Reading a very good book

I am a close follower of rock music and the blues and of course a longtime fan of Eric Clapton. I love his virtuosity as a guitar player (even though there's been times that he wanted to steer clear of that).

I like what he stands for insofar as he's been so down, so much so in his addiction to heroin, then alcohol, then cigarettes and he's beaten them all. He overcame the death of his only son, & finally, he has founded the Crossroads Centre to help drug addicts.

I ready his 330-page book in a few nights. The book wasn't great or outstanding (I wish that he had written more about Cream, how he came up with the songs, more about being and working with Jack Bruce), but it was still a very good book!

He is very vivid about the women in his life and the self-defeating addictions that he employed that doomed his relationships, espcially the relationship with Patti Boyd Harrison (the one who inspired many of his songs including "Layla", "Wonderful Tonight" "Your Friends are Tearing Us Apart" (which is from the August album which is pictured above) .

He is also very graphic in how he beat his addictions, and how he used the Lord to help overcome such terrible demons. From the 80s to 2007, I considered RUSH my favorite band. Of all the bands I have ever seen, I have seen Rush, by far the most, probably 5 or 6 times. I loved their intelligent lyrics, awesome guitar sound and have considered them a great group. Yet toward the end of last year, something was telling me that they really shouldn't be my favorite group. One reason was their last 2 CDs weren't that great. But the really big reason was that I liked the lyricist, Neil Peart's views against authoritarianism and opposition to dictatorship, but I became increasingly "turned off" to his atheistic views. There was something inside me saying that my favorite band shouldn't really be with one who is so open about their atheistic beliefs.

It took me awhile, but then it became obvious that Eric Clapton and his music was an obvious choice for being my "favorite". Further, Clapton has clearly shown that he is a big believer in God/Jesus, tho' like all of us he has strayed off the straight and narrow.

I also liked the book because of its happy ending. Currently, Eric is happily married and has 4 daughters (and an adult daughter by a different woman). If you like Eric Clapton, his music, I would definitely recommend reading his autobiography pictured above.