Video: Eric Clapton Sings Song He Wrote for Blessed Mother with Pavarotti

Clapton’s lyrics reflect a conversion experience he had in rehab years ago

In this benefit concert for Bosnia in 1996, Eric Clapton performed a song he wrote for the Blessed Mother along with the renowned Italian opera singer Luciano Pavarotti and a terrific Gospel choir. The words of the song are a real prayer for Clapton. In his memoir, Clapton: The Autobiography, the musician writes about a rock-bottom moment he had in rehab in 1987:

“I was in complete despair,” wrote Clapton. “In the privacy of my room, I begged for help. I had no notion who I thought I was talking to, I just knew that I had come to the end of my tether . . .  and, getting down on my knees, I surrendered. Within a few days I realized that . . . I had found a place to turn to, a place I’d always known was there but never really wanted, or needed, to believe in. From that day until this, I have never failed to pray in the morning, on my knees, asking for help, and at night, to express gratitude for my life and, most of all, for my sobriety.”