Chords for Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival 2023 [Interview]

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ Well, to cut it short, I mean, there was the pandemic, there was the lockdown, and for people that wanted to get well from alcohol or drugs or anything, it was a tough time because _ the normal network of AA meetings were pretty much off limits.
Some of them were shut down completely and some kept going on a skeletal fashion, but [Ab] the treatment programs and treatment centers were really badly hit because people couldn't travel _ _ and they were very fearful of going out, and so they voluntarily locked themselves down.
And I think we probably, a lot of the community that I know either died or dropped off or stopped going to meetings because it was just too risky.
And so Crossroads as an entity started to suffer quite badly, and I think in the middle of [C] the big lockdown, we closed altogether because Antigua Airport had closed.
They were refusing entry to anybody.
_ _ And I thought, well, that's that.
I mean, a lot of us didn't even really know whether the lockdown would ever end.
And when it did, there was a pitch battle to get Crossroads going again.
But underneath it all, we've had this core, the core community of Antigua, the work in recovery, are so _ determined.
They're great people, local people, and _ all hats off to them.
They pitched to get it going again because we were running at half speed.
It was open again, but we were only half open and with no _ _ _ promotion or anything, and people probably started to forget that we were there.
So I said, well, why not do another festival?
And it was kind of about time and also coincided with the 25th year of its inception and that kind of thing.
And so there was a little bit of [Bb] excitement about the idea.
[Db] And I had watched Echoes in the Canyon, which Jacob Dillon _ made with a pal of his.
And there was a section with Steve Stills talking about our old adventures in the 60s, you know, and I had my version, his version.
So they tallied up and I thought, I said to Jacob, do you think Stephen would be _ interested in going out and playing it?
And at the same time, I said to Carlos, _ if there was any likelihood of any kind of festival coming up, what would your [Ab] kind of attitude be?
And he said, I'd [Gb] jump in feet [Em] first because he knew, I guess he knew [E] what I was talking about.
And I had those two people, Stephen Stills and Carlos Santana. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Well, they are so creative and I can never come up with much of an idea.
The only idea I have is that, you know, my mate John Matos, Crash, _ he does most of the stage artwork and the conceptual stuff.
And he's a graph writer from old days.
And he makes a guitar, he gets a fender and he paints it and it becomes the guitar at a festival.
Other than that, I just hope that those guys are on board.
But then they come up with these things like the idea of a black Les Paul Custom, which I had and played around with back in the 60s, but could never get the grips with because the necks were very refined and they were like a jazz for jazz players, really.
It was just difficult to play blues on and I let go of them and they've introduced a couple of models with _ _ 1960s Les Paul Standard necks.
So a proper, you know, standard fretboard and everything.
And _ I think one of them, I'm not sure what the specs are, but there's several models and a couple of them look like they're [Ab] vintage, you know, and they're great.
They're beautiful.
And so Mike Doyle, I have to thank for that.
And the guys at Martin and Fender and Martin have come up with a new signature guitar that will have different specs, different woods.
So the support we get from these guys is phenomenal.
But to play with this list of it, I mean, I got to thank, first of [E] all, for this kind of change in direction musically is Bradley Walker, because Bradley and I became very close friends from the last festival.
And he led me into _ looking for fresh new bluegrass talent.
And that's been a fantastic journey. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ I think the first Dallas one was probably the most remarkable because it was _ so beset by, you know, we had electrical thunderstorms going through and they stopped for the weekend.
And then they started again just as ZZ Top went on for the final set.
And we had to strip it all down while the winds, before the winds tore the stage to pieces.
And I thought, thank you, God, this, you know, this happened.
[A] And it did make a big difference.
It made a huge difference to the community of Antigua.
A lot of people, a good [Gb] deal of the population there have been through the doors of Crossroads and it's changed the face of their _ community.
So there's a lot of things that we've succeeded in doing that I had no idea we'd ever get that far.
So, but that was the one for me.
I love them all.
I love them all.
I like them outdoors, to be honest.
_ And I know that can be tough because [C] the weather's such a big chief element in it all.
But that's what a festival is outdoors.
But whatever it is, it's going to be great.
It'll be great. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Indirectly, yes.
Indirectly, I mean, because it _ _ is [F] composed of the two elements that make up my life, apart from my family life, which is so precious to me.
I have my career in music and my discovery and research and love of music and the Crossroads Treatment Center.
It's small though it is and [Ab] it's still run on old school methods.
It's not a spa.
It's not a health club.
It's a 12-step [Eb] program treatment [Abm] center, old school.
And there are very few of them [Dbm] left.
And that's the one, that's the [E] system that's kept me sober for 35 years.
And so, when I became a member of that community and realized that that was my responsibly chief responsibility, everything else seemed to click into place and my life became more manageable.
So, those three things, my family and the treatment center and music, [C] they all come together because my wife's become very involved in Turn Up for Recovery, which is a kind of amalgamation.
So, yes,