaccine. “I knew something was wrong/ When you started making the law/ I can’t move my hands/ I’m breaking out in a sweat,” he sings in it. In December 2020, the 76-year-old teamed up with the equally skeptical Van Morrison for the song “Stand And Deliver”.
Clapton and Van Morrison lost
When asked how this happened, Clapton said in an interview with YouTuber The Real Music Observer: “By the time I spoke up, it had been almost 18 months since I was effectively forced into retirement. (…) I was told that Van would resist the measures. And I thought, ‘Why isn’t anyone else doing this?’ We’ve known each other since we were kids, I already knew him. And I contacted him. I said, ‘What do you think? What’s going on here?’ And he said, ‘I only object, really. But it seems like we’re not allowed to do that. And no one else does.’”
He said he was “over the moon” with the Van Morrison song, but encountered disapproval in conversations with colleagues: “And while I was talking about it with another musician and then getting upset and sharing this news, I found that no one was listening wanted. I was a little confused as I seemed to be the only person who thought this was an exciting or even appropriate idea.”
“Slowhand” even toned down its lyrics
After all, he only felt more challenged because of the criticism from other musicians. “When I’m told I can’t do something, I really want to know why I can’t do it.” Notably, the Brit even appears to have toned down his controversial lyrics: “I was like, ‘I’ll do it .’ But I have made concessions. I took out phrases or changed them a bit to placate those I really didn’t mean to hurt, people I didn’t mean to hurt or scare. And needless to say, my family and friends were scared,” Clapton said.
The great conspiracy tale: “Little by little I put together a kind of rough jigsaw puzzle”
Slowhand also spoke about his theory of mass education hypnosis – the silly belief that people were hypnotized into getting vaccinated by messages broadcast on YouTube and in the media: “Then I remembered seeing little things on YouTube, that looked like subliminal advertisements; it has been like this for a long time. (…) And little by little I put together a kind of rough jigsaw puzzle. And that made me even more determined. And so I got into watching the news that was coming out in England and the UK. We have the BBC, and it used to be impartial commentary on world affairs and state affairs. And suddenly it was all about following and obeying orders.”
Clapton used to downplay his concerts without “really getting involved socially”. The corona pandemic triggered a change of heart: “Then these guys who were in power really started to annoy me,” and further: “It started something that was actually dormant in me.”