Richie and Clapton

Thought this might be interesting for the ones who haven't heard the full story about Richie getting Clapton to play on his first solo record.

Taken from: http://www.ericclaptonfaq.com/questi...ut_Clapton.htm

Question:
Was anyone ever inspired to write a song about Clapton?

Answer:
Yes, two songs have been written about Clapton — "Savoy Truffle" by George Harrison and "Mr. Bluesman” by Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi.

Harrison recalled: "Savoy Truffle is a funny one written while hanging out with Eric Clapton in the '60s. At that time he had a lot of cavities in his teeth and needed dental work. He always had a toothache but he ate a lot of chocolates — he couldn't resist them. Once he saw a box, he had to eat them all. He was over at my house and I had a box of Good News chocolates on the table and wrote the song from the names inside the lid." (From "I Me Mine" by George Harrison. Published by Simon and Schuster / New York 1980). “Savoy Truffle” can be found on The Beatles (a.k.a. "the White Album").

In the early 1990s, Richie Sambora, Bon Jovi’s lead guitarist, met Clapton at the International Rock Awards. Sambora told Clapton how he had been a huge part of his musical development. When Sambora began work on his first solo album, Stranger In This Town, his partner encouraged him to contact Clapton about playing on the track "Mr. Bluesman", which is about a young boy wanting to be a guitar player... about Sambora wanting to be like Clapton. Sambora wrote a letter to Clapton and enclosed a demo of the song. Sambora wrote, "I had to ask you to be on my first solo record because if you had the chance to ask Robert Johnson to be on your first record, I'm sure you would have." When Clapton showed up in the studio to play on the track, Sambora said, "It was like my teacher telling me I done good."

Clapton recalled, "Richie really put me on the spot. It was a nightmare. I got a very sweet, dedicated letter from him, and I was deeply touched, my ego was pumped up. I thought, 'Of course, I have to do this.' I never actually listened to the song; I never acquainted myself with it. I just went in on this little fantasy about how easy it was going to be. And then Richie came to London with the tape, and I showed up at the studio. He gave me a gift, which was a massive 12-string Taylor guitar with my name on it. It was magnificent. Then he put the tape on, and I realized instantly that I was completely out of my depth. The song wasn't what I expected it to be, and I had to sit down and go down to the bottom of my socks and pull up whatever I had to make it work. It took hours, and I sweated buckets. He was sitting there, watching me go through this. It was the kind of thing you would like to go off and do in private, because you're going to make all your worst mistakes right there in front of everybody. So, there goes your reputation out the window. Reality comes in the door." (From Rolling Stone magazine, 17 October 1991)

I had never read that before! Awesome. Thanks for posting.

Wow cool. I always wondered who he ment by Mr. Bluesman. It makes sense that it is Eric because I knew he was Richie's idol, but I was never sure because he could be talking of a number of Bluesmen without any reference to anybody in particular. Great song, and now it has an all new meaning to me.

Well the album sleeve mentions that Clapton played on the song, so I never thought it would have been about anyone else.