Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars, which recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, recalls the career highs but also the shadows in the life of 72-year-old rock legend, Eric Clapton.
Director Lili Fini Zanuck was faciltated "extensive personal archive of classic performance clips, on and off-stage footage, iconic photos, concert posters, handwritten letters, drawings and personal diary entries," producers revealed.
"I knew that I was different, but I didn't know why," Clapton says in the film, while fellow guitarists and friends examine how the man known as Slowhand "revolutionised" guitar playing.
Life in 12 Bars also recounts Clapton's much-documented drug - LSD, cocaine, mescalin - and alcohol addictions and the tragic death of his four-year-old son Conor in 1991.
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Eric's grandmother Rosie Clapp features as does former wife, Patti Boyd. Fellow blues legends John Mayall and the late BB King evaluate the genius of their friend and collaborator. "I've never met a better man than my friend Eric Clapton, " says King.
In the late 90s, Clapton helped to found the Crossroads Centre Antigua in the West Indies, a detox centre which he envisaged as "a centre of the highest calibre." The centre offers, according to its promotional material, "a therapeutic, supportive and safe environment - away from the confusion of life in addiction."
Clapton, who owns a house on the island, continued to help fund the project through the Crossroads Guitar Festival. A signed, official limited edition book of the Crossroads Guitar Festivals, 1999 to 2013, is about to be published which will support the work of the detox clinic, with proceeds from the sale of each book going to the Centre.
In recent times, Clapton has suffered health problems, but there have been sporadic dates. He finished his A Celebration Of 50 Years Of Music, at The Forum in Los Angeles last Monday, September 18, the last of four concerts at the venue. The iconic guitarist performed the Celebration show in New York City in March and September and in London last May.
Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars will premiere February 10, 2018 on Showtime.
