this childhood trauma from which Eric Clapton has kept the consequences

The documentary returns to the fascinating journey of a guitar and blues star Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Barsbroadcast on Arte this Friday January 6, 2023 at 10:25 p.m. The opportunity to learn a little more about the wounded childhood of the talented musician.

“Sex, drugs and rock’n’roll” as the saying goes, that the great Eric Clapton did not lie. Tortured genius as artists often do, this living god of the guitar has known dark times, marked by mourning, abandonment and self-destruction So many ordeals on which the documentary returns Eric Clapton: Life in the Bluesbroadcast on Arte Friday January 6, 2023 at 10:25 p.m. (and on Arte.tv) and which retraces the complex journey of the musician. Supported by testimonials from relatives and images from personal archives, this fascinating production invites us to dive into the intimacy of the man with the instrument as a lifeline, and in particular into an indelible wound he experienced during his childhood.

“My mother had unconditional love for me“

It all started well though. A cheerful and spoiled little blond, Eric Clapton grew up in a village in the south of England and claims to have “had a happy childhood“: “My parents raised me with a lot of tenderness especially my mother who had an unconditional love for me.“Only, he is a lonely boy whom his comrades find odd:”I suffered from a huge inferiority complex but I didn’t know why.” Until the day he learns that the one he thought was his sister is actually his mother. Rose Clapp, his beloved grandmother, remembers this tragedy: “My daughter didn’t want the baby and she left for Canada“. And this after a one-night stand with a soldier stationed nearby. Wounded, he remembers that from that day he “didn’t trust anyone anymore“: “It felt like my whole life had been a lieThis abandonment is the first of a long series of disappointments for the artist, who will remain permanently marked by this episode.

An injured child saved by music

Because the family history of Eric Clapton is punctuated with trauma. Later, the guitarist meets his mother again. He is a nine-year-old boy delighted to learn that he and his grandparents are going to welcome his “real” mother for a while: on the port, he finds her accompanied by two children. Very intimidated, he takes his courage in both hands to ask him the question that burns his lips: “Are you going to be my mom?“The response of the interested party is without appeal:”No, it’s better that it stays as it is” She pushes the vice so far as to refuse that her half-brothers and sisters consider her part of the family. This rejection revolts Eric Clapton and conditions their future relationship. When as a teenager he spends holidays with his mother, his atypical look annoys the latter who urges him to cut his long hair. The military haircut he is forced to wear brings tears to his eyes: “I felt like everything was being done to smash my personality and deny my identity.“Only lifeline for the artist: music. He will take refuge in the blues, with the success that we know him.