Eric Clapton’s Recent Health Issues Could Cause Layla to Lay Low
Following decades of hard living and legendary rock and rolling, Clapton may finally be paying the price. As the result of his recent health issues, he may have to put his career on a permanent pause. While it is not something the legendary guitarist wants, it may be something he needs. Although he got clean decades ago, his body has sustained massive damage over the years from being a hard core drug addict. Playing all-night, while doing lines of blow off a young groupie’s ass can have lasting damages. Eric Clapton’s recent health issues are a testament to the fact that hard living and father time do not mix.
The guitarist has a pedigree that seems as though it is has been made up for a movie star. Beginning with The Yardbirds, Cream, Derek and the Dominos, Blind Faith Delaney and Bonnie and Briends, and the Bluesbreakers. In the midst of that success being labeled as ‘Clapton is God’ for a period of time. All the while he was also battling a serious substance abuse problem while eventually going onto a tremendously successful solo career. During which he had to deal with the tragic loss of his four-year-old son Coner, who fell from a 53rd floor window. Finally, as a result of this whirlwind of a career, he got clean and he got old. This would cause health problems in a superhero.
Eric Clapton’s Recent Health Issues Catch His Attention
A lifetime of being a rockstar is the dream of nearly every kid growing up. But, what nobody talks about is the end result of that lifestyle. In an article with Team Rock, Clapton discusses the changes in his health. “I’ve had quite a lot of pain over the last year. It started with lower back pain, and turned into what they call peripheral neuropathy – which is where you feel like you have electric shocks going down your leg. “[It’s] hard work to play the guitar and I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that it will not improve.”
Although, like B.B. King, Clapton began to sit for many of his shows when the pain grew to levels he simply could not tolerate. He realized then that he was paying the piper for all the years of hard core living. Clapton told Daily Recovery he had a “$16,000 per week heroin habit” that he did kick, but he “but quickly replaced it with alcohol and cocaine.” As a result he spent decades going hard all day everyday until he finally got clean in the 1987.
Gaining Perspective and The Future For a Legend
While he suffering severe pain now, there is a chance Eric Clapton’s recent health issues will not cripple his career. He goes on to say in the Team Rock interview that he has dealt with more pain than this before. “There was one point there where they were flying me to hospital in St Paul [Minnesota] and I was dying, apparently,” he continued. “I had three ulcers and one of them was bleeding. I was drinking three bottles of brandy and taking handfuls of codeine, and I was close to checking out.”
Furthermore, he knows that he is on borrowed time by surviving his addict rockstar lifestyle. As he describes in the Team Rock interview, “because I’m in recovery from alcoholism and addiction to substances, I consider it a great thing to be alive at all. By rights, I should have kicked the bucket a long time ago. For some reason I was plucked from the jaws of hell and given another chance.”
Perhaps, Eric Clapton’s recent health issues do not mean the end of his career, but he has had a scare. Although his contributions to music could warrant some vacation time if he chooses to use it.
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