“Someone dosed Eric with LSD”: George Terry on stepping up during Clapton's bad nights on the road

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Former Eric Clapton guitarist George Terry has recalled having to step in to cover his boss’ playing when the British electric guitar great was spiked with acid before a show, back in the mid-’70s.

While Clapton’s addiction – and subsequent recovery – have been well-documented, in the new issue of Guitar World, Terry makes the point that the icon’s occasional incapacitation on the road was not always due to his own illness, or decision-making.

Responding to a prompt about Albert Lee recalling Clapton’s astonishingly consistent playing in the face of ‘bad nights’ with drink in the 1970s, Terry says, “Yes, but it wasn’t limited to liquor, and not always Eric’s doing.”

“We did a show in Australia where someone dosed Eric with LSD,” remembers the guitarist. “And I had to take over doing a few tunes. [But] in my opinion, Eric actually plays great, even after having a few drinks.”

Terry also adds that the rotation of playing duties and tweaking of song formats was also not simply a result of Clapton’s level of sobriety, but was also down to a desire to keep things fresh, or more straightforward struggles with life on the road.

In the interview, Terry is asked if Clapton would give him a signal on the bad nights that he would need to step in ‘more than usual’.

“Eric had me step in more than usual at any time,” responds Terry. “That would mix up how shows went. So, extended versions of his songs were done on the fly, as we were playing the show. [Particularly if] Eric had bad nights when he had a health issue or didn’t get enough sleep.”

Terry was already a seasoned studio hand by the time he joined Clapton, having become part of the in-house session crew at Miami’s Criteria Studios, so he was more than capable of handling any curveballs the guitar hero might throw at him.

Elsewhere, in the piece – which is published as part of Guitar World’s celebration of one of the guitar’s greatest decades, the 1970s – the guitarist recalls his first meeting with Clapton, saying that he spotted the blues hero heading in the direction of the studio and offered him a ride.

“After giving Eric a ride to the studio, I told him I played with an in-house band… [I said] we usually play for fun, in-between being called into sessions, and invited him to join us if he wanted to play a bit or run down a song.

“He took me up on the offer and we played a few different kinds of grooves, one of them being reggae. Eric liked that, so I gave him Burnin’ by Bob Marley and the Wailers. For a day or so after that Eric played [I Shot the Sheriff] with us… [Then] Eric sent over for the Tulsa boys – drummer Jamie Oldaker, keyboardist Dick Sims, and bassist Carl Radle.

“When they arrived the studio band was dismissed. That is, everyone except me. We went on to record all the songs that became 461 Ocean Boulevard.”

Alongside his Clapton period, Terry’s career credits would include ’70s and ’80s smash hits Islands in the Stream and ABBA’s Voulez-Vous, plus collaborations with the Gibb brothers, including Barbara Streisand’s 1980 album Guilty.

Clapton, meanwhile, famously cleaned up in the late-’80s and has since raised millions of dollars for addiction charities, alongside founding the Crossroads Recovery Center in 1998.

To read the full interview with George Terry – plus conversations with Joe Perry, Frank Marino and Pat Travers, Bowie sideman Carlos Alomar and Funkadelic's "Blackbyrd" McKnight – pick up Guitar World November 2024 issue from Magazines Direct.