Eric Clapton: Talkin' about his inspiration

In an industry where pop icon status has been taken over by the likes of Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson, only a few legends stand out. One of them is Eric Clapton. “Today” host Matt Lauer talked to Clapton about his new CD, "Me and Mr. Johnson," a tribute to one of his icons, blues guitarist Robert Johnson.

Robert who? Yes, it might surprise you to know the man who inspired him the most was a relatively unknown blues icon from Mississippi. Johnson, who had a brief career in the 1930s, died young, at the age of 27.

Matt Lauer: “How did you become exposed to him?”

Eric Clapton: “Someone had his (first) album and played it to me and that was it. And I was I was completely bowled over.”

Clapton's latest CD is a tribute to Johnson, covering 14 of his songs.

Lauer: “Let me read you what you said about him. ‘His music is like my oldest friend, always in the back of my head and on the horizon. It's the finest music I've ever heard.  I've always trusted its purity. And I always will.’ I don't know what more you could say....”

Clapton: “Well that one, I just wrote that just now. (Laughter)  I mean that, (Laughter) but that is true. That's exactly the way it affected me, it motivated me to be a musician.”

Johnson not only left an impact on Clapton, but he left his mark in the world of blues with his signature "boogie bass line."

Lauer: “The boogie bass line.”

Clapton: “Can I show you?”

Lauer: “I'd like you to.”

Clapton: “It's like -- it's what Jimmy Reed....”

Lauer: “No, don't play the guitar, Eric, please.” (Laughter)

Clapton: “It's just simply, (Music) just simply that. But with Robert Johnson it would be (Music).  So that's an intro and then he would go.” (Music).

Lauer: “I mean that to me sounds like the beginning of almost every blues song I've ever heard.”

Clapton: “Exactly, well I never heard anyone do that before on the guitar, before Robert Johnson.”

Today, his peers say the same thing about Clapton. His flair for the guitar has earned him the nickname “Slow Hand.”

But no matter how successful, Clapton always goes back to his first true love, the blues.

Lauer: “Robert Johnson said when he was asked to describe the blues, ‘the blues is a low-down aching chill.’ Looking at your life, and childhood situations with you have been documented, and drug and alcohol abuse and the loss of a child, is that that low-down aching chill?”

FREE VIDEO March 23: Eric Clapton talks about his new CD, "Me and Mr. Johnson," with "Today" host Matt Lauer. Today show

Clapton: “Yeah. I suppose it is.”

Lauer: “Nowadays, married, young daughter, daughter from a previous relationship, happy?”

Clapton: “Very happy.”

Lauer: “Is it hard to play the blues when you're happy?”

Clapton: “Not at all. (Laughter) I've recovered from a lot of things. But I can get in touch with those things anytime I like, or even, if I don't want to. If I sometimes will just get a flashback out of the blue without any expectation and I want to cry about something that's happened in my life. As much as I've grieved and mourned and gone through the processes, those things still come back. I mean, it is part of me.”

Johnson's influence on Clapton went well beyond his music. His drug and alcohol rehab facility is named "Crossroads," in Antigua, after a Johnson song. Founded in 1997, the center has been a passion of Clapton’s ever since.

Clapton: “I haven't had any of that stuff in my system for nearly 16 years.  And my life has seriously gotten better. And it's an inside job.  It's like on the outside, not too much has changed.  There's always been money and stuff and a career and music and things like that moving around my life.  But I never really felt really good about me. So that's what needed to change was… I had all this stuff when I was 21.  And I still wanted to die on (Laughter) a daily basis.”

And now, at the age of 58, Clapton continues to work on his music as he takes his place in history. He's won 16 Grammys, and is a triple inductee into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

Lauer: “A couple of years ago you dominated the Grammys.  I look at the Grammys this year and it was very much R&B and hip-hop.  And it was Beyonce, Outkast and Justin Timberlake.  How hard is it for a guy like you to keep in contact with the younger music buyer?  And do you even care about it?”

Clapton: “No, I don't.  I mean, I'm not really concerned about their interest in me.  I'm more concerned about my interest in them.”

Lauer: “What is your interest in them?”

Clapton: “Well it's difficult.  I mean, I'm getting curmudgeonly, you know.  And I really have to work hard to stop that (from) taking over my perception of things because my first instinct is to do what any old guy does around anything that's new and young and modern, is to just reject it out of hand. I mean that's the one thing that I find really difficult about the aging process, is that you just inherit this kind of intolerance. My hope is if they are aware of me, that they'll listen to it and like the music for itself.”

"Me and Mr. Johnson" will be released March 30.

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