George Harrison Thought Eric Clapton Looked Lonely When They Met at a Lovin’ Spoonful Show, but Clapton Thinks George Envied Him
George Harrison and Eric Clapton had a special connection, but they didn’t instantly click when they first met. They crossed paths in the early 1960s and officially met at a Lovin’ Spoonful concert.
George thought Clapton looked lonely. However, Clapton later said he thought George envied that about him.
George Harrison thought Eric Clapton looked lonely when they first met
In 1977, George told Crawdaddy (per George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters) how he met Clapton. They didn’t get to know each other when their bands crossed paths. However, they later officially met after running into one another at a Lovin’ Spoonful concert. George recognized Clapton and thought he looked lonely. However, once again, they didn’t get a chance to talk.
“We were in Hammersmith Odeon, and the Yardbirds were sort of supporting a group on the bill, and I just met him then but really didn’t get to know him,” George said. “Met him again when the [Lovin’] Spoonful were at the Marquee and John and I went down and were just sort of hanging about backstage with them.
“We were going down to their hotel, I can remember just seeing Eric: ‘I know him, I’m sure I know this guy and he seems like, you know, really lonely.’ I remember we went out and got in the car and went off to Sebastian’s hotel and I remembered thinking, ‘We should’ve invited that guy ’cause I’m sure we know him from somewhere and he just seemed, like, lonely.'”
In another interview, George said he invited Clapton to hang out after the Lovin’ Spoonful show
During a 1992 interview with Goldmine’s Timothy White, George said he did invite Clapton to hang out with him and everyone.
“And I just saw this guy there who looked very familiar,” George said. “There was something about him, and he seemed real lonely, just sitting up on the road boxes backstage at this club. And I said, ‘Hey, you want to come with us, come and hang out?'”
Whatever happened that night after the Lovin’ Spoonful concert, George and Clapton eventually started running into each other more and more.
George told Glazer, “And then a couple of years, maybe a year or so later, the Bee Gees, the Cream, were involved with Brian Epstein originally, so I started meeting Eric and hanging out with him then at Brian Epstein’s house.”
Soon, George and Clapton started hanging out a lot. Once, George played hooky during a stressful Beatles meeting and went to Clapton’s house. He wrote “Here Comes The Sun” in Clapton’s garden. He also dedicated “Savoy Truffle” to him. However, the ultimate honor came when George asked Clapton to play on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”
Clapton thinks his friend envied that he was a lone wolf
The Cream guitarist agrees he was a bit of a loner in those days. However, Clapton said George envied that about him.
In Martin Scorsese’s documentary, George Harrison: Living in the Material World, Clapton called himself Lancelot. George and his first wife, Pattie Boyd, who Clapton later fell in love with, were King Arthur and Guinevere.
“I was the Lancelot in a way; I was kind of this lone wolf without any direction,” Clapton said. Clapton didn’t exactly have the girl yet, and he didn’t have a band as close-knit as The Beatles either.
He added, “I saw The Beatles play at the Hammersmith Odeon when I was at the bottom of the bill in the Yardbirds. This band was like a-they were like a single person. It was an odd phenomenon that they seemed to move together and think together. It was almost like a little family unit…
“He [George] was clearly an innovator… I didn’t feel threatened at all because I had quite a lot of self-confidence going in my concept of myself as being this sort of blues missionary, as it were.
“I wasn’t looking for any favors from anybody. And George recognized me as an equal because I had a level of proficiency even then that he saw as being fairly unique too…
“I think we shared a lot of tastes too, in superficial things, cars or clothes, and women, obviously. But I think what George might have liked about me was the fact that I was a kind of free agent. I think he may have already been wondering about whether he was in the right place being in a group. The group politic is a tricky one.
“There was a lot about what he had going, which I envied, and there was a lot about what I had going that he envied.”
Despite what they envied about each other, George and Clapton always preserved their friendship, even throughout their love triangle. Clapton loved being George’s friend because it was like “basking in the sunshine of this immense creativity.” He’s right; great things usually happened when the pair came together.
