Do we like Eric Clapton?
Our score: 2 out of 10. A run of his own acts and words on race, vaccines and fundraising for a vaccine-sceptic campaign, with real charity work the only balance.
At 81, Eric Clapton is still out on the road. This year's headline came from Madrid on 7 May, when a fan threw what looked like a vinyl record and hit him in the chest. He skipped the encore, didn't look hurt, and played Barcelona three days later as planned.
The stain he can't shake is Birmingham in 1976. NBC reports he shouted slurs from the stage and voiced support for Enoch Powell, a rant critics call racist, and it helped spark Rock Against Racism. In 2018 the Daily Beast reported he described the disgust he felt watching old footage of himself chanting racist slogans.
Then came the pandemic. NBC reports that in 2021 videos he called expert health advice “propaganda”, and he vowed not to play for “discriminated audiences” at venues checking vaccine status. He has also opposed lockdowns, and a Rolling Stone piece said he'd shifted from vaccine sceptic to conspiracy theorist, which is Rolling Stone's read, not his.
He put money behind it too. Paste, citing Rolling Stone, reported he gave £1,000 and lent a van to Jam for Freedom, a UK group of musicians against vaccine requirements, and his rep declined to comment. He then went on RFK Jr.'s podcast and called the criticism “an affirmation to me that I've been doing the right thing.”
Harm check, plain: in September 2023 Clapton and his band played a private fundraiser for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s presidential campaign, which Stereogum, citing the Hollywood Reporter, said raised $2.3 million. I found no reliable reporting of anything he's said about trans people or the climate, so that's a gap, not a pass or a fail. His record on race, vaccines and who he raises money for is plenty on its own.