Eric Clapton has revealed that he is losing his hearing to tinnitus, the ailment that causes those affected to detect sound, often as ringing in the ears, when none is present.
“I am still going to work. I’m doing a few gigs. I am going to do a show at Hyde Park [British Summer Time Festival] in July,” the guitar icon tells BBC Radio 2 host Steve Wright in a new interview. “The only thing I’m concerned with now is being in my seventies and being able to be proficient. I mean, I’m going deaf, I’ve got tinnitus, my hands just about work.
“I am hoping that people will come along and see me [for] more than [because] I am a curiosity. I know that is part of it, because it’s amazing to myself that I am still here.”
The hearing issues follow a 2016 disclosure by Clapton that nerve damage has made playing guitar, among other things, a challenge for him.
“I’ve had quite a lot of pain over the last year,” he revealed at the time. “It started with lower back pain and turned into what they call peripheral neuropathy, which is where you feel like you have electric shocks going down your leg.
"[It's] hard work to play the guitar and I've had to come to terms with the fact that it will not improve. And I’ve had to figure out how to deal with some other things from getting old.”
Clapton was forced to postpone a pair of concerts in Los Angeles last March when he came down with a case of bronchitis; he was spotted in a wheelchair at the city’s airport leaving town with the assistance of one his daughters.
The guitarist's appearance on the BBC program this week was to promote the February 10 premiere of his Showtime documentary, “Life In 12 Bars.”
Directed by Oscar-winner Lili Fini Zanuck (Rush, Driving Miss Daisy), the project takes an unflinching and deeply personal look into the life of legendary 18-time Grammy winner while following his career through The Yardbirds, Cream, Blind Faith, Derek And The Dominos, and his solo years.
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