It’s time for a bimonthly update into the “crackpot†mind (his words) of Eric Clapton and his coronavirus beliefs, with the rocker now revealing himself to be a supporter of “mass formation hypnosis†as the pandemic moves into its third year. Per Rolling Stone, Clapton discussed this anti-vaccine propaganda throughout a January 21 Real Music Observer YouTube interview, during which he also confessed his family and friends were getting more and more aggravated about his anti-vaxx views. (Clapton, it bears repeating, is vaccinated against the coronavirus, but claims that the AstraZeneca jab made his peripheral neuropathy worse. He was well enough to tour extensively in 2021.) “I didn’t get the memo, whatever the memo was, it hadn’t reached me. Then I started to realize there was really a memo,†he explained. “It’s great. The theory of mass formation hypnosis. And I could see it then. Once I kind of started to look for it, I saw it everywhere.†Clapton says he could see hypnosis opportunities, à la Pierce and Britta, in “little things on YouTube, which were like subliminal advertising†and “the news stuff that was coming out of England.â€
“My career had almost gone anyway. At the point where I spoke out, it had been almost 18 months since I’d kind of been forcibly retired,†he continued. “Bit by bit, I put a rough kind of jigsaw puzzle together, and that made me even more resolute. I felt really motivated, musically. It instigated something, which was really laying dormant.†Clapton repeated that his family and friends have been “scared†by his vaccine ideology — he previously admitted he lost several friends due to this exact thing — but insisted he found “a calling†to speak out. “I can make use of that,†he added. He’s also making use of Van Morrison, perhaps the only friend he has left.