Even though Eric Clapton is the only person to have been elected into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame three times, the well-known musician nevertheless had some harsh things to say about the organization.
In an interview with The Real Music Observer, the guitar god said, “I think of it as a frat boys club that happened to lure [me] in.”
Clapton went on to discuss what first attracted him to the Hall and why his perspective later changed. Clapton was inducted with the Yardbirds, Cream, and for his solo work.
“I felt that Ahmet Ertegun, the Hall of Fame chairman and former president of Atlantic Records, was the perfect fit for me,” he said. He was doing it for the early Atlantic musicians who were being forgotten, like Ruth Brown and the Drifters. After that, things simply seemed to snowball.
Clapton went on to say that he was “very suspicious” of Rolling Stone magazine’s role, whose creator, Jann Wenner, also had a hand in founding the Hall. However, the support of pal Robbie Robertson persuaded Clapton to give the organization a shot.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Is “Not a Place for Rebels,” According to Eric Clapton
Even while Clapton acknowledged that he enjoyed his reunion with Cream at the 1993 induction ceremony, he eventually came to the conclusion that the Hall’s exclusions of significant musicians—like the late guitarist J.J. Cale—carried the greatest weight.
“That person is proof of what that thing is, or proof of what it isn’t, that someone like J.J. has never even been proposed,” he said. “It is unlikely that he will ever surface. They don’t get it. I have no idea what their obsession is. However, he’s too unknown for those guys.
When asked about Paul Rodgers, the late singer of Free and Bad Company, who was also notably absent from the Hall of Fame, Clapton was candid.
“He’s an outlaw,” the guitarist urged. “Rebels have no place here. It’s stuff from the establishment.”
