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on the basis of fair use in education.
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60 MINUTES INTERVIEW. 2 April 2000 Interviewed by Ed Bradley.
Produced by Amy Cunningham Atkinson. (Transcript, descriptions
and comments by Tess Chatham)

Introduction to program: Ed Bradley: (talking over a video clip
of EC singing "Before You Accuse Me" at the Unplugged Concert)
[missed taping 1st 2-3 seconds but I think Ed said "A lot of
people have talked about their getting) …off drugs, but seldom,
if ever, have we heard anyone speak about the demons that
possessed him so frankly and openly as legendary rock star and
blues guitarist Eric Clapton did with us.

Ed Bradley (interviewing a clean-shaven EC, at Crossroads
Centre): In 1974, someone asked you what you'd like to be doing
ten years from now and you said, 'I'd like to be alive." EC: Yea,
(Chuckling). Still true. Still true. I'd like to be sober, too.

Credits….ads….first two segments of 60 Minutes.

Interview with Clapton: [Note: when I write "Bradley"…. these are
voice over parts. "Ed" is part of "active" interview].

Ed Bradley (seated before an artistic "backdrop" with Clapton and
his arm on a guitar): In the late 1960s, there was graffiti
around London that read simply "Clapton is God." Today, more than
thirty years later, Eric Clapton is still worshipped by his fans.
The legendary rock star and blues guitarist, a member of the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame, has won countless awards and earned
millions through his music. But sit down with Clapton and he'd
rather talk about how he's handled the adversity in his life than
the success. And there's been a lot of adversity. For more than
half of Clapton's fifty-five years, he was addicted to drugs and
alcohol…a pattern that began when he was fourteen.

[At the Crossroads Centre in Antigua] EC: The first time I got
drunk, I passed…I was…I got lost. I went to a jazz
festival…ummm…in the country and I woke up two days later and the
thing was over. My friends had gone. I had crapped myself. I'd
puked all over myself. And I had no idea…I had no money. And I
went… and I thought, 'What happened here? I had a helluva time.'
And I thought, you know, 'Can't wait to do this again.'

Ed: (chuckling) You thought you had a helluva time, eh?

EC: That's…yeah. That's, you see, the difference between me and
somebody who doesn't qualify as an addict.

Ed: When did you know that it HAD you?

EC: I think I knew for quite a long time. But that thing about
denial…the ability to lie to ourselves as human beings…is very
strong in me. So, I would…I'd just SHOVE that information.

Ed: Were you lonely then?

EC: [hurt look] Oh, yeah! (Nodding) Uh humm. I think I've had
loneliness play a part in my life all the way through.

Bradley: (talking over a video clip of the view of a street lined
with rowhouses in Ripley, Surrey) The roots of that loneliness
can be traced back to the small English village of Ripley where
Clapton grew up. (Photo of a teenage Patricia Clapton) His mother
was only sixteen and unmarried when her son was born. Clapton
would never meet his father. When he was less than a year old,
his mother left him with his grandparents, who he grew up
believing were his parents. (Photo of 30 year old Clapton and his
grandmother) Clapton wouldn't learn the truth until he was nine,
when his mother returned for a visit. (Photo of 7 yr.-old
Clapton)

[Scene has switched to another time (and place?) and a bearded
EC…as for the MSG concert] EC: I made, initially a plea to her to
be accepted as her son. And then… and she said, I think in a
great deal of pain, 'Perhaps we ought to leave it as it is.' And
then I got angry. I really didn't know what the hell was going
on.

Ed: How'd you work that out?

EC: I didn't! What I did was, I found an alternative system of
existence.

Bradley: And for Clapton, part of that was developing a love for
music…. specifically, the black music of America's Mississippi
Delta…the Blues. (A video clip of Clapton playing "Before You
Accuse Me" at the Unplugged Concert)

EC: And it was so…. PRIMAL! The way I responded to that. That I
just bonded immediately. And began…began that journey.

Ed: How old were you when you got your first guitar?

EC: Thirteen. I got my grandmother to…to buy it on what we call
the "Never Never," which is the high purchase system.

Ed: What's the "Never Never"?

EC: No money down. Well, you know, money down…it's like money…you
put a deposit down and then you pay for this thing over… like a
five-year period.

Ed: Long period of time.

EC: (Whistling) Ooooo, yeah!

Bradley (over a picture of EC in the Yardbirds) Clapton taught
himself to play by listening to records.

EC: (over a picture of the album…The Best of Muddy Waters) My
favorite one was…um…The Best of Muddy Waters. And I remember
playing along with it having this guitar…not plugged in because I
didn't have an amplifier…. and making the shape of…the same shape
as Muddy on a song called "Honey Bee," where I actually…I could
hit it and it sounded exactly like the record. It sounded like…I
was in stereo with the record. And that was it! That was…ahhh,
I'd cracked it then! I'd cracked it! I knew…I knew I could play!

Bradley (talking over a video clip of Cream playing "Strange
Brew" at the Beat Club): And play he did! By 1968, Clapton had
hooked up with Jeff Beck [Jack Bruce!] and Ginger Baker to form a
band called Cream. It was a HUGE international success.

Ed: At this point, you were being recognized…. as… the greatest
player of the blues guitar in Britain.

EC: Uh humm.

Ed: People were writing graffiti: "Clapton is God."

EC: Yeah.

Ed: When you saw that, what'd you think?

EC: I was disgusted…. and pleased at the same time. I am an
egomaniac with an inferiority complex. So, I like the attention…
and I don't like the attention. [Slight smile.]

Bradley (over photos of EC in the 70s and 80s) But, the more
attention, the more success, the more he retreated into the world
of drugs and alcohol.

EC: I couldn't get through a day without doing something to alter
my consciousness.

Ed: And it started with….heroin. The addiction.

EC: It started… no. It started with sugar, Ed.

Ed: Sugar?

EC: Oh, yeah! I was 5-6 years old. I was cramming sugar down my
throat as fast as I could get it down. Sweets! You know, sugar on
bread and butter. I became addicted to sugar because it changed
the way I felt.

Bradley (over a photo of EC in the late 70's) And as the years
passed, Clapton would do more and more to change the way he felt.

[Back to clean-shaven EC at Crossroads Centre] Ed: In the later
stages, what was a day like for you?

EC: I would wake up and look out the window and I didn't know
whether it was morning… or late afternoon. And if it was
dark…whether it was night…evening…or early. You know, I didn't
know again. And sometime, I didn't even know where I was, even
though I woke up at home, I wouldn't know where I was.

Ed: How long would a bottle of vodka last?

EC: Half a day.

Ed: Half a day?

EC: Yeah.

Ed: You're drinking couple of bottles a day?

EC: Two bottles a day. And then, sometimes, you know, I would go
out. Or, if someone managed to get me into a social situation,
I'd drink on top of that.

Ed: Were you ever suicidal?

EC: Yes! Frequently so. You know, almost on a nightly basis.

Bradley (over a video clip of EC's performance of "Layla" at Live
Aid in 1985) By the early 1970s, Clapton decided to leave Cream
and perform on his own. (Close-up photo of EC and Pattie from the
'70s). He had also fallen in love with Pattie Boyd, the wife of
his good friend, the Beatle, George Harrison. (1980's photo of
George and EC… followed by more video clip of "Layla" at Live
Aid). It was Boyd who decided to leave Harrison and marry
Clapton. And it was for her, that Clapton wrote one of his
biggest hits… "Layla." (More video clip of EC singing "Layla")

Ed: Pattie Boyd was described as the great love of your life.
True?

EC: Ummm…I don't know, Ed. I don't know, because…I don't know if
I was capable of knowing what love was then. I was OBSSESSED with
his woman! I Don't…so, that's why I said I don't know if I LOVED
her. Because, as a practicing drunk, which I was then, I just
WANTED something very badly.

Ed: What brought an end to it?

EC: Ummm…I think recovery, for me. Stopping drinking. And
realizing that I...umm…that I couldn't live the old life. In
fact, you know, when I first stopped drinking, I kind of
experienced a long period of impotency, which was pretty scary!
And, you know, all it was was I hadn't performed any kind of sex
act with a woman, sober, in my life. Never! It never happened
without some kind of stimulant. So, you take that away and I just
didn't…it just didn't work!

Ed: Was there a low point…a point where you said, 'OK, that's it!
There won't be a next drink'?

EC: Yeah.

Ed: Tell me what that was.

EC: I was an avid fisherman. And that was one area where I felt I
had some expertise and still harbored a little bit of
self-respect. And I remember going fishing one morning and on the
other side of the river, there were two fishermen who were
acknowledged experts. And…ummm…at some point, I lost my balance
and I fell over and I broke one of the rods in half. And
something in me just died. And I drove home and picked up the
phone and I called someone and I said, 'I've had enough!' And
that was it! I thought, 'What have I done? What the hell have I
done? I've let the cat out of the bag!' Because, for years, up
until then, I had said, 'I'm fine.'

Bradley (over photo of EC in early '80s) So, Clapton went into
treatment, but was soon drinking again. (Video clip of Lory del
Santo walking in an Italian green) It was during the relapse,
that he had an affair with Italian actress Lory del Santo. (Photo
of Lory with 1 yr.-old Conor) She would become the mother of
Clapton's only son…Conor.

EC: And when he was born, I was drinking. And he was
really…ahhh…the chief reason that I went back to treatment.
Because I really DID love this boy and I thought, 'I can't…I know
he's like a little baby, but he can SEE me and he can SEE what
I'm doing…and I don't want… I'm TIRED of this! (Photo of EC and a
1 yr.-old Conor).

Bradley: So, it was for Conor that Clapton finally quit for good
and vowed to be the kind of father he never had. (Photo of 3
yr.-old Conor with EC) (Photo of 3 yr.-old Conor playing with two
glasses) But that was not to be. In December [actually…March] of
'91, Clapton was in New York to visit Conor (Photo of EC, a 2
yr.-old Conor and Lory) who was living in the city with his
mother (Photo of 3 yr.-old Conor). The phone rang in his hotel
room.

EC: And his mother was hysterical. She was hardly able to…to make
sense. Ummm. But, she said he was dead.

Bradley (over a video clip showing a high-up open window of the
apartment building and panning down to the roof of the adjacent
building where Conor landed.) He had accidentally fallen 55
floors from the window of his mother's apartment.

EC: And I remember putting the phone down and calmly walking from
my hotel to that….place, as if nothing had happened. And I walked
passed the street and…this is a terrible thing of shame for me,
which I'll never ever perhaps recover from…. and seeing that
(ambulance)…seeing the crowd of people and paramedic van…and
knowing that he was there. And walking by [Ed winced.] and I'll
punish myself forever about…. Why didn't I run? Why didn't I go
to see him? And the truth is…I couldn't. I was so frightened
and…ummm…. That's tough! (Video clip of EC playing "Tears in
Heaven" at the Unplugged concert. Music continues over video
clips of 4 pallbearers carrying the small casket and EC and Lory
del Santo walking behind. Photo of 3 yr.-old Conor in EC's arms)

Ed: "Tears in Heaven" came out of that?

EC: Yeah.

Ed: Was it a difficult song to write?

EC: No. No, because I've always…umm…I always quite enjoyed going
into that place of emotion…with writing. It's a very very … It's
like a purging experience.

Bradley (over the photo of EC with an armload of Grammys) "Tears
in Heaven" and the CD Unplugged would win Clapton six Grammy
awards in 1993.

EC: You know, the greatest thing that I have is being awake for
my life, and being able to participate and having no more dark
secrets inside which damage me. Ummm… And that I've got through
staying sober.

Bradley (over a video clip of EC and himself, walking along the
beach in Antigua) Clapton has been sober for 13 years now, and
today, spends much of his time in the Caribbean on the island of
Antigua, where he's just finished building a drug and alcohol
treatment center called Crossroads.

(EC is driving Bradley up to Crossroads in a car as the interview
continues) Ed: It almost looks like a hotel.

EC: That's the idea. Lull everyone into a false sense of
security. (Chuckling)

Bradley (over a video clip of EC and himself walking out front of
Crossroads) To date, Clapton has spent almost seven million
collars on the project, which opened its doors to paying
customers a year ago last October.

Ed: You built all of this from scratch, yeah?

EC: Yeah.

Ed: I mean, there was nothing here?

EC: There was nothing here.

Bradley (over a video clip of EC and Anne Vance talking in the
Crossroads office) And Clapton's investment in the center is more
than financial. Crossroads has personal importance to him, he
says, because of how far he's come.

Ed: You've survived a complicated childhood, drug addiction,
alcohol addiction, the loss of your son. How have you come
through all of this and managed to remain sane and remain whole?

EC: Ummm… I think the process of letting it go, you know, ummmm…
of acknowledging that I'm not the master. And it ain't about what
I want. It's about what I can give.

Bradley (over video clip of EC and him walking around Crossroads
Centre) Now, he wants to give people who can't afford to pay for
a stay at the Crossroads a chance to use the rehab center. A
third of the beds will be set aside for them and to pay for their
care, he put on a benefit concert this summer at Madison Square
Garden. (Video clip of EC singing "My Father's Eyes" at MSG
concert) And he raised over 5 million dollars by auctioning off
more than a hundred of his guitars. (Video clips of
auction….people bidding…rows of guitars…final bidding and sale of
"Brownie.")

Ed: In 1974, someone asked you what you'd like to be doing ten
years from now and you said, 'I'd like to be alive.'

EC: Yeah. (Chuckling) Still true. Still true. I'd like to be
SOBER, too. 'Cause that's the…you know. One isn't really possible
without the other.