The tragic loss of music great Eric Clapton’s young son in 1991 has been made clearer by a biography.
On a tragic day in 1991 when the little son of music great Eric Clapton passed away at the age of four, it was meant to be the start of a new beginning.
The terrible incident, however, served as the inspiration for two of the artist’s well-known songs.
Conor was the son of 73-year-old Clapton and Italian actress, Lory del Santo. The day before Conor passed away, Clapton took their kid on a special outing to the Long Island circus.
It was the first time the renowned guitarist had brought his son out by himself, according to Philip Norman’s biography Slowhand: The Life And Music Of Eric Clapton, a portion of which was featured in the Daily Mail.
According to Norman, Clapton “wanted to be a proper father.”
The tragedy occurred the following morning as Clapton was on his way to pick up Conor for another day trip, this time to the Bronx Zoo and lunch at an Italian restaurant.
Excited to see his “dad,” Conor was rushing around the 53rd-floor apartment his mother shared with Italian film producer Silvio Sardi in New York City.
One of the windows in the living room had been repaired by a janitor, but Norman recalls that it was still open.
Conor ran passed the nanny and leaped up on the low window sill where he regularly would push his nose against the glass to look out before disappearing, the author wrote. “He screamed out to the nanny to watch the child, but before she could react, Conor disappeared,” he wrote.
Tragically, the four-year-old slipped and died.
In response to the tragic catastrophe, Clapton composed his famous chart-toppers Circus Left Town and Tears in Heaven, the latter of which features some of the most well-known lyrics in classic music:
If I saw you in heaven, would you recognize me? If I were to see you in paradise, would it be the same? Because I am aware that I do not belong in heaven, I must remain courageous and persevere.
At his son’s burial, two days before he turned 46, Clapton bid Conor farewell.
As Clapton famously put it, “the one thing in my life that could turn out positive” was his son.
