In a recent chat with Fox News Digital, Eric Clapton’s former sister-in-law, Jenny Boyd, shared intimate details about Clapton’s battle with alcoholism, shedding light on the personal demons that haunted the guitarist.
Boyd, who remained friends with Clapton after he divorced her sister, discussed the impact of Clapton’s exceptional talent on his psyche, saying:
“I would wonder why he would get so drunk. He said he saw himself like any other man on the street. He didn’t have anything special about him. But I thought, ‘No, he has a God-given gift, and that gift is so powerful and so strong that he doesn’t know how to cope with it.'”
The Burden Of Genius
Revealing the guitarist’s reply to her, she continued:
“And so, he would drink. He said, ‘Yeah, that’s right. That’s exactly why I drank. It was too much.’ He said, ‘[Performing] is sometimes like staring into the face of God, and you feel naked.’ It was scary. So he drank to cope.”
Coping With The Spotlight
Clapton’s struggle wasn’t just with the weight of his talent; it was also about coping with the pressures of fame. His early career was marred by a severe addiction to drugs, particularly heroin, which he later substituted with alcohol as a less lethal, but still destructive, coping mechanism. Despite his financial ability to indulge, this path nearly led him to become another tragic rock ‘n’ roll casualty.
By 1982, the musician recognized the dire state of his health and the risk of losing his life to addiction. Then, he reached out to his manager, admitting his alcoholism and seeking help. This led to his admission to the Hazelden Treatment Center in Minnesota, a decision that marked the beginning of his long journey to sobriety. He said the following about that period in 2017 to Classic Rock:
“I don’t know how I survived, the seventies especially. There was one point there where they were flying me to a hospital in St Paul [Minnesota], and I was dying, apparently. I had three ulcers, and one of them was bleeding. I was drinking three bottles of brandy and taking handfuls of codeine, and I was close to checking out. And I don’t even remember. It’s amazing that I’m still here, really.”
Clapton later founded the Crossroads Centre in Antigua. This facility is dedicated to helping others overcome their addictions, with the rocker actively involved in its management, oversight, and fundraising efforts. Through the Crossroads Guitar Festival, he has raised significant funds to support the center.
