‘I’m going deaf,’ Clapton reveals
Eric Clapton is going deaf, the guitarist said in a recent interview on BBC Radio 2.
“I am still going towork. I’m doing a few gigs. I am going to do a show at Hyde Park (the British Summer Time Festival) in July,” Us Weekly reported the the 72-year- oldmusician as saying during the BBC interview. “The only thing I’m concerned with nowis being inmy 70s and being able to be proficient. I mean, I’m going deaf, I’ve got tinnitus, my hands just about work.”
Clapton has said he also suffers from peripheral neuropathy, “which causes weakness and pain in hands and feet.” And he said in June 2016 that the nerve damage has affected his ability to play the guitar, according to Us Weekly.
“I’m hoping that people will come along and see me just because, or maybe more than because I’m a curiosity. I know that is part of it, because it’s amazing to myself I’m still here,” he told the BBC.
Clapton is one of the world’s most acclaimed guitarists and most successful rock stars. His career now spans six decades.
He’s also the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, having been enshrined as a solo artist as well as a member of both the Yardbirds and Cream.
Clapton’s new documentary, “A Life in 12 Bars,” premiered last fall at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Clapton is not alone when it comes to rockers who have experienced hearing loss. Others reportedly include Sting, Ozzy Osbourne and Neil Young, according to Us Weekly.
“I tried wearing a hearing aid, but I heard more than I wanted to hear,” Sting said during a Sirius XM interview, according to Us Weekly. “People talk a lot of (expletive). I’m fairly deaf and ‘ what?’ is my favorite word.”