.

Eric Clapton Inspired Robbie Robertson's New Album

04/01/2011
.
(Gibson) More than 40 years after Robbie Robertson and The Band helped inspire Eric Clapton to ditch Cream and opt for a rootsier approach, Slowhand returned the favor. Robertson said his new album, How to Become Clairvoyant, came about after a hang-out session with his buddy.

"It started out with Eric Clapton and I just hanging out and kicking around some ideas and telling stories, playing a little bit of guitar and writing a little tune together," Robertson told Spinner.com. "We didn't have any particular purpose in mind, it's just that we'd known each other for a long time and that's what we do. We didn't really think about it much � we were off doing other stuff � and then I came back to it by accident a couple years later. I heard the stuff again and realized, 'Wow, we dug deeper than what I thought. Some of this sounds like the beginnings of something special.'"

Clapton invited Robertson to London so the two of them could see if, indeed, there was "something special." "Turns out, because the majority of the songwriting was mine, it just leaned in my direction," he said. "It could have been his record, a duet record � though I kind of hate duet records now that I think about it � or it could have been my record. So after we finished writing these songs he told me that this was really my record and he would just play on it." more on this story

Gibson.com is an official news provider for the Day in Rock.

Preview and Purchase Robbie Robertson CDs

Robbie Robertson MP3 Downloads

.