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One of the most prolific Rock and Roll artists of all time has grown sick and tired of the “hostile” nature of touring.
Eric Clapton will no longer tour once he turns 70 this year, according to a recent interview with Uncut Magazine. The reason he sights have little to do with the actual concerts but instead the grueling travel schedule. ““The road has become unbearable,” he explains to Uncut. “It’s become unapproachable, because it takes so long to get anywhere. It’s hostile – everywhere: getting in and out of airports, traveling on planes and in cars
Not only is this a blow to Clapton concert goers but also to those clinging to the remaining threads of hope for a Cream reunion. Clapton, who left that rock bad 46 years ago, stated in the interview that “After [Cream’s 2005 Madison Square Garden Reunion] I was pretty convinced that we had gone as far as we could without someone getting killed.” He continued the violent hyperbole with “At this time in my life, I don’t want blood on my hands! I don’t want to be part of some kind of tragic confrontation.”
Last year Clapton had told Rolling Stone “When I’m 70, I’ll stop. I won’t stop playing or doing one-offs, but I’ll stop touring, I think.” If I could do that around my neighborhood, that would be great. You have guys in Texas that play their circuit, and it keeps them alive. But for me, the struggle is the travel. And the only way you can beat that is by throwing so much money at it that you make a loss.
Currently there are no scheduled shows for Eric Clapton, meaning that his June 28th performance at the Life Festival in Oswiecim, Poland may Very well have been his last live performance. If that is true, then the singer-songwriter will go out as one of the most prolific musicians of the past 50 years. His retirement from touring will not necessarily mean a complete break with all music.
“There are tons of things I’d like to do, but I’m looking at retirement too,” Clapton promised the Magazine. “What I’ll allow myself to do, within reason, is carry on recording in the studio. I don’t want to go off the boil to the point where I’m embarrassing myself.”