Last month, Eric Clapton spoke out against Covid vaccines. Clapton, 76, received the AstraZeneca vaccine a few months ago and he hasn’t stopped bitching about it since. He claims the AZ vaccines gave him numbness in his hands, and he now believes (falsely) that the vaccines affect fertility. Apparently, while he was in lockdown, Clapton saw some stuff on the internet and he’s gone full-blown anti-Vaxxer and unhinged conspiracist. This week, Clapton dropped a video with Oracle Films which is just one long rant about vaccines, full of lies, misinformation and unhinged bullsh-t. I’m not going to post it but if you want to see it (please don’t) you can go here. Some lowlights:
Getting the AstraZeneca jab: He admits he held out for “because it came from Oxford. I’m pretty naive about this stuff.” He went on to describe his side effects: “within several hours, I was shaking like a leaf. And I went to bed early, and I couldn’t get home… I was boiling hot and sweating. And then I was cold. And I was out for the count for about a week. I had been preparing for a project where I was going to be playing acoustic guitar with a couple of musicians and we’re all going to film it that week. Not me – [I was] out.” Clapton does acknowledge that “it’s not all due to the vaccine, but the vaccine, took my immune system and just shook it around again.”
He’s anti-government: Clapton said he first became “disenchanted and suspicious” with the government during Brexit. During the first UK lockdown in 2020, Clapton said he began to consume “alternative data” about the pandemic on YouTube and from the group of academics behind the Great Barrington Declaration, whose call for ‘focussed protection’ for those at risk from coronavirus and a return to normal life for all others has been widely criticised by numerous public health bodies including the World Health Organisation. “The more I got into that, the more I realised I was distancing myself not only from the government but from the rest of the public too,” Clapton said. Later he said he became involved in anti-lockdown communities on apps like Telegram.
He doesn’t like the backlash: Clapton said he considered leaving the UK entirely, but had received backlash in America.“The minute I began to say anything about the lockdown here, and my concerns, I was labelled a Trump supporter. I got some pretty heavy feedback.”
His kids hate him too: He described them as “brainwashed” for criticizing his vaccine scepticism. “My fear about vaccination is, what will it do to my children? They may go ahead. There’s no way I can stop them, once they’ve turned 18, that’s their choice. I think they see it as a short term problem. They want to go to the Med or to another country – [the vaccine] is something you’ve just got to do to get there. To talk to my daughters about the fact they may not be able to have kids – they don’t seem to care,” he adds, referencing a discredited piece of misinformation that the vaccine has an impact on fertility.
He has lost friends due to his stance. “I would try to reach out to fellow musicians and sometimes I just don’t hear from them anymore. My phone doesn’t ring very often. I don’t get that many texts and emails any more. It’s quite noticeable.”
Well, the good news is that the people around Eric Clapton are sane – his family and friends sound absolutely horrified by what’s become of him. It reminds me very much of the QAnon people and how they got radicalized by Facebook and YouTube, basically. Journalists have examined whether those cultists came from families or groups of friends who would have encouraged the cultism, and overwhelmingly, those people are surrounded by friends and families who don’t understand why their loved one was so easily radicalized by these dumbf–k conspiracies. And it’s all connected too, the Qanon bullsh-t, the anti-Vaxx sh-t, the January 6th terrorist insurrection. The VENN diagram of those groups has A LOT of overlap. Anyway, Eric Clapton is an idiot. I hate him and I hope his career is over after all of this crap.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
I thought his career was over several decades ago?
Unrelated, I read his ex-wife Patty’s book about him and he sounds like a horrible person. And it wasn’t a trashy tell all, she seems like she was just trying to tell her story. But he was abusive and horrible.
Exactly. Who is checking for Eric Clapton anymore?
I have never been a Clapton fan (I’d rather stab my eardrums than ever have to listen to Cocaine again) but after reading Patty’s book I now actively despise his miserable POS existence. He treated her (and George) horribly.
Look up Alice Ormsby-Gore, his underaged girlfriend in the late ’60s. She was in love with him, and he took advantage of that and had her scoring heroin for him. She became addicted herself, and then became an alcoholic to cope with the withdrawals when there wasn’t enough heroin for both of them. She was a beautiful girl from an aristocratic family, and eventually ended up living on benefits. She died alone in a bedsit with the needle still in her arm. His influence and treatment destroyed her.
I was going to say this, too – read his ex-wife Patti’s book and you’ll see what an idiot he is. Her book isn’t vindictive, it’s just factual. Ever since I read that, I’ve thought he was gross.
He is so ugly too. He has the most awful chin and neck, ala Phillip Roth.
Clapton is a more than an idiot. He’s a racist. Since the 1960s70s, he’s been a right-wing white supremacist and extremely anti-immigrant. https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/eric-clapton-vaccine-propaganda-conspiracy-racist-b1849024.html
Exactly, he’s always was like this. Can’t blame old age.
He and Van Morrison showed the depths of their true colors in the past, and more so during this last year. While all of these things were always *there* simmering under their surfaces, a thin veneer hid it from the public. Now their full on crazy is on display: racist, anti-semitic, anti-vaxxing conspiracists who are letting their freak fly for ALL to see.
Yeah, done and DONE.
Eric Clapton has a history of being a xenophobic bigot, so this follows imo. Someone tweeted weeks ago (it is now gone) that the effects of the vaccine were so severe for him, that he was unable to make any racist remarks for a full day.
Anyway, I think he all around sucks.
I’ve never understood the fascination with this guy. His music is terrible and his “guitar god” status mystifies me. Throw in the pushing “alternative data” and I’d say we never have to talk about him again!
There’s no fool like an old racist rockstar fool. I don’t think Clapton has been much of a father, friend, or human in years.
Leave the UK for the US? I thought he was living in Ohio, raising his younger daughters with his much younger wife. He, apparently, got into a fight with his oldest daughter (Ruth, who has 2 kids) for something stupid and was estranged from her for years. Only his youngest daughter w/his current wife is under 18, the other 2 are adults
“ Journalists have examined whether those cultists came from families or groups of friends who would have encouraged the cultism, and overwhelmingly, those people are surrounded by friends and families who don’t understand why their loved one was so easily radicalized by these dumbf–k conspiracies.”
Yeah, and that what friends, family and neighbors usually say about people who go nuts and kill people. “He/she was such a nice person.” Either they never really knew the person or they deliberately ignored all of the signs.
So many of those people that showed up on January 6th were already problematic, had rap sheets, history of abuse, violence, racism, misogyny, etc. Sounds like Eric Clapton is the same so it wasn’t much of a leap for him.
If you want to be absolutely gutted for the rest of today, visit Reddit/qanon casualties. Families and friends are continuing to see their loved ones radicalize & get angrier and angrier. Its Aum Shrinkyo on christian nationalist steroids & it’s terrifying. Though Eric Clapton has always been a racist shitbag so this isn’t too much of a leap.
Eric Clapton was a raging racist in the 70s. He probably still is but like others clamped down on it when became socially unacceptable to be racist. So him being anti lockdown and an anti vaxxer is a natural progression for these types.
Considering that his elder daughter is of mixed race, it’s no wonder they’re estranged.
He was talking about numbness in his hands 2-3 years prior to the pandemic-so unless the microchip now includes a time machine he’s insane.
He’s always been a selfish racist.
EC has always been a rotten person. Great guitar player, lousy person.
His behavior in his personal relationships is very bad.
Just because a person has talent in one area does not equal a kind, decent human being in any other area.
Clapton came from a poor, uneducated background.
What I do not understand is the fact that he has been wildly successful and touring for decades, and so has traveled and worked around the world, how has he not become more open minded?
I really hate to say this but Clapton sounds an awful lot like Ted Nugent lately. Ugh!
I’ve wondered this about other people, and it’s because they are careful to preserve their own identity. As travellers, and especially entertainers, they’re just passin’ through and are often so sheltered from their surroundings. They interact only with pre-approved people on a limited basis or through someone else—usually their assistant, who they treat like shit.
He’s lost relationships with friends and family over this BS? GOOD. These idiots need to feel the consequences of their stupidity, and I would rather that happen before something like polio makes a comeback.
Eric blamed his racist stances and cruelty earlier in life on being a raging alcoholic 😒…I too read Pattie Boyd’s autobio and if I had been in her place…I would have GLADLY caught felony cases regarding him AND George…ESPECIALLY Eric..she even refused to adopt a child when they were together due to Eric’s cruelty…Eric’s inhumanity has ALWAYS been there for everyone to see….if you looked
I had a coworker telling me the HPV vaccine causes infertility, so I looked up the study and it had been pulled from every major medical journal because the evidence was so coincidental. Like, 24-32 year old college educated women weren’t having babies and that was the evidence for the HPV vaccine causing fertility drops. Not that these women had documented fertility issues, but that they weren’t having babies, which is the dumbest shit because when you get out of school, you focus on career and yourself, not having kids immediately. But it’s this study all the anti-vaxx assholes glom on to as proof of vaccine infertility; a poorly planned study from a little known business school in NYC. It took me 15 minutes to find all that information and shut my coworkers conspiracy theory nonsense down in three. I hate these idiots so much
https://twitter.com/richard_littler/status/1404352161102839809?s=20
^^ from Twitter: “@richard_littler I see that a famous guitarist who used to spend $16,000 a week on heroin in the 1970s ($90k+ in today’s money), who almost died in hospital because he drank three bottles of brandy a day, is worried about the recognised side-effects of a tested, approved vaccine on his body.”
Clapton is such a tosser as my British friends would say
I think that makes the point nicely.
I had a friend who was* a drug addict, and she had the same mentality about anti-depressants. She called them “that s#!t,” but had no qualms about buying and ingesting stuff laced with who-knows-what from a near-stranger. (*Probably still is; I lost touch with her years ago.)
There is a long list of deeply talented, well known people who died of heroin overdoses. I promise someone you love (from afar) and/or loved their work is on that list.
What does heroin leave us with- Eric Clapton kicked the habit.
I am not saying i wish he had died instead of Ms. Joplin or Mr. Cobain or Mr. Phoenix, etc.
I am saying heroin sucks in every way possible.
And Eric Clapton sucks too.
Any day now, Keith Richards is going to stop adoring his new grandchild long enough to say: “F off, Eric, it’s called arthritis.”
It’s been interesting/scary to watch people devolve into this conspiracy theory bullshit with such anger and derision. I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve watched people become absolutely unhinged when you utter even the mildest criticism of these unchecked nutters. I saw it happen in real time the other day and I’m still shook.
He’s trash. And the height of irony is this person made his career stealing Black music. Scumbag.
People have been totally unprepared for how YouTube and social media influences thinking. The technology was completely unexamined. Any idiot can say anything and be believed. People USED to be skeptical of TV advertisements back in the day. Now? Never skeptical. Not even once. It’s sad.
My brother and his wife (who studied to be a nurse) surprised our family by being the only ones in the family to not get vaccinated saying it can effect their future unborn children. When I asked where did he get his info and I can provide him at least ten different reliable sources that dispute his information, he then gets coy with me and doesn’t answer. They want to travel the world even though many of the countries they want to visit need prove of vaccination. He got Covid visiting his in-laws instead of staying put during the pandemic (he denies this but they both had the symptoms and her family tested positive). I was just surprised who in my family turned out to be the one vulnerable to conspiracy theories, he’s a chef and she’s a nurse so I thought they were too educated and urbane to fall into this rabbit hole.
YouTube is the worse for people who are vulnerable for conspiracy theories. Six years ago one of my best friends went down the rabbit hole of YouTube starting at the Gaia channel for yoga and meditation but the algorithms led him to new age channels that told him he was an angel and he could heal himself. He is HIV positive and was convinced that AIDS was a conspiracy from the government and he stopped taking his HIV cocktail (didn’t tell us about this all along). He eventually developed HIV dementia and went crazy. He sent obscene texts to a 14 year old (his third cousin that he thought was gay and he wanted to help him come out). Long story short, he is in prison now on a 6 year sentence, he’s back on his meds but still writes his friends (not me I am his POA and he knows I don’t take credence in conspiracy theories) asking for books on aliens, angels, etc. which makes me think he didn’t learn his lesson even though he threw away an amazing life and made all around him, especially his fragile 80 year old parents suffer. So anytime anyone starts spouting conspiracy theories at me I just walk away.
I read an interesting piece on the British Psychological Society research blog (my other source of entertainment after CB) about some research into who is susceptible to this kind of stuff (it might have been cults more specifically) and being well educated was actually a predictor of being more likely to get sucked in. That’s really stayed with me.
Now, that’s not to say there aren’t a ton of stupid gullible people out there but it helps explain why sometimes the least likely seeming people can buy in to this.
God, that is so sad. What a waste.
He’s a racist POS and an overrated guitar player.
Nah, he’s always been a right wing, racist, misogynistic whiner.
Eric Clapton has been a racist asshole for 50 years. Being a covid antivaxxer totally tracks for him.
For some reason my innocuous post was deleted but here goes again. Years ago a musician friend of Mr. Jaded’s was in a band that opened up for Clapton. He ran into Clapton backstage during a sound check and said how honoured he was to open for him. Clapton turned to him and said “go f*ck yourself” and walked away. He is a horrible person and if you want some real insight into how horrible he really is, read Patti Boyd’s autobiography.
A man who has done street heroin and once wrote a song called “Cocaine” is expressing worry about a properly-tested vaccine.
Okay, then.
Cocaine- written by JJ Cale. Get it right Billy Billie