LONDON, Jan 11 — Renowned guitarist Eric Clapton yesterday attended a special London screening for a new documentary about his life.
Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars is directed by his longtime friend, filmmaker Lili Fini Zanuck. Clapton, who is a producer on the film and Zanuck, who has known the musician for 25 years, briefly posed for photographers ahead of the event at London’s BFI (British Film Institute) Southbank.
The appearance came a day after Clapton told BBC Radio 2 in an interview that he is “going deaf”, has tinnitus and that his hands “just about work”.
Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars follows the life of the 72-year-old British guitarist from childhood to international stardom, through his struggle with drugs and alcohol and the 1991 death of his four-year-old son.
The documentary made its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2017, where Zanuck, who won an Oscar for 1989’s Driving Miss Daisy, told reporters she had not wanted to whitewash over the darker side of the hard-drinking musician’s life.
In his 2007 autobiography, Clapton described a 20-year drug and alcohol addiction that he said saw him spending about US$16,000 a week on heroin in the 1970s.
The death of his son Conor, in a fall from a New York high-rise, was the trigger to sobriety.
With hits such as Wonderful Tonight, Cocaine, Tears in Heaven, and Layla, Clapton has won 17 Grammy Awards, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.
He was ranked No. 2 on Rolling Stone magazine’s 2015 list of 100 greatest guitarists of all time, behind Jimi Hendrix.
EricClapton: Life in 12 Bars will be released in the United Kingdom tomorrow.
Claptonis due to perform in London’s Hyde Park on July 8, 2018. — Reuters
