With over 41 years in the music business and hits such as Layla and Tears in Heaven, Eric Clapton now has a hard time playing the guitar like he once did.
The 71-year-old artist suffers from peripheral neuropathy, as diagnosed by his doctors. This condition is a result of nerve damage that impairs the movements and sensation of one or several extremities.
As early as 2013, Clapton had to cancel a number of scheduled gigs due to back pain, an early indication of his eventual condition.
In a recent interview with Classic Rock magazine, he said: “I’ve had quite a lot of pain over the last year. It turned into what they call peripheral neuropathy – which is where you feel like you have electric shocks going down your leg. And I’ve had to figure out how to deal with some other things from getting old. [It’s] hard work to play the guitar and I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that it will not improve.”
After years of struggling with different addictions – including prescription drugs, alcohol, cocaine and heroin – he’s happy to be alive although suffering from the painful and often uncontrollable nerve disease. He added, “Because I’m in recovery from alcoholism and addiction to substances, I consider it a great thing to be alive at all. By rights I should have kicked the bucket a long time ago. For some reason I was plucked from the jaws of hell and given another chance.”
The rock and blues star admitted that touring was becoming unbearable because of the pain and he was looking into retirement. He has kept recording, saying “What I’ll allow myself to do, within reason, is carry on recording in the studio. I don’t want to go off the boil to the point where I’m embarrassing myself.”