Eric Clapton has many hits, but one song stands out above all the rest, and that song is “Tears In Heaven.”
The emotional song by Clapton is about the tragic death of his four-year-old son, Conor (mother Lory Del Santo), who passed away after falling out of the window of their 53rd-floor apartment.
In this rare footage from 1992, Eric Clapton delivers an emotional performance of “Tears in Heaven” live for the first time.
When it comes to pain, nothing can compare to the heartache that comes from a parent losing a child. On March 20th, 1991, Clapton learned this agony first-hand when he lost his four-year-old son, and like many musicians before him, the world-famous artist put his pain into his music.
Every artist knows one truth: the more real-life emotion in your songs, the more they relate to the people listening to them.
That’s probably why “Tears in Heaven” is Clapton’s best-selling single of his illustrious career, and also won three Grammy awards as part of the soundtrack on the 1991 movie Rush.
In the interview from 1992, Clapton was asked some tough questions about his son’s death, before the journalist asks “can you play us something?”
During the extremely raw interview with English reporter Sue Lawley, Clapton explains how music did for him what it has done for so many other musicians: offered him a way through his pain.
“I started writing and playing almost immediately and I found this acoustic guitar which I had a long time, and I wasn’t really working on the road or putting an album together so I just started to write, just play, and it sort of calmed me down, it was like a tranquilizer. It was a safe anesthetic you know, it was definite. That’s why I think music is there, and it worked for me,” said Clapton.
Clapton casually picks up his acoustic guitar and stuns Sue Lawley, with what would become known as one of the most beautifully written songs in music history.
Lawley is quickly entranced by the gorgeous song that at the time had never been performed live, she sits silently fighting back the tears that immediately well up in her eyes.
Clapton does what he does best, transforming the room that he’s playing in and taking people watching him to another place with his music.
“Tears in Heaven” was co-written by famous songwriter Will Jennings, who at first didn’t like the idea of helping with such a personal song.
“Clapton said to me, ‘I want to write a song about my boy.’ Eric had the first verse of the song written, which, to me, is all the song, but he wanted me to write the rest of the verse lines and the release even though I told him that it was so personal he should write everything himself. He told me that he had admired the work I did with Steve Winwood and finally, there was nothing else but to do as he requested,” said Jennings.
You can’t blame Jennings—when Eric Clapton asks you to do something, you kind of just do it.
Even all these years later this live performance is still blowing up. After being posted to YouTube, it went viral with over six million views.
Over 72,000 people also liked the touching video, with thousands leaving comments and many confessing that “Tears in Heaven” brings them to tears every time.
It’s not just the beautiful music and heartbreaking story behind “Tears in Heaven” that makes you cry, it’s also the fact we all go through hardships that can make us relate to other people’s pain, and that’s what makes us human.
To see Eric Clapton perform “Tears in Heaven” for the first time live in 1992, just watch the video below!
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