Mark Knopfler is one of the most unique guitarists of his generation. His style is hard to copy, especially because he uses his fingers instead of a guitar pick, which, combined with his musical influences, makes it really hard for someone to replicate his technique. With the success of Dire Straits, he caught the attention of some of the greatest guitar players in the world and had the chance to meet and play with some of them. Over the decades, he gave his opinion on many of those players, including Eric Clapton.
What is Mark Knopfler’s opinion on Eric Clapton
Mark Knopfler has always been a big fan of Eric Clapton and once said he grew up wanting to be in a Blues band like Eric with John Mayall. “The John Mayall album. That was serious (stuff), serious. (…) With Eric, it’s just really (has) been a blues-based thing, that has been refined here and there. Extended backwards in time and refined around what there is then. It’s an excellent base for explorations, really, and for just doing different things.”
“In fact, you can hear it, when you get figures who are maybe popular in Rock bands who play, but they don’t have that basis. When they try and do bluesy things or blues type things… I remember Eric laughing at some people’s efforts to do that. Because I suppose people achieve a sort of facility on instruments. So they think they can therefore play that stuff. It’s not as easy as that.”
Mark Knopfler continued:
“The other thing about Eric that I’ve always said, he’s one of my favorite singers. To me, he is kind of like a white Ray Charles, you know, in a way,” Mark Knopfler said in an interview for the documentary “Eric Clapton: Standing at the Crossroads” (2009 – Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). They had the chance to play together many times over the years. The first occasion was in 1985, when Clapton joined Dire Straits on stage at the Hammersmith Odeon in London.
That night they played “Two Young Lovers” (Dire Straits), “Cocaine” (J.J. Cale) and “Farther Up The Road” (Bobby Blue). They once again joined forces in 1986 at the Prince’s Trust 10th Birthday concert and in the following year, during Clapton’s Royal Albert Hall residence, Knopfler was his second guitarist. In 1988 they played together again at the Prince’s Trust and Nelson Mandela shows.
That same year, Clapton embarked on an American tour to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his career, and Knopfler toured with him. The final shows took place in Japan and also featured Elton John and Sting as special guests. Interestingly, one of the few times Clapton played rhythm guitar live during his career was with Dire Straits. As the band’s bassist John Illsley joked in his biography, Eric is actually pretty good as a rhythm player too.
Mark Knopfler said that he and Clapton have different styles but the same roots
Although he and Clapton have different styles, Knopfler said that they have the same roots and understand each other’s music. Not long after the legendary played with Dire Straits in the late 80s, Mark talked in an interview with Scott Muni about their techniques. “I like playing with Eric, because is fun making Eric sound as good as possible. (…) I know all of Eric’s stuff,” he said. Then the interviewer says he thinks Clapton also knows some of Knopfler’s music and the musician replies: “He does know, he has to learn it now. He is up there now doing it, he have to for (the) Wembley (show). He has played (with us) before. So it’s not quite hard for him.”
“He did lend me a guitar or two (for the album ‘Brothers in Arms’). Acoustics and stuff, which was very, very kind of him. He took his favorite guitar and took all the way to Salem, Montserrat (In the West Indies). I suppose we are both rooted… We play differently, but we both rooted in the same kind of stuff. We both like the same kind of stuff. So the similarity comes in the Blues playing, basically,” he said.
Clapton said Knopfler is “totally unique” and “a great craftsman”
Eric Clapton also admires Knopfler and Dire Straits a lot, saying he is a “totally unique” and a “great craftsman”. “Well, Mark Knopfler, I think, is totally unique. He’s a great craftsman, which brings it back to that. I mean, with Dire Straits, if you listen to any of their albums the first time, it sort of goes by you a bit.”
“Then gradually it just gets better and better, and it stands the test of time. They’re fantastic craftsmen,” he told Rolling Stone in 1991. As told by John Illsley in his biography “My Life in Dire Straits“, the first time Clapton went to see them play was when they were promoting the 1982 album “Love Over Gold”.
He said:
“We hit the road with a warm-up gig at Guildford Civic Hall, a sketchy performance memorable only for the after-show appearance backstage of Eric Clapton, a guitarist much admired by anyone who has ever picked up the instrument. It was flattering that he came to see us or, more probably, to see Mark in action,” John Illsley said.
The first time Mark ever heard Eric Clapton was when he listened to the guitarist’s classic album with John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers, released in 1966. After the 1980s and early 1990s, they continued to collaborate from time to time. In 2014, Clapton organized the J.J. Cale tribute album “The Breeze: An Appreciation of J.J. Cale”. Both musicians had been heavily influenced by the American artist, who had died the previous year. Knopfler played with Eric on the tracks “Someday” and “Train to Nowhere”.
More recently, in 2024, Clapton took part in a Mark Knopfler project. Alongside many incredible guitar players, he recorded a new version of Mark’s “Going Home (Theme From Local Hero)” to raise funds for the Teenage Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America.