Eric Clapton couldn’t get his best friend’s wife, George Harrison, out of his mind. And he tried. But he could not : “I wanted Pattie because she belonged to a powerful man who seemed to have everything I wanted.” In the end, he managed to marry the model – and iconic muse – on March 27, 1979. The wedding took place in Tucson (Arizona) and was rich in anecdotes.
“I’m in love with your wife”
Since the 1960s, Eric Clapton and George Harrison were great friends. In 1966 the Liverpool man married successful model Pattie Boyd and the Surrey man he was immediately captivated by her. Crazy in Love It didn’t matter that she was his best friend’s wife. I was so madly in love that even I wrote him letters in secret. “I would like to ask you if you still love your husband or if you love someone else. It’s all very important…I need to know,” he said in one. But Boyd rejected it. Legend has it that Clapton once said to Harrison: “I’m in love with your wife, what are you going to do?”. The Beatles guitarist replied: “Do what you want. I don’t care.”
A young George Harrison, 22, kisses his wife, model Patti Boyd, 21, just after their wedding. / Bettmann/Collaborator/Getty images
“As much as I tried, I couldn’t get it out of my headwrites Clapton in his memoir, “Clapton: The Autobiography.” And he added: “I wanted Pattie because it belonged to a powerful man who seemed to have everything i wanted“. Boyd, who had been the muse of Something (by the Beatles), also became the source of inspiration for ‘Layla’. He explained in his autobiography ‘Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me’, that it was Layla that brought her suitor closer: “It was the most wonderful song I’ve ever heard.” The photographer also describes in her book a clandestine summons with Eric in which he asked her to listen to the song he had written… “My first thought was ‘My God, the whole world is going to know this is about me’. With the certainty that You I had inspired it with so much passion and creativity, the song brought out the best in me.I couldn’t resist any longer.”
Pattie Boyd was also certain that her husband had an “affair” with Ringo Starr’s wife (Maureen). It was the straw that broke the camel’s back. George and Pattie separated in 1974 (four years later they divorced) and Eric saw his dream come true. They lived together for several years and finally decided to get married. When Harrison was asked what he thought of the wedding, he replied, “It’s better that I’m with him than with a little dope“.
Three anecdotes in Arizona
Eric Clapton and Pattie Boyd were married on March 27, 1979, at Temple Bethel in Tucson, Arizona. They held a small private ceremony attended by about 40 people. To escape the press, Clapton’s manager, Roger Forrester, reserved almost all the churches in the city. According to local media, the ceremony was in danger. Clapton appeared at the courthouse to get his marriage license. with a few more drinks. And he left without paying. The clerk has gone hunting. The artist tried to pay for the license with English books, but they were not accepted. In the end, he had to “beg” for dollars here and there until he got the amount he needed.
Eric Clapton and his wife Pattie Boyd, photographed in 1983. / Dave Hogan/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
The appearance of the bride did not cause the same stir that Clapton caused. He was forced to sign autographs or photos and give the occasional kiss. After marriage, a parade of seven limousines was launched by moving guests to a small reception at the Sheraton Pueblo Inn. According to Classicbands.com, Eric’s band and touring crew, they rented black and blue tuxedos for the occasion, but they forgot to order shoes, so everyone they arrived that day with dirty sneakers.
Why did they choose Arizona?
When the groom was asked why they chose Arizona to get married, he replied: “I don’t know, it’s sunny.” But the real reason is Eric Clapton was in Tucson to perform a concert at the Convention Center the day after the affair, March 28. He shared the bill with blues legend, Muddy Waters.
Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, Albert Lee and Johnny Winter, during a concert at Chicago Stadium in Chicago (Illinois). / Paul Natkin/Getty Images
According to a review in The Star newspaper, Clapton’s concert was disappointing. Of the hour he played, he devoted only half of his talent to the guitar. The rest was devoted to easy subjects such as how beautiful tonight (another of the songs Eric had written inspired by his muse) and a “really bad” performance from Layla. Muddy Waters had the audience in his pocket and they shouted his name throughout the concert which lasted an hour and a half.
Eric Clapton and George Harrison remained great friends. In reality, they never ceased to be. In reality, they never ceased to be. Boyd told how the friendship between the two musicians left her perplexed
“I couldn’t believe how much friendship had brought them together”
George Harrison and Eric Clapton, pictured playing their guitars at a charity auction in 1999. Harrison would die two years later. / Dave M. Benett/Getty Images
George did not attend the ceremony in Arizona. But he went to the party Clapton threw for his family and friends in England, at the Italian-style villa in Surrey (known as the Hurtwood Edge Estate) on May 19, 1979. Among the many celebrities who attended at the wedding banquet there were, in addition to Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. In John Lennon’s absence, they improvised a “jam session” that will go down in history as “the closest thing to the Beatles’ last performance”.
The marriage did not last long. Clapton’s alcohol problems, various infidelities… the couple separated in 1984 and obtained a divorce four years later. Eric Clapton and George Harrison remained great friends.. In reality, they never ceased to be. Boyd told how the friendship between the two musicians I had him puzzled“The first Christmas, after I left him in 1974, Eric and I were sitting at the table eating and George showed up uninvited. He had Christmas wine and pudding. I couldn’t believe how their friendship had brought them so close.” .
Harrison and Clapton recorded together several times during their career and even toured together in the 90s, after Clapton and Boyd divorced. Their relationship lasted far longer than their love and respective marriages to Pattie.