Eric Clapton has been named-checked in the new Michael Connelly thriller ‘The Fifth Detective’ and Eric likes it mention.
Connelly has placed his character Mickey Haller in a Lincoln listening to the song ‘Judgement Day’ from Eric’s current album ‘Clapton in his book ‘The Fifth Witness’.
When Clapton first discovered he was name-checked in a Connelly book he contacted the author via email. Connelly got the message stating "Tell Mr. Connelly I appreciate the mention in the new book."
Now Connelly and Clapton are offering the song 'Judgement Day' as a free download at Connelly’s website.
Clapton is a big book reader and a big fan of Connelly’s work and a few weeks ago sat down with the author in Los Angeles to talk about his book reading passion. “I am either reading you or reading Cormac McCarthy and a re-read them,” he told Connelly. “When I first read your stuff and I discovered Hieronymous I thought I was reading about me. There was so much about him that was like me in the curmudgeons of it, his humanity and his vulnerability which he covers up so well by being brusk”
Eric reads when he has the time. “I use reading as a complete getaway from what I do,” he said. “When I travel or when I have a lot of downtime I will read because it takes me away from the concern of what I do which can be pressurised sometime if I am trying to build something or things aren’t going well musically the escape is always a good book. It is the same with McCarty. I will find characters I can identify with, damage people. Characters in his books are damaged or illusionary. They suffer from mild delusions in the same way I do.”
Clapton also revealed his plans for his next record and it will be a continuation of ‘Clapton’. “What we did last time was keep cutting tracks,” he said. “Once the door was open it kept flying out. We had about 8 tracks left over which I have refined down to 5 that are very good. So I’ve been adding to those to make a second album of the same nature. There is no pressure on me to put out an album for a year or two so I’ll put this in the can”.
VIDEO: Listen to the Michael Connelly and Eric Clapton interview here:
