It took me a few minutes to come up with something to write about this Eric Clapton poster. Then I remembered: I actually met him! The year was 1999. The place was the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. I was there on a movie junket for some long-forgotten Rob Reiner romantic dramedy called The Story of Us, starring Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer. Neither of them showed up to be interviewed, if memory serves, so Reiner had to do a lot of talking. I was interviewing him in a hotel room with several other reporters when a publicist came and whispered in his ear. He excused himself, went to the door and started talking to someone in the hallway, trying to coax him inside. Eventually the door opened and Clapton walked in. It wasn’t totally random; he had contributed a song to the soundtrack and had swung by to say hello to Reiner. Seeing a table full of journalists, he looked pretty shellshocked — as did we, I imagine. Eventually, he sat down, chatted awkwardly for a few minutes — I have no recollection of what he said, but it wasn’t much beyond the usual polite platitudes — and then he bolted. He thought he’d seen the last of us, but no. A while later, after the interviews had wrapped, some of us were in the elevator going down when the door opened on another floor and — you guessed it — there was unlucky Clapton standing there. He had already started walking into the car before he recognized us, so even though he clearly didn’t want to get on, he did. Then we spent the next half-minute or so standing there making chit-chat and staring at the numbers. I actually felt kind of sorry for him. Anyway, that’s my Clapton story. And this is my Clapton poster for his 1982 greatest-hits album Timepieces. It’s a big glossy number that’s never been on the wall. If you’re interested in owning it, email me.
