Eric Clapton's son Conor Clapton tragically died in 1991 after accidentally falling out of the window of a 53rd floor apartment in New York City.
The harrowing incident was the inspiration for Clapton's popular song "Tears in Heaven" and also caused the singer to isolate himself from the rest of the world as he worked through the heartbreaking tragedy.
In a recent interview on BBC Radio, Clapton gave some insight into how he handled the horrific event.
"I did, I took him [Clapton's son] home from New York with the Italian side of his mother's family, and we went through the funeral process and when they left.
“And that I had this little Spanish guitar, I got stuck with it. And i went away. I went to Antigua and rented a little house there in a kind of community.
"And I just beat mosquitoes and played this guitar all day and stayed there for almost a year without much contact with the outside world."
While isolating himself from the rest of the world, Clapton explained the process of writing Tears in Heaven for Conor.
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“I was trying to heal myself and all I could do was play and write these songs, and I kept rewriting them and replaying them over and over until I felt like one Kind of moving to the surface of my being.
“And then I was able to get out. It was so deep and I thought I took care of it until I saw [the 2018 movie] "Life in 12 Bars".
“And it's very disturbing to me, but at the same time beautiful, the way it's handled in the film. The footage I've never seen of him is hard to see with the underlying music.
"And to play Tears in Heaven, I mean, it's overwhelming and I have to do it all over again in a few days."
At the time of his death, Conor was in his mother's apartment, climbing out of a window that had been accidentally left open after janitorial work in the apartment.
"The first thing I knew was a phone call from her apartment," said Clapton in a 1992 interview with British journalist Sue Lawley.
“I was just about to leave the hotel room to pick him up for lunch. Lory was on the other end of the phone and she was hysterical and said he was dead. And I couldn't believe it. "
You can find more information on this topic in the Classic Rock Observer.
