Eric Clapton says he made a “big, big mistake” auctioning off his legendary “Blackie” Stratocaster
Over the years, guitars played by Eric Clapton have commanded some eye-watering price tags at the auction block. Just last year, among the vast guitar collection of late billionaire and Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay lay Clapton’s SG, the Fool, which ended up fetching just over $3 million at auction.
Indeed, Clapton’s guitars have a long history of earning vast sums of money; in a 2004 auction at Christie’s in New York, the guitarist’s Cherry Red 1964 Gibson ES-335 – which he played during Cream’s last show at the Royal Albert Hall in 1968, and was recently remade as an Epiphone Inspired by Gibson model – sold for $847,500 (just over $1.5 million in today’s money, per usinflationcalculator.com).
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The star of that 2004 auction, though, was Clapton’s black Fender Stratocaster, nicknamed “Blackie”. That one sold to Guitar Center for $959,500 (approximately $1.7 million in today’s money). It was the most expensive guitar ever sold at auction at the time. That figure was eclipsed quite significantly last year, though, by another black Strat belonging to David Gilmour, which fetched a staggering world-record $14,550,000.
The guitars at Clapton’s 2004 Christie’s auction were sold off to support his Crossroads Centre in Antigua, a substance-abuse rehabilitation centre which supports recovery from alcohol and drug addiction.
Clapton – a former alcoholic and drug addict himself – continues to champion the importance of his Crossroads organisation, and recently held the 2026 Crossroads Guitar Festival with proceeds benefitting the Crossroads Centre.
Though he admits it was ultimately the right decision to sell off some of his most prized instruments for a good cause, he jokes in a new interview with Guitar Center that it was a “big, big mistake” letting go of Blackie and his Cream-era 335.
“When the auction was going on, I had to constantly keep [reminding] myself: ‘This is your purpose. You are an alcoholic and if you don’t stay sober, you won’t be able to help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety. So this is all for that purpose. Crossroads is for that purpose. So I’m out [disproportionately] obsessed with the survival of that place.”
“So these things, as sacred as they are, they have to be given away – sacrificed. That’s my thing – I really need to keep Crossroads alive, if I can.”
He continues: “My primary purpose is to stay sober, and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety. That’s above me being a musician or a husband or a father. It’s the number one thing.”
Elsewhere, Clapton speaks on the transformative power of musical instruments. “It’s the most reliable source of inspiration, salvation, if you like,” he says.
“If you’re in a bad place, and you pick up a guitar, there’s a strong chance you’ll get out of that. You’ll transcend whatever the problem is… They’re very sacred things to me, these guitars.”
Watch the full clip below:
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
