Brian May’s opinion on Eric Clapton

Brian May is two years younger than Eric Clapton and both of them started their careers around the same time in the early ’60s. They were both born near London and had the chance to be part of the city’s effervescent music scene, but it took a bit longer for Brian to achieve fame and recognition since Queen only released their debut album in 1973 when Clapton was already a global star. May had the chance to watch Eric play multiple times in the early days and has already given his opinion on the guitarist.

What is Brian May’s opinion on Eric Clapton

Brian May is such a big fan of Eric Clapton that when he asked which person he would choose to live as if he could, he was one of the people he mentioned. “Eric Clapton, he is still my hero, you don’t have many heroes left by the time you’re 50, but he’s absolutely still my hero and he’s gone down all kinds of dark alleys and made mistakes, but what he’s done is always grow.”

“I just have a great respect, if I woke up tomorrow morning and found out I was Eric Clapton, I (would think) ‘Hmmm, ok, I can have some respect for this’ (laughs),” he said in a Q&A video for Queen convention in 2001 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). Eric Clapton is only two years older than May but achieved fame much earlier, drawing a lot of attention in London. Brian had the chance to see him play multiple times, including with The Yardbirds. He kept track of what Eric did throughout his career in the following decades and in his opinion, he keeps getting better.

“My heroes are still the same as when I was growing up. As a teenager, I went to see Eric Clapton at the Eel Pie Island (small island in the river Thames in the London region) and was blown away. I’m still blown away by the guy. He’s very different these days from what he was but there’s a colossal talent there. He was one of the torch bearers. He led Britain into Rock music, really, which was the preserve of Americans until that time, along with The Beatles,” he said during a conversation in an interview at the Oxford Union in 2013 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).

Brian May said it was Clapton who made him fall in love with Blues music

Blues started in the United States and Rock and Roll was part of the evolution of that kind of music. But it was something most Americans weren’t hearing in the ’60s. It was British bands that fell in love with the music of artists like Robert Johnson, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, who gave that music back to the USA and showed them how great the Blues was.

After covering many of their songs, they started to write their own, inspired by those artists. Eric Clapton was one of those musicians, doing so with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Cream and later with his other projects and solo career.

According to May, it was Eric who made him pay more attention and fall in love with Blues music. “I used to go and see the Yardbirds. We did a couple of their songs. Clapton was unbelievable, just so sparkling and fluid. He was what turned me away from the Shadows style and sent me back to listening to B.B. King, Bo Diddley, and all those people I’d heard before.”

“I thought it was all the same: 12-bar blues, and that was it. I didn’t realize the depth or emotion there was in it until I saw Eric Clapton doing it. That somehow made it accessible for me,” he said in an interview with Guitar Player in 2012.

May criticized Clapton for being anti-vax

Although Eric Clapton is his hero as a musician, Brian May, who is a man of science and an astrophysicist, criticized his peer for being anti-vax during the pandemic “I love Eric Clapton, he’s my hero, but he has very different views from me in many ways. He’s a person who thinks it’s OK to shoot animals for fun, so we have our disagreements. But I would never stop respecting the man.”

“Anti-vax people, I’m sorry, I think they’re fruitcakes. There’s plenty of evidence to show that vaccination helps. On the whole they’ve been very safe. There’s always going to be some side effect in any drug you take. But to go around saying vaccines are a plot to kill you… I’m sorry, that goes in the fruitcake jar for me,” he said in an interview with The Independant in 2021. May and Clapton had the chance to play together a couple of times over the years on special occasions.

Eric Clapton didn’t like the song Brian and Eddie Van Halen created as a tribute to him

On his 1983 album “Star Fleet Project,” Brian invited several musicians to play Eddie was one of them. The late legendary musician was also a big fan of Eric Clapton and they decided to make a song as a tribute to him, which turned out to be “Blues Breaker.”

Two years later, in an interview with Guitar Player, Clapton said he didn’t like the track.“That’s funny, isn’t it? That is very funny to me. Because if he was that tuned into me and missed that point, then he missed the whole point. And funnily enough, he and Brian May had made a record a couple of years ago.”

“One side was a kind of a fusion thing, really very interesting, great to listen to and the other side was a blues jam. It was so horrible. And they dedicated it to me. They sent me a copy, and I put it on, expecting something, and, you know. I was almost insulted that they should send this to me, because they both… they can’t play!”

Eric Clapton continued:

“They took turns to play solos, and just went head-at-it, with everything they knew. And there was no dynamics, no build-up, no sensitivity. I was very disappointed. Though, actually, it did me a little good. Because I realized that, although I’d been accepting the fact that all these players knew exactly what it was about on the surface of things, underneath, they didn’t. (…) I often think, ‘Well. when I get into the studio, I’ll have a go at it (Try to play like Eddie someday).’”

“But what’s going to make it any different when you get into the studio? The fact that you can use gadgets? And if you rely on gadgets you’re getting nowhere. Because it still is down to what you do with your two hands. And that’s definitely beyond me, what Eddie does. It’s well beyond me,” Eric Clapton said.