A handwritten letter, 1982

In early 1982, Clapton had spent a month at addiction treatment center Hazelden in Minneapolis, following a low point during Christmas 1981. Emerging sober for the first time in some while, Clapton ignored the advice of the counsellors and, within four months of leaving Hazelden, decided to head off on the road with his band. The fact is, I wasn’t yet ready for work, admitted Clapton in his 2007 biography. The first time I stood on stage, at the Paramount Theater in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, I thought to myself, ‘This sounds awful,’ and I didn’t really know why... I hadn’t played sober for a long time and had been used to hearing everything through a veil of alcohol and drug distortion, and I just couldn’t get used to the sound without it. I went all round America without really knowing what I was doing. Written less than two weeks after the Cedar Rapids show, this letter home to Pattie evidently dates from this period of sober unease and uncertainty with his music.

Clapton's dismissive comments about Pete Townshend in this letter relate to Townshend's April 1982 interview with Kurt Loder for Rolling Stone magazine, in which he spoke rather disparagingly of his friend in parts. When asked about Clapton's inaccessibility, Townshend replied: ...some of the things Eric finds very important, I don’t give a damn about. You know, he was very hurt when he stopped being voted number-one guitar player in various guitar magazines. And I thought, “Well, how shallow.” But that was important to him..., and went on to talk openly about Clapton's addiction I do think Eric’s made some fundamental mistakes that he can’t reverse. You can’t change the past, unfortunately. He was a heroin addict for two years. He lost two years of his life and career. And, unfortunately, a lot of the effects of heroin are irreversible..., albeit clarifying I really do love Eric a lot, otherwise I wouldn’t have involved my life with him so much.