Andy Summers Favorite Eric Clapton Story

I was listening to you know Miles Davis y Sunny Rollins in particular and I picked up a little bit on Jim Hall you know that record they made together called the bridge was and I I was playing with this Alto saxophonist and uh we were trying to cop all that stuff off that that that Sunny Rollins record you know then people like Cannonball Adalie and all the people of that era you know I guess I was really kind of a jazz fanatic at that you know at 17 years old and I got to be friends with guy called Lenny who had a record Lenny's Lenny's it was his record store he was a jazz fanatic he taught me a lot mhm so I I I really got sort of subsumed by American Jazz really more than anything else because there was nothing like that coming out of England how does that transition to being in one of the greatest rock bands of all time how do you transition into becoming a rock guitar player well I did you know I mean I did you know what in my case I moved to London and I was playing at this club called The Flamingo which is pretty much was a very hot spot to play and I was in a a rhythm and blues band called Zoot money's big roll band oh yeah yeah and uh yeah we were a hot B very popular we played literally eight nights a week for years on end and it was incredible because at that age you I was 19 you know we're playing all the time we went to Germany and we played six sets a night till like 3:00 in the morning I mean it was full on you know and uh so I was exposed to a lot of music then I started listening to people like James Brown Ray Charles all the Great American uh rhythm and blues artist I'd like to take a second to talk to you about this channel this is actually Rick Bato 2 I've had it since the beginning of my main Channel and many of you are not subscribed as a matter of fact 87% of the people that watch this channel regularly are not subscribed so I would encourage you to hit the Subscribe button on this channel and on my main Channel this will help me get better guests and help continue to grow both of these channels thank you cuz we did rhythm and blues I mean what at one point our our set was just L James Brown live at the Apollo we just did it note for note a side a and side B another one I was listening to at that point of course was Grant Green was pretty influential to me that was kind of a different thing but I like Grant Green i' got as many records of his as I could and I would get to play you know we play our R&B and I do these sort of GR AR green style solos in the middle that's what I was into nice but around about that time of course you know we were all all the bands were playing at the the flamingo including you know Jeff Beck um Albert Lee Eric clap we were all mates we're all same age we all grow were there together Eric was had left the yard birds and was playing with John M mhm he was into his thing you know started to he was the blues Eric was helping the blues you know American Blues you know surface in the in the UK when he started he was very purist and very religious about it very straight down the line there was nothing else mhm you know one could make jokes about it but one doesn't we were good mates we hung out together and in fact I you'll like this for the program the fact is I walked into Flamingo one night and I think Eric was on stage rehearsal uh you know practice time before the doors opened and he was up there with um John M getting set up and I walked in with the Lees Paul and he went where'd you get that I said he said oh you know and he saw this beautiful Sunburst lad pool I had and you know naively who knew I said oh it's down the road I said Rose moris they've got another one now of course if I had any brains I would have bought both of them both worth about a million dollars each now right so Eric went and got it he got it so now he cop he's so we both got Les Paul's okay so time moves on Eric's Les Paul gets stolen and he knows I've got the other one he starts calling me relentlessly yeah now weirdly you know I mean this is history I had moved over to a 58 white Telecaster like that one there that that's what I was playing and I liked it more than the t Les Paul for some reason I don't know pickup set up whatever and he knew I had that as well I put it under the bed it was in a case under the bed but he kept calling me calling no I want to sell it don't want to sell it but I felt a little bit weird about it because it seemed like the back pickup didn't work because none of us knew about Electronics a guy could have just fixed it one tweak and it was fine oh don't know man you know you know so I I kept resisting it but you know finally he called me so many times that I I actually agreed to sell it okay with some um you know forgiving is that I didn't feel great about it but he just really wanted so we agreed on a price how much how much would you would would that have been back then I I I charged him 200 for it it's worth about 2 million now who knew who knew and um I had to go to the um cron Willian Club in London which where is where we all hung out he was sitting in this booth with his manager Ander his manag had to hand over the two 200 quid as we call it and he did gave me the money I hadn't given them the guitar yet but you know I honored it and um Eric was I think it was Fresh Cream they were recording he was at ad Vision in the West End and uh so I took the guitar I got on the tube with this incredibly valuable instrument right got on the tube train went into the West End and got out and went over to ad vision and gave it to him he was there with uh Jack and Ginger and as I came out for some weird reason the studio room was coming through the PA in the foyer of the of the studio you could hear him all talking and he's going hell it's a great one yeah and I felt so terrible I felt terrible that I'd let Eric laps have my last Paul they were always was coming over the speakers it's like a public announcement so you're playing around London all the time you're all part of the scene friends with all these guys The Beatles have exploded then right and would those guys come around to see shows ever when they were in town not much you know I think they were you know anywhere they went there was a riot yeah I was playing in one club that we played in for a little bit not trapped but it was a kind of a very hoyy toyy high membership club and uh not for normal kids but I think John came in and maybe George I Met George later in La I think I met Paul I think the only one I no I met r no I've met I've met all the Beatles but not necessarily at that time but um we have all met you know and well that's an interesting subject actually because you know with the police of course they used to call us the Beatles of the 80s which I think we actually had that position for a while for a few years yeah uh we were like that but uh yeah you would never see the four of them walking down the street that wasn't happening you right

Channel: Rick Beato 2

Views: 194,757

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Id: pg2aiE07FNg

Length: 7min 29sec (449 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 11 2024