A nerve-wracking experience for guitar legend Eric Clapton came when he was asked to perform on one of The Beatles‘ albums. Clapton is the only performer aside from Billy Preston to feature in a main role on an album by the Fab Four. George Harrison drafted both men in for separate album recordings. While Preston was drafted in to keep the peace, it was some extra instrumental help that Harrison needed on The White Album.
He brought in Clapton, who was clearly nervous about having to appear on an album also featuring John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr. Clapton would play guitar on While My Guitar Gently Weeps and while he was nervous at being outside of The Beatles, the impact he and later Preston would have in the studio is clear.
Harrison said back in 1977: “The next day I brought Eric Clapton with me. He was really nervous. I was saying, ‘Just come and play on the session, then I can sing and play acoustic guitar.’ Because what happened when Eric was there on that day, and later on when Billy Preston… I pulled in Billy Preston on Let It Be… it helped, because the others would have to control themselves a bit more.
“John and Paul mainly because they had to, you know, act more handsomely. Eric was nervous saying, ‘No, what will they say?’ And I was saying, ‘Fuck ’em, that’s my song.’ You know, he was the first non-Beatle person who’d ever played on anything.”
It would cool tensions in the studio at a time when Starr had briefly left the band. Harrison later deployed this third-party tactic with Preston, who featured on Let it Be. Speaking during his appearance in The Beatles documentary, Anthology, Harrison outlined how Preston had such a positive impact in the studio.
He said: “It’s interesting to see how nicely people behave when you bring a guest in, because they don’t want everybody to know they’re so bitchy. Suddenly everybody’s on their best behaviour. He got on the electric piano, and straight away there was 100% improvement in the vibe in the room.
“Having this fifth person was just enough to cut the ice that we’d created among ourselves. Billy didn’t know all the politics and the games that had been going on, so in his innocence he got stuck in and gave an extra little kick to the band. Everybody was happier to have somebody else playing and it made what we were doing more enjoyable. We all played better, and it was a great session.”
Even producer George Martin saw the value in bringing Preston in to calm the tensions of the studio. Martin would describe Preston’s appearance as having “helped lubricate the friction,” and the same can be argued for Clapton’s performance on While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
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