Eric Clapton says one guitarist ‘blew everyone’s minds’ and that ‘no one is ever going to beat’ his talent

A late guitarist has been praised by Eric Clapton as one of the all-time greats who “blew everyone’s minds” with his performances and studio work.

Clapton, a rock legend behind hits like Layla, White Room, and Tears in Heaven, heaped praise onto one veteran guitarist who influenced many artists in the 1960s and 1970s. During a Cream gig, Jimi Hendrix was invited onto the stage by the band to show what he could do. That moment, Clapton says, cemented the strength of Hendrix’s work, with the Voodoo Child hitmaker showing just how great he was that night. Clapton says that few will now remember the legendary performance as those who were there may not be around any longer.

He told Planet Rock: “We got up on stage and Chas Chandler says, ‘I’ve got this friend who would love to jam with you.’ It was funny, in those days, anybody could get up with anybody if you were convincing enough that you could play. He got up and blew everyone’s mind.

“I just thought, ‘Ahh, someone that plays the stuff I love in the flesh, on stage with me.’ I was actually privileged to be (on stage with him)… It’s something that no one is ever going to beat; that incident, that night, it’s historic in my mind, but only a few people are alive who would remember it.”

Clapton was reportedly enraged at the time though, feeling as though he had been overshadowed by Hendrix’s talent on the guitar. Keith Altham claimed that he remembers “[Chas] Chandler going backstage after Clapton left in the middle of the song ‘which he had yet to master himself’; Clapton was furiously puffing on a cigarette and telling Chas, ‘You never told me he was that fucking good.'”

Clapton would go on to note the impact Hendrix’s performance had on him, adding: “I remember thinking that here was a force to be reckoned with. It scared me, because he was clearly going to be a huge star, and just as we are finding our own speed, here was the real thing.”

Despite the spotlight-stealing moment from Hendrix, the legendary guitarist had a few moments of anxiety before one of his biggest shows. A performance at the Isle of Wight Festival had reportedly gotten the better of Hendrix just moments before he went on stage.

Hendrix was reportedly feeling “trapped” in the caravan he was staying in before the show, and this was amplified by the need to perform a show to thousands of fans just moments later. Kirsten Nefer, his girlfriend at the time, says the imposing crowd and confined space led to a less-than-ideal experience in the lead-up to his show. The show would turn out to be one of Hendrix’s final shows, coming just a short while before his death on September 18, 1970.

Despite the quality found in the setlist, Hendrix was apparently nervous for how the set would go. Nefer said: “He was so afraid of going on the stage, and all these people, all of a sudden he felt trapped you know, in this little caravan and getting his clothes on.

“There was so many people in there you know, it was terrible… I remember walking from the caravan and out onto the stage, that was like the Gladiators in the old Roman Empire must have felt like that.”