Guitar legend Albert Lee opened up about his years playing alongside Eric Clapton. He revealed how he became the only band member to survive two occasions when Clapton fired his entire lineup, in an interview with Guitar Player.
Lee explained how he first joined Clapton’s band. He described the unexpected opportunity that arose while he was working on another project and reflected on the five years he spent touring with the guitar icon.
“I was working on a session for a week with an artist called Marc Benno and at the end of the week, Eric’s manager said that Eric had just done a tour without a second guitarist and so, how did I fancy going out with him? I thought, ‘Well, that’s great, yes,'” Albert Lee said. “At the time I was just about to get my first real album released, so I don’t know if I did a good thing or a bad thing, but I dropped the promotion of my new record and went out with Eric and it was great fun because we were all friends from the ’60s.”
Lee went on to describe the dynamic between his own playing style and Clapton’s, explaining why the partnership worked so well.
“I think he liked having me around and it worked really well because our styles are so different. I’ve heard most of the guys who played with him tried to sound like him, but I didn’t, I just did what I do. And likewise, he did the same thing, too,” he continued.
He then detailed how he managed to remain in the band even as Clapton dismissed other members. He also described how their working relationship played out on stage.
“I was with him for five years, and during that period he fired his whole band twice, but I managed to survive. He was very happy for me to do a song or two during the show, he’d say, ‘Go on, Albert,’ and he’d go and sit behind the amp and have his brandy and lemonade and a cigarette. He was really enthused to have me around at that time,” Lee said.
Lee reflected on the eventual end of his tenure with Clapton. He noted that their friendship endured beyond his time in the band.
“Then after five years he decided that I wasn’t wanted anymore. I have to say that we’re still good friends and since then, I’ve done most of the Crossroads concerts,” he said.
Lee’s run with Clapton stretched from 1978 to 1983. It produced some of the most notable live recordings of the guitarist’s career and cemented Lee’s reputation as one of the most versatile sidemen in rock.
The pairing’s most celebrated document is the live album “Just One Night,” recorded at Tokyo’s Budokan in December 1979 and released the following April. It stands as the first major release to feature Lee’s playing alongside Clapton. The album remains one of the definitive live records from that era of Clapton’s career.
By the time he joined Clapton’s band, Lee was already a well-established name in the touring and session world. He had built a formidable résumé working with the Crickets. He had also spent time in Emmylou Harris’s famed Hot Band, where he stepped into the role previously held by his own guitar hero, James Burton.
That breadth of experience helps explain why Clapton valued Lee so highly as a collaborator. Lee’s ability to bring his own distinct style to the stage, rather than imitate Clapton’s, set him apart from other guitarists who had passed through the band. It made him indispensable even as the rest of the lineup changed around him.
