The formation of Cream started with drummer Ginger Baker reaching out to Eric Clapton to be a part of the band. That quickly escalated into which other artists would become a member. In a 2013 interview with Uncut, the guitarist recalled how he blackmailed the drummer to form the lineup he wanted.
When the interviewer asked, ‘You practically had to blackmail Ginger into letting Jack join Cream,’ the guitarist replied:
“When Ginger [Baker] invited me to join, I asked him who else was in the band. He said, ‘I don’t know yet.’ So I suggested Jack [Bruce]. He said, ‘No, what did you have to go and mention him for?’ I said, ‘Because I just played with him, and he’s a great bass player, and you guys played together with Graham Bond and Alexis, so I thought you’d be pleased.'”
Bruce and Baker had been rivals since their days as part of the Graham Bond Organization roster, always trying to outdo one another. The drummer recalled a moment that he had with Jack in an interview with Jim Clash. Ginger explained:
“Jack’s personality was Jekyll and Hyde. If you said the wrong thing, he would suddenly turn on you. One day, during my drum solo, Jack began playing a bass thing with me. I was really getting off on it, phrasing with him on the bass drum. Suddenly, he turned around and said, ‘You’re playing too f*cking loud.’ The result was that I nearly killed him. A bouncer had to pull me off.”
The rivalry reached different lengths, so much so that it began to transpire on the stage. Ginger fired Jack from Graham Bond, but the bassist continued to come to rehearsals. Bruce recalled what happened between them and said:
“He [Baker] took it upon himself to fire me from Graham Bond, although he wasn’t the band leader. He said I was playing ‘too busy.’ I think I was just finding myself… He didn’t quite agree with that.”
When Jack didn’t take Ginger firing him seriously, Baker pulled a knife on Bruce as he approached the stage one night. Bruce walked away when he saw the knife.
So Clapton, who might have been unaware of Bruce and Baker’s fight, thought Ginger would be happy with his suggestion to bring Jack into the band, but the drummer’s answer was different. He added:
“And he said, ‘No, we don’t get on very well at all.’ So, I withdrew at that point. Then I said I would only go in with Ginger if he would go in with Jack. So he had to say OK.”
You can read Eric Clapton’s 2013 interview with Uncut here.
