The death of Connor Clapton

Re Released Episode

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:04

Welcome to Everything Scary. My name is Lynn and I'm here with my co-host local celebrity, sorry, sorry, international celebrity. Thank you, matt McClain. Hello, every Tuesday we release a new episode, mostly true crime, but we've also been known to cover a pandemic, a haunting, a super mad, super strong chimpanzee. We'll cover anything and everything scary. Please rate us five stars and join us on Instagram at Everything Scary Pod. Here we go, hello, hello.

Speaker 2 0:31

Hello, hello. How are you, dear? I'm good. How are you, lovely Good?

Speaker 1 0:34

to hear Just lovely. How was your trip to Bahamas?

Speaker 2 0:39

Bahamas was incredible. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 0:42

Which was the better trip, your Florida or your Bahamas? One which one?

Speaker 2 0:46

Well, different. I mean, it's kind of an easy answer. I'd say Florida, Tennessee.

Speaker 1 0:51

Because your family was there.

Speaker 2 0:52

Yeah, my nephews were there and stuff like that. But if you take my nephews out of the equation, I mean Bahamas is one of the best. I mean we were at a sandals resort. Yeah, it was like super nice. So we had a great time. Yeah, the weather was great, it was awesome. It was not a bad office.

Speaker 1 1:08

But you know, we had a really, we had a really really good rainstorm here, oh super jelly so. I mean.

Speaker 2 1:15

Was it like crazy or what it was insane? It was power and everything.

Speaker 1 1:17

It was insane Now. So where I live is we live in a cottage. All of our hydro lines are above ground, okay, so we get knocked out for everything, right, like somebody sneezes in that direction, and our power gets knocked out. So, yeah, we were without power and, like it was, the roads were flooded, it was just pure chaos, no, and then there was hail, yeah, so it was pretty comparable to the Bahamas.

Speaker 2 1:39

That we're seeing. We got rain for about 15 minutes. That's what happens One of the days.

Speaker 1 1:44

That's what happens. When I got married in the Dominican, but it said the whole week was supposed to be rain, I just got to the point where I was like, okay, if it rains or rains, like it is what it is, I'm not going to be a bridezilla, I'm just going to deal with whatever.

Speaker 2 1:56

Yeah.

Speaker 1 1:56

If I'm wet then who cares? And it would rain for like five minutes in the morning like serious downfall, and then for the rest of the day it was just absolutely gorgeous.

Speaker 2 2:06

So yeah, like 20 minutes of sunshine and you don't even know Exactly.

Speaker 1 2:10

So it's sometimes nice too right, Cleans everything up a little bit.

Speaker 2 2:14

That's what happened here.

Speaker 1 2:15

My car. I didn't have to go through a car wash, so that was pretty sweet yeah.

Speaker 2 2:19

Okay.

Speaker 1 2:21

So I want to try something a little bit new today. Alrighty, let me just zoom out at this, because apparently I'm 97 years old, nice, and I need a font to be at about 37.

Speaker 2 2:32

I'm going to need to cheat it.

Speaker 1 2:34

So I decided and I'm going to try it and see if people like it and if they do, great, and if they don't, then we won't do it anymore. But I was thinking whenever there was like a particularly awful case, maybe we'll do like something fun at the beginning, maybe like a true crime story, but like where the perpetrator is really stupid, okay, and get caught really quickly. So here I got you one from it's from the New York Times from March 1st of 2021.

Speaker 2 2:58

All right Heard of it.

Speaker 1 3:00

Yep Into it. A woman was busted for home invasion in Oklahoma, thanks in part to Cheeto dust found in her teeth. Authorities allege Sharon Carr was arrested on first degree burglary after allegedly committing the dangerously cheesy act in the home in Tulsa.

Speaker 2 3:19

The writer had his sassy fans on that day.

Speaker 1 3:24

Oh, and just a fun fact, do you know who's from Tulsa, oklahoma? No, what would be on brand for me to say right now Probably one of the aunts, since I would think All of them, yeah, all of them.

Speaker 2 3:34

Yeah, they're all brothers.

Speaker 1 3:37

Back to cheese fingers, mickey here. Cops say that they arrived at the home where a young mum of two sons had called 911 to report that another lady had pried open the screen off of her window to get inside. The snack loving sneak had already fled, but cops say they found a bag of Cheetos and a ball of water on the floor nearby the open window. A few seconds later, however, carr allegedly emerged from the shadows. The mum ID'd her as the invader and the bust was further cemented when they found the incriminating orange snack food residue still stuck to her teeth Shit.

Speaker 2 4:13

I love when criminals like they do a home invasion or a burglary or whatever, they break it and then they like eat from the fridge or like nap or like just like do regular things.

Speaker 1 4:23

Do you love that? Because groceries are way too expensive nowadays.

Speaker 2 4:25

I think it's hilarious. That's what the robbers are going after, no longer the electronics.

Speaker 1 4:29

They're in there for the eggs, they're in there for the produce. This is just a. If any kids are listening, get them out of the room. But my, did you go big with kids? This through crime pod? Well, you just never know. Right, you never know. But my daughter left a carrot for the Easter Bunny last night. Okay, it's smart, it's smart.

Speaker 2 4:49

Except it's an organic carrot and it cost me a goddamn fortune.

Speaker 1 4:55

So I shaved it down and then I made carrot sticks out of it really quickly and put them in the fridge, just left the cork. Mum has not made him money.

Speaker 2 5:03

When was Easter egg hunt this morning? Yeah, this morning.

Speaker 1 5:07

I was in the basket and they're Easter egg hunt. It's not fair, because I was three year old and a seven year old and she just dominates absolutely everything.

Speaker 2 5:12

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 5:15

So I had to like put a little stash away for the boys, because they're have you seen which?

Speaker 2 5:19

I don't know how recent it is, but you can get like Easter egg hunts in a bag now, really, whereas before you had to buy the chocolate eggs, then you had to buy the foil eggs, then you had to buy the plastic containers and then the bigger eggs and then the chocolate bunny. Now it's all in one bag.

Speaker 1 5:35

Yeah, but they charge you probably for the convenience of it.

Speaker 2 5:37

I'd pay for the convenience.

Speaker 1 5:38

Yeah Well.

Speaker 2 5:41

My folks right now have the flu and I was thinking the pharmacy should have you got the flu here. Get your flu kit and it's just like is it blocked and it's got your flu meds, it's got whatever electrolytes you need yeah. Whatever, and it's just like a one shot for the flu.

Speaker 1 5:54

Stop your breath and stop your poop and just have some fluid, just some quirks. It's just a block of cheese Block of cheese it's binding it is, but it's very binding.

The Death of Connor Clapton

Speaker 1 6:09

So this one here. I kind of put it together in the 11th hour because I researched the Mixtape family disappearance have you heard of that one? So that it was a documentary, I think, on I don't know ID or something. It was called the Two Shallow Graves, and so I did all the research on them. We've had quite a few suggestions for it the one that I'm doing today not a single person suggested, so get Not a pod for the people.

Speaker 1 6:37

Give the people what they want is what I always say. But I woke up and I had tears in heaven in my head and I was like when was the last time I heard this song? And then I was like you know, I've never, ever, ever heard, and nor did I know too much about the death of Eric Clapton's son. So I started researching it and then I was like you know what? I'm going to tell this story because no one's ever done it. So that's what I'm doing today. I'm doing the death of Connor Clapton, so let's crack into it. I'm still going to be doing the Mixtape one. I have all my research done. I just need to get it onto my computer and in full disclosure. We usually, when we come into the studio, we usually do two regular and then one Patreon. So it'll be like two weeks from the release date of this one that the Mixtape one will be coming out.

Speaker 2 7:21

All right and we always do our Patreon episodes in the nude by the way. Well, you do, I've really insisted yeah, you are adamant against that.

Speaker 1 7:28

I just, I keep asking him to stop.

Speaker 2 7:30

I'm like they're paying for it.

Speaker 1 7:32

I said as soon as I started saying Patreon, the clothes start just coming off. Okay, so here we go. So I can't even recall the last time I heard this song. Honestly, do you remember the last time you heard like, do you guys play it ever?

Speaker 2 7:45

No, we don't play it. No, we're more of a kind of a hits. Our sister station, Big 101, would probably play it on some sort of theme weekend. But yeah, it's like a classic.

Speaker 1 7:54

It's a classic.

Speaker 2 7:55

It used to be one of, if not my favorite song of all time. Really, yeah.

Speaker 1 7:58

Did you know what it was about?

Speaker 2 7:59

I did.

Speaker 1 8:00

Yeah, okay, yeah. So my dad is a huge Clapton fan and he's one of the greatest guitarists of all time and blah, blah, blah. I think that we can kind of, you know, figure out from him torturing me at baby secondary school, when I was a child, he was telling me all about Eric Clapton's son's death. So I think that my dad forced mature information on me before I needed to hear it.

Speaker 1 8:27

But he told me that the reason like you know how he says in the song I can't stay here in heaven he said that he felt guilty because he was at a party and his kid fell out the window off the balcony. Is what he told me? Not exactly true.

Speaker 2 8:41

Okay.

Speaker 1 8:42

Doesn't make it any less awful what actually did happen.

Speaker 2 8:44

Yeah, I don't really remember the circumstance, I just kind of, and he was four.

Speaker 1 8:49

Oh, that really, yeah. Like I thought he was a lot younger, so did I. I thought it was like a two year old that like kind of thinking yeah, no, he was four, almost five.

Speaker 1 8:56

Actually, this happened in March and he was born in August, so we would have been five in August. Wow, yeah, so this is the tragic story of the death of Connor Clapton. So Connor Lauren Clapton was born August 21st of 1986 to musician Eric Clapton and Lauren Dana Del Santos. At the time that Eric met Lauren Dana, who went by Lori, thank goodness Cause like if I had to say that a whole bunch of times would have been disaster.

Speaker 1 9:22

He was on tour in Italy and after his set he met her through friends at a restaurant. But first let me tell you a bit about these two. All right, so Lori Del Santos was born in Verona, italy, on September 28th of 1958. After she finished high school, she would leave Verona and would travel to Rome and Milan. She had really high hopes of one day becoming a big actress and model.

Speaker 2 9:45

Rome, Milan, Minsk.

Speaker 1 9:47

That's like I'm like I'm going to travel Newmarket, bradford.

Speaker 2 9:51

Yeah, I'm going to go to Strauss. Yeah, this is Kesley. Um, we summer in Stainer. Ever heard of it? I wouldn't be cut dead in the Maldives this time of year.

Speaker 1 10:02

In 1980, she would compete and represent Italy in the Miss Universe competition. Okay, Clapton would go on to write his song Lady of Verona. Have you ever heard that song? Neither have I and neither is.

Speaker 1 10:14

YouTube because I did try to look it up but I couldn't find the actual song. But I did find some of the lyrics. So some of the lyrics are out of all the things they make in Italy the clothes, the cars, the wine, the food. I love my lady from Verona because she makes me feel so good, but it wasn't meant to be. I found out the hard way. You know what she gave me all treasured till my dying day, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Speaker 2 10:38

Well, hopefully his guitar can pick up those lyrics.

Speaker 1 10:41

Somebody knows how to rhyme a couple one syllable words. Oh, am I right here? I am sitting here insulting Eric, I know.

Speaker 2 10:50

I know we're like. What an idiot.

Speaker 1 10:52

I'm like he could learn a thing or two from Hanson.

Speaker 2 10:54

Like let's. It's like when I'm eating ice cream watching the Olympics. Idiot, you, lazy moron.

Speaker 1 11:04

So the only issue with this relationship was he was actually still married to the woman who was his inspiration for Layla. Oh, okay, do you know anything about that? Just the song. First of all, can I just take a minute and say that now, in 2023, eric Clapton is 78 years old.

Speaker 2 11:25

Wow, right, what if? And he had a bit of a fall from grace too. He's kind of a you know, renowned as a bit of a D-bag.

Speaker 1 11:33

In telling this story, I've chosen not to call him a D-bag as much. Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 11:39

Thanks for letting me know. Good call though.

Speaker 1 11:42

Yeah, you're right, there was a couple things that I was like I could include. This, you're right.

Speaker 2 11:48

You should be respectful Starting now.

Speaker 1 11:50

Now, okay, good, so yeah, 78, almost 80 years old. Can you believe that? Great To me, eric Clapton's always going to be 41.

Speaker 2 11:57

Yeah, yeah, he's just kind of like a few grays, yeah and yeah and weird glasses, glasses, a bit of a beard.

Speaker 1 12:04

Yeah, yeah, so he was born on March 30th of 1945. He was born Eric Patrick Clapton. Patrick doesn't really seem like a middle name to me, am I wrong?

Speaker 2 12:15

No, I think you're onto something. Yeah yeah, Patrick is a very odd middle name. Okay, thank you yes follow that lead, would you Like?

Speaker 1 12:22

Eric Patti Clap Eric Patti.

Speaker 2 12:24

I knew a girl named Patti Clap.

Speaker 1 12:28

Okay, I'm not in touch with that. Okay, so he was born in Surrey, England. Did you know that he was English?

Speaker 2 12:33

I think I did. Okay, I did not. I think I knew he was from across the pond.

Speaker 1 12:37

So he was born to 16-year-old Patricia Molly Clapton. Oh, eric had been conceived during a one-night stand with a Canadian soldier, 25-year-old Edward Walter Fryer. Edward would return to Montreal leaving Patricia alone in pregnant. According to her mother, rose, patricia was a very difficult child and she was nowhere near ready to raise a child, so her mother and her stepfather Jack decided to raise Eric as her own, believing that Patricia was his older sister.

Speaker 2 13:07

Oh yeah, one of those things where they send the lady up to like the house.

Speaker 1 13:12

Charles Manson. Charles Manson. His mom did that. Oh yeah Great, and she would eventually marry a different Canadian soldier and left Eric with her parents.

Speaker 2 13:22

She's got a tape there you go, canadian soldiers, gotta be boys.

Speaker 1 13:27

By the time Eric was nine, he had figured out the truth about Patricia and his grandparents tried to compensate by spoiling him absolutely rotten. It was said that he had more toys than any other child in the town and he would not allow anybody to touch any of his things. Oh my God, before he turned 10, patricia returned and she had two other kids with her. Now she had two. You know his siblings. Eric had dreamt of the day that his mother would return and he asked her if it was okay for him to call her mommy now with a U, because of her Mommy, uh, mommy. To which she coldly told him no.

Speaker 2 14:02

Oh God.

Speaker 1 14:04

She said that she thought it would be better if they kept up with the illusion that she was just his older sister. Eric would later say that it was this hurt that would lead him into trying to hurt women Not physically for the most part, but he was, you know, a womanizer.

Speaker 2 14:20

Yeah, okay, subconsciously.

Speaker 1 14:22

Yes, um. So he got his first acoustic guitar at the age of 13, which he didn't really pick up until he was about 15, but at this point you almost never saw him without that guitar. And, as they say, practice makes perfect, because Eric was truly one of the best guitar players of all times. Yeah, and the blues were his favorite style of music to play. In 1963, he would join the Yardbirds, oh yeah.

Speaker 2 14:47

Do you know them? I've heard of the other super group, were they not? I don't know Okay.

Speaker 1 14:54

Let's just whisper when we don't know.

Speaker 2 14:55

Do you know who else was in the band? I do.

Speaker 1 14:58

Not offhand, no, in my notebook. Okay, in 1965, he would leave to play with John Mail and the blues breakers. Never heard of them. I heard of John Mayer. Yeah, no, it wasn't Different guy, totally different. Might have not been born in 1965, I would assume.

Speaker 2 15:13

Allegedly we don't know. We have to protect ourselves.

Speaker 1 15:17

I would really hope not, if he dated Taylor Swift.

Speaker 2 15:21

Who's single now, by the way?

Speaker 1 15:23

I know, are you bummed out about that, I am very bummed out. Me too. I really thought she met the one.

Speaker 2 15:28

Yeah, like I and I kind of feel I kind of subscribed to that early Taylor can't keep a man narrative. So I really really feel bad about kind of thinking that way and really buying into that. So I really just want her to be happy with whatever. Maybe she wasn't happy with this guy.

Speaker 1 15:45

Maybe she just says I don't know, I love Taylor. You know, when I was pregnant with my daughter this is so cheesy and I'm such a loser for saying this but when I was pregnant with my daughter, I always used to be like let her be like Taylor Swift.

Speaker 2 15:55

She's just such a kind person I know. Like that song, love story. I know it's kind of cheesy or whatever. I love it. I love the storytelling in it and everything and that's what I want for today.

Speaker 1 16:05

Again when I was pregnant, I couldn't get through a Taylor Swiss song without crying. I was like why would?

Speaker 2 16:10

anybody just love her.

Speaker 1 16:11

But when he is.

Speaker 2 16:13

Romeo say oh God.

Speaker 1 16:16

It's so bad, but, yeah, I love her. So he then formed a British rock band, cream in London. They actually had quite a lot of success in their short time, but they only lasted 28 months and they broke up in November of 1968.

Speaker 2 16:31

Shocking when you told me that this morning I would have said they were together for 10 years.

Speaker 1 16:35

but here's the thing you weren't alive when that happened.

Speaker 2 16:38

No, but I grew up kind of suburb of Toronto. So to me Q 107 classic.

Speaker 1 16:44

That's what my dad always listen to Q 107.

Speaker 2 16:46

Yeah, and my, my mom and dad were into that. Now they've moved on to country, hey, oh, our sins of the father, am I right? So yeah, zeppelin, clapton, stones, ac, all that stuff.

Speaker 1 17:00

That's my dad. My dad's favorite band is Pink Floyd. I'm like I don't know. I can't listen to just coins falling. Oh my, it's more than this is the worst thing I've ever heard in my life.

Speaker 2 17:09

It's just more than it was. That band that drops the chain what the hell?

Speaker 1 17:14

My mom and dad's wedding song was super tramp.

Speaker 2 17:18

Yes.

Speaker 1 17:18

What that's amazing. So, yeah. So after cream broke up, he formed another blues rock band called blind faith.

Speaker 2 17:28

Heard of them Really.

Speaker 1 17:29

Yeah, I'm sure you were. You have an eclectic taste. Taylor Swift, blind faith Hanson you love the band, hanson.

Speaker 2 17:38

Okay.

Speaker 1 17:39

Let's not say anything that I didn't say. This band would do one album and one tour, and then after that, in 1970, is when he decided to go solo. According to Clapton himself, even as an adult, he was selfish, he was a womanizer, and if he wanted something then he got it.

Speaker 2 17:57

I mean it's who's going to keep a rock star in check?

Speaker 1 18:00

Well, listen to what he did. Do you know the whole George Harrison story behind it?

Speaker 2 18:05

Was it a bit stealing a wife or a lady? Layla, oh, yeah, all right, let's go, let's get into her.

Speaker 1 18:13

So Eric's closest friend was George Harrison, guitarist to the Beatles. I'm sure you haven't heard of them. I'll get a bit more into them so you have an idea of what I'm talking about. Thank you.

Speaker 2 18:25

We'll touch on them a little later on in the pod.

Speaker 1 18:27

George was married to model Patty Boyd, and Clapton was dating her sister Paula, but soon Eric found himself hopelessly in love with Patty. He would do anything to have her. She was the inspiration behind his song Leila, which was written by Clapton and Domino's drummer Jim Gordon. Yeah, so that's why you were thinking it was yeah, and the reason he called it Leila instead of Patty, which I don't think Patty.

Speaker 2 18:56

Yeah, right, what else? Yeah, no yeah.

Speaker 1 18:59

The name Leila comes from the 12th century Persian poem called Leila and Majnun. It is a poem about star-crossed lovers. But she's unavailable and he's helplessly in love with her, which does seem very fitting.

Speaker 2 19:10

Should have gone with Majun.

Speaker 1 19:12

Majun Joon, that actually wouldn't be a problem. And she would later inspire the song you Look Wonderful Tonight. Oh Boy which has the sexiest guitar I've ever heard in my life. I need to cry.

Speaker 2 19:26

Really I love that song. Is the guitar in that song not like?

Speaker 1 19:30

It's heartbreak. Oh God, it's beautiful. Ironically, also in 1969, while recording Let it Be, don't ask what it is. I'll tell you Okay, thank you I got no idea what that was. There had been some tension between the four members of the Beatles, which resulted in George quitting the band for a few days. Lenin was so fed up that he wanted to have Eric Clapton step in and finish the project with them Crazy Right. But Paul McCartney was staunchly against this. He did not see Clapton as a Beatle.

Speaker 2 20:02

I don't see Clapton as a Beatle. I don't like his hair. It's just not a good fit. Oh my God, that's such a good Beatles impression.

Speaker 1 20:13

I was going to try to say something, but I just, oh, do it. I can't follow that act, just try it little. Like I was going to say too that I think that Eric Clapton was more of like a bad boy compared to the Beatles. But the Beatles did some like crazy things right. They were all like LSD and stuff.

Speaker 2 20:28

Yeah, they were more kind of like hippie-ish. I think Clapton was more like anarchy kind of thing.

Speaker 1 20:34

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know like the Beatles.

Speaker 2 20:36

I kind of see, just kind of smoking, a couple of joints hanging out with the Maharishi.

Speaker 1 20:40

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 20:42

You know where Clapton was like into like hard drugs and you know smashing bottles of JD and and he would have grand mall seizures when he didn't have alcohol.

Speaker 1 20:53

Oh, what Grand mall? What is that? So there's petite mall and then there's grand mall. So a petite mall seizure is where your brain kind of has a seizure, but you don't see it physically, it's just something like somebody gaps out for a few minutes. Grand mall is the full, like flailing and like gyrating on the ground. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, I got to get that booze.

Speaker 1 21:13

That's exactly what it is. So after a few days, george returned and they finished this little tune. You may have never heard of the song it was small beans, but if Eric had had it his way, he would have stole his best friend's wife and his job. Whoa, that would have been crazy, right? I don't think it would have lasted, though. Like I kind of summarized all like the big projects that he was part of. If you look into his actual like resume, the guy was part of so many. I don't think he worked well with others. I don't think he could put that as like one of his assets on his True, yeah yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 21:50

So in doing my research for this case, I was shocked by how wild Eric Clapton was. I never saw him that way before. Like I was born in 1984. So like he was coming upon like his, just like it was like Tracy Shilling out.

Speaker 2 22:02

Yeah, that's kind of the Clapton like MTV unplugged like you got a fast car.

Speaker 1 22:08

Yeah, like I just saw him as like chill, he's got his acoustic guitar, like I just I didn't see him as this wild child. But what do I know?

Speaker 2 22:16

If I could change the world.

Speaker 1 22:21

In 1970, he would release his hit album Layla and other assorted love songs, but sadly, by this point, eric was also heavily addicted to heroin. So much so that, in 1973, pete Tansand from the who would organize a comeback concert for Eric to get him back in the game and hopefully overcome his addiction. This was called the rainbow concert. Wow yeah, eric did eventually get clean from heroin, but he had lost three years of his life to the drug, and he had also replaced his heroin habit for an aggressive drinking habit. But, as luck would have it, george Harrison and Patty Boyd would end their marriage in 1977.

Speaker 1 23:01

And on March 27th of 1979, clapton would marry the woman that he had been so madly in love with for all of these years, and they married in Arizona, which is the most romantic state in my opinion. Don't ask why. You know why it's Arizona. That's why, sadly, though, this marriage turned out to be the furthest thing from the fairy tale that Eric thought it would be. It was alleged that there was abuse and they both wanted children. So bad, but it didn't seem to be working out for the couple. They'd even tried to in vitro a few times, it just didn't seem like it was in the cards for them In 1984, which, as you'll recall, was the year of all the coolest people there.

Speaker 2 23:43

Yes, of course.

Speaker 1 23:44

So Eric began having an affair with a woman who was also married. Her name was Yvonne Kelly, and she managed the studio that they were recording the album behind the sun in, and she ended up getting pregnant, and Yvonne gave birth to a baby girl in January of 1985. Her name is Ruth Kelly Clapton, and she was kept a secret for the first six years of her life. She's very active on Instagram too, so if you ever want to, she looks like her dad.

Speaker 2 24:12

She doesn't go by the first initial of her first name or middle name.

Speaker 1 24:17

RK Kelly, you picked that apart real quick.

Speaker 2 24:27

I am a 40 year old man, 41, by the way, actually sorry, update, update for you 41 now.

Speaker 1 24:34

In 1982, eric's drinking had gotten so out of hand that he had to go to rehab, where he was going to die. He would say that on his way to the facility he was putting back drinks as quickly as possible. Not being able to have a drink was one of his biggest fears. As a matter of fact, eric would say that he often considered taking his own life, and the only thing that stopped him from doing that was the fear that in death he would not be able to have a drink.

Speaker 2 24:58

That is so fucking scary Dark, yeah, jesus.

Speaker 1 25:02

Imagine you're like I want to kill myself to get away from my addictions, but my addictions won't let me kill myself. I'll be away from them in a minute.

Speaker 2 25:09

Yeah, they love me.

Speaker 1 25:11

So he would be discharged and he would remain sober for a few years. And that takes us to the beginning of the case that I was telling you, where he meets Laurie. So they met at this restaurant in 1985 and they would have a whirlwind relationship. He was still married to Patty at the time, but after meeting Laurie he was ready to start over and move to Italy to be with her. Wow yes. But nearing the end of 1985, he would come to Laurie and say that he did not feel as though things were working out and he had decided that he wanted to go back and be with his wife. His wife's just sitting here and like what the hell?

Speaker 2 25:44

Where's Eric? He said he was going out for an Italian. He's back soon.

Speaker 1 25:52

And so when he told her this, Laurie said well, that's not really good, because I'm pregnant. Oh my God, Put that on a pregnancy enhancement. Eric would later say that Connor was the first thing in his life that really got to his core, which had to feel great for his daughter. I'm just going to say what about Eric?

Speaker 2 26:10

Kelly Like. How does that make you feel, Eric Kelly? What?

Speaker 1 26:15

can you say?

Speaker 2 26:16

Like you should know about, like kids and abandonment issues and being included in love and stuff Like God. That's your origin story.

Speaker 1 26:22

Right so, but he definitely flip flopped a lot during Laurie's pregnancy. Sometimes he would tell her how excited he was and how he couldn't wait for the baby to come, but at one point he wanted her to terminate the pregnancy and then at another point, he considered taking his own life to avoid the responsibilities that came with parenthood. Wild yeah, he apparently even made an attempt to end his life.

Speaker 1 26:46

Yeah, this little boy, though. Have you seen pictures of Eric Clapton son? I don't think so. Oh, my god, he was so precious, so cute, so like happy.

Speaker 2 26:56

Yeah.

Speaker 1 26:58

And he loved his dad so much.

Speaker 2 27:00

Amazing. You know, you think the rock star lifestyle right at this. What year are we in? We're in 85?

Speaker 1 27:06

I his son was born in 86.

Speaker 2 27:08

Yeah, so you got to think he's a multi-millionaire Yep, worldly, you know, famous all over the world touches an album, it turns to gold, and yet still has these issues that Everybody else has when it comes to addiction and you know what the thing is.

Speaker 1 27:22

I think that, like a lot of people think that there's a base problem. There's you know, if I had more money, if I had this, if I had that and then like, when you have those things, that it doesn't fix it. So it's something within yourself that you have to kind of work out, mm-hmm. But I saw this little home video of Hunter and he's just jamming out on his little acoustic guitar oh, so cute. And so he's listening to Eric Clapton music and then all of a sudden, bad by Michael Jackson comes on and he's just, he's looking down at his guitar and then he looks at his mom and he's like and it's just like the look of like. Come on, and then he walks over and it's a cassette player, right. So he's trying to like open the cassette and she's like no, no, hunter, you're gonna break it. She's like what? You don't like this song? He's like. So when the clapping song comes on, it's absolutely precious. He just, he loved his dad. He loved his dad's music. He was, you know, we wanted to be like his dad.

Speaker 1 28:17

Eric was self-admittedly not a great dad he says it but for what it's worth, I've seen photos and videos of him trying to play with him or carrying him. Mind you, laurie and Eric did end up breaking up when Connor was three because Laurie told Eric that she wanted another baby and he was adamant that he did not. So the pair split. So maybe after that point in time he distanced himself. But when he was little they used to kick a ball around together. They would go for walks in the garden. In any picture that you see of the three of them, it's usually Eric holding the baby, but he always did have a scowl on his face.

Speaker 1 28:51

Clapton, yeah, like what he's carrying is the little sweet angel baby and like he was just like looks so angry. But he would later say that he was just confused on how to raise a child. So he basically left that up to Laurie to raise Connor. In 1987 Eric relapsed with alcohol and he went back to the same facility that he was at before and he got himself sober and to this day he has not drank since. Wow, yeah, I didn't know that Eric Clapton is sober. You heard here first. Unless you know anything about Eric Clapton, then you probably didn't. He would later say that he was grateful because for most of Connor's short life he was present, at least mentally, when he was there, physically wasn't drinking.

Speaker 2 29:33

Yes.

Speaker 1 29:34

His sobriety would be tested, though, on August 27th of 1990, a fellow guitarist who had been touring with Clapton His name was Stevie Ray Vaughan oh wow, yeah.

Speaker 1 29:44

He was part of the band Devil Trouble Mm-hmm was in a helicopter with three other members of Clapton's team his bodyguard, colin Smythe, his booking agent, bobby Brooks, and one of his tour managers, who was not named. They got into a five-seat 206 jet range helicopter. It was a very foggy day and because of this, the pilot did not see the 1000-foot ski hill and smashed into it, killing everyone on board immediately.

Speaker 2 30:11

I had no idea that Stevie Ray Vaughan was in that plane with. Those were Clapton's dudes, yep.

Speaker 1 30:17

Wow.

Speaker 1 30:18

And just to put that into perspective, the sea and tower is 1815 feet. So this was a big ass. What was the hill? Again, it's a thousand feet. Oh, wow, okay, yeah, geez, all right, this was not an easy loss for Clapton, but he maintained a sobriety. Okay, this is gonna get tougher.

Speaker 1 30:40

On March 19th, eric was going to take little Connor to the Long Island Circus. Yes, laurie would later say, it was a special day. Connor and I had come to New York for Easter to spend some time with Eric. Oh, today's Easter, and he had taken Connor to the Circus on Long Island and they had such a great time. So this is what Laurie saying. When Eric got back, he looked at me and said I now understand what it means to have a child and be a father. Oh, my god, he was so happy. It was the first time that Eric had ever taken Connor on his own. He insisted that he looked after him, cook for him, wash him all by himself. He said I want to come to London where I can take care of him. Wow, he had finally discovered what it was meant to be a father. That night I put Connor to bed. He was pretending to be asleep and when I went to bed he jumped all over me. He was so excited about the day that he had had with his daddy.

Speaker 2 31:34

Kids.

Speaker 1 31:36

The next day was March 20th. Eric had arranged to come and take Laurie and Connor and they would go to the Bronx Zoo and after that they were gonna go for a nice lunch in an Italian restaurant. Connor was over the moon, he was still wearing his PJs and Laurie could hear him excitedly telling the nanny all about the elephant city. Just seen the day before. I know it's problematic nowadays. Don't come for us. This was 1986. I kid was excited about it. Let's just let it go.

Speaker 2 32:04

You know what they've got now for the circus, like the barlain Bailey. Is that what they are? Yeah, no. So they've got like kind of like like stunt shows. So instead of elephants, instead of animals, they've got like like a little dirt bike stunts and kind of like a natural circus.

Speaker 1 32:19

It's kind of sounds boring. I think it sounds wicked. I think that they should do still the circus with the animals, but hologrammed, Mmm right like. Michael Jackson and then give Michael Jackson in there with the elephants.

Speaker 2 32:32

I love it. Hell can a circus.

Speaker 1 32:41

So you still wearing his PJs, and Lord could hear him excitedly telling his name with the elephants. But he had seen just the day before, laurie herself was in the bath. She was slowly making her way into getting ready for what should have been a really great day. She yelled out of the bathroom to her son to get dressed and his response was in a minute, which is story of my life, my kids. Everything's in a minute. It never happens in a minute either.

Speaker 1 33:10

That day the buildings custodian was cleaning the floor to ceiling windows in the luxury high rise that was located at 117 East 57th Street. The building was called the Galleria. Laurie advised the nanny not to leave the child alone for even one split second Because the custodians would have these windows open and they were all the way up on the 53rd story. Wow. As Laurie got out of the shower she heard the facts going, so she went to check what was coming in.

Speaker 1 33:38

She said she was standing at the facts for about 15 minutes when she heard Connor suddenly tell his nanny that they were playing hide-and-go-seek and she could hear the nanny on his tail. He got up, he just ran. She could hear the nanny on his tail. The custodian working on the windows stopped the nanny to say that he had slid the window, which was an it was a whole wall essentially In a split second, that she was being warned about the window being open. He ran straight through the opening. Connor had been trying to hide behind the curtain that covered the open window. It was said that he liked to stand right on the ledge, which was only like a little bit above the ground, and that he liked to put his nose up against the window so that he could see the city down below.

Speaker 2 34:22

Laurie had no idea. The he had no idea it was open, just going to his, he was just going to hide and probably do what he does like Just looks out the window.

Tragic Loss of Eric Clapton's Son

Speaker 1 34:29

And Laurie said that. Then she heard the most dreadful scream come from the nanny and she said I ran into the room shouting more and more Hysterically where's Connor, where's Connor? Then I saw the open window and I understood it. Once I felt all my strength leave me and I collapsed to the floor. Eric arrived five minutes later. Not realizing Connor had fallen to the street below. He came into the bedroom and I screamed he's dead. His eyes went dark and he said dead, he's dead, it's impossible. He found it hard to believe at first, and then his face turned to stone. It was like a film. Wow. The concierge of the building would call an ambulance, but the likeliness of surviving a fall from the 53rd floor was non-existent. Eric rode in the ambulance with his son. He would say that he had to see him and he had to say goodbye.

Speaker 1 35:17

Oh boy, eric would say that whatever physical damage Connor had suffered from the fall, by the time he saw him they have restored his body to some normalcy, he said. I remember looking at his beautiful face and thinking this isn't my son. It looks a bit like him, but he's gone. I went to see him again at the funeral home to say goodbye and to apologize for not being a better father.

Speaker 2 35:37

Just kind of at the end there, when he's realizing that the day before and he vocalized it.

Speaker 1 35:46

It wasn't just like he thought it in his head and he was like I really thought I was going to be a better dad now. Like he said, I'm ready to move to London, I'm ready to take care of him. Tragic irony, awful, awful. I think so. Connor had landed on the roof of an adjacent four-story building Two days before his 46th birthday. On March 28th of 1991, eric and Laurie would put their beloved four-year-old son to rest at St Mary Magdalene's Church in Ripley, where Eric had been born. Eric's ex-wife, patty, would attend and pay her respects, along with other friends of Clapton, such as Phil Collins, george Harrison. It was Connor's funeral that the public would learn of Clapton's first child, ruth.

Speaker 2 36:26

Oh, okay.

Speaker 1 36:27

She came and apparently Clapton said that she was like she's only a year older than Connor, so she was like five or six at this time, right, and he said that she was like the strength for him, like she held it together for him. It says Eric would later credit her for being something that helped him get through such a dark period of his life. Connor's headstone would read Connor Clapton, 1986 to 1991, beloved son, sweet child of infinite beauty, you'll live in our hearts forever. To this day, the gravesite is well maintained. It has beautiful potted plants on either side of the headstone and there are some toy tracks and a double-decker bus and there's a very old looking teddy bear who looks as if he may have belonged to Connor in real life, like when he was still here. Right, wow. Laurie said that she would cry every day for the first four years after her son's death.

Speaker 1 37:16

Like I said earlier, my dad was a big Clapton fan and there were so many others as well. He had 18 Grammy Awards. He was on Rolling Stones list of a hundred greatest guitarists of all time. In Gibson's top 50, he was number four In 2009,. He was named one of the best electric guitar players of all time. There's that famous graffiti that says Clapton is God. Yeah, you see no one in town, right? Yeah, he was huge.

Speaker 2 37:42

Totally.

Speaker 1 37:43

One of the biggest songs was Tears in Heaven, which was written about the loss of his son. In complete transparency, though, clapton only wrote the first verse of that song it was too hard for him to get through, but the first chorus set the tone for the whole song, which was then completed by Will Jennings. Oh really, yeah, but the first verse, the one that Eric had written, said would you know my name if I saw you in heaven? Would it be the same if I saw you in heaven? I must be strong and carry on, because I know I don't belong here in heaven. That song alone won three Grammys, Are you okay? In 2004, rolling Stones called Tears in Heaven 362nd on its list of 500 greatest songs of all time, and it landed number two on Bill Bird's Hot 100 and stayed there for 26 weeks.

Speaker 2 38:36

Would be an odd thing to have a hit song about such a tragic moment in your life.

Speaker 1 38:42

But he said that when he would sing it it was like therapeutic for him. Oh really. So the next right here I said in 2004, eric announced that he would not be singing the song live anymore, or the song In my Father's Eyes, which was a song that he wrote about being able to look into the eyes of the father that he never met. He would say I tried to parallel between looking into the eyes of my son and the eyes of the father that I never met and would see something through the chain of blood, like he would see. You know, like the similarities Some of those lyrics are where do I find the words to say how do I teach him what do we play? He said that he wasn't going to be performing them anymore because it was no longer therapeutic for him.

Speaker 2 39:24

Wow.

Speaker 1 39:25

He would perform those songs live to alleviate some of the pain. But he didn't have it anymore, so he felt comfortable leaving that as a treasured thing for him. Another song that was written for Conor was called the Circus. Left Hand Clapton would go on and marry his current wife in January of 2002. She is 31 years his junior and her name is Melia McInery. They met at a party when Melia was 22 and Eric was 53. Wait.

Speaker 2 39:53

A rich rock star is dating a younger woman.

Speaker 1 39:57

You know. What's really funny, though, is that Patty Boyd, that one that he was so in love with, she's a year older than him, which I guess is fine until they're like upwards of 35. Do you?

Speaker 2 40:05

think Keanu Reeves the term.

Speaker 1 40:09

If you didn't tell me anything bad about Keanu Reeves. I don't want to hear it.

Speaker 2 40:11

Nope, Keanu Reeves is I don't know if he's dating or if he's married, but a lady who they say is age appropriate Because I think she's like his.

Speaker 1 40:20

The best personal life. You know that, right? Keanu Reeves yes, I would think so. No, he really is. If you look at him, he's done so many amazing things. He's even taken humongous pay cuts in movies so that the staff not on-screen talent, but the people that are behind the scenes so that they can get paid better. He's taken pay cuts so that they can stay in hotels that are closer to where they're shooting. Keanu Reeves is one of the most upstanding people of all time and he's Canadian.

Speaker 2 40:48

So he's ours, so suck it. That's what we're trying to say.

Speaker 1 40:56

So yeah, melia was 22, eric was 53. And with Melia he shares three daughters Julia Rose, who was born in 2001, Ella May, who was born in 2003, and Sophie Bella, who was born in 2005. He has two grandsons from his oldest child, ruth, isaac, eric Owen Bartlett and Theodore Ivan Bartlett. As for Conner's mom, lori, she had two more sons with Italian film producer Silvio Stardy. She had son Devin in 1992 and Lauren in 1998. Sadly, at the age of 19, lauren took his own life, so now Lori's only living child is her son Devin, who is 31. And that is the truly heartbreaking case of the death of Conner Coffin.

Speaker 2 41:41

I always thought it was negligence.

Speaker 1 41:44

No.

Speaker 2 41:45

Always. I don't know why I just kind of maybe that's just what I pictured and did not think it was a floor to ceiling window, Like you got to think like a lot of things have to happen for that tragedy to occur.

Speaker 1 41:58

Here's what I always thought, and my dad always told me he was at a party and that's why he felt so guilty because he was at a partying and his kid. I thought that he climbed up onto something and I thought again. I thought he was much younger than he was. I thought he climbed up onto something on the balcony and then was able to, like, topple off of a balcony, but it wasn't like he just walked out.

Speaker 2 42:17

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 42:19

And, like he was, he wrote his dad this letter and it was like I miss you, I love you, come see me more. And it was like in this little kid brighting, and it was just like, oh God. And then I've been listening to tears and heaven for like three days straight now and I'm like emotionally drained. It's a lot, yeah, wow. So yeah, that's that case Wild, and I've never heard anybody else cover it and I've never really known. But Eric Clapton actually has a biography. It's called Life in 12 Chords and it came out in 2017. Didn't do great.

Speaker 1 42:55

I wouldn't think so I watched it. It might have just been me and your dad.

Speaker 2 43:02

Okay, let's get on to the next one. Okey-dokey.

Speaker 1 43:07

Bye, bye.