Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 23, 1991 TAG: 9103230257
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Conor Clapton died Wednesday in the accidental fall from the 53rd floor window of the Galleria Condominium on East 57th Street, police said.
Conor, Clapton's only child, ran past him and out a window left open by a housekeeper. The child fell onto the roof of an adjoining four-story building, police said. Conor's mother, Italian TV actress Lori Del Santo, was in the apartment at the time of the accident.
On Tuesday night, Conor had gone to the circus with his parents.
"They looked like a normal family out having a good time,"said Neil Sulkes, manager of the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale. "He was the most huggable little boy."
British rock star Phil Collins said he, his wife, Jill, and their 2-year-old daughter, Lily, spent Christmas with Clapton, Conor and his mother.
Conor "was growing into such a little gentleman," Collins said.
Clapton, like many of the great blues guitarists he admired, has survived some tough times. Drug and alcohol problems, the deaths of several bandmates, a troubled relationship with a friend's wife - the blues were no stranger to Eric Clapton.
"I never thought I'd be playing or alive at this time," Clapton said in a 1989 interview. "There were times I could have blown my brains out, and nearly did. . . . It's a miracle to me that I survived."
Clapton's had another brush with death in August, when his friend Stevie Ray Vaughan died in a helicopter crash minutes after the two guitarists performed together in Wisconsin. Clapton's bodyguard and manager were also killed in the crash. Clapton had taken another helicopter.
Singer Keith Relf, who played with Clapton in the Yardbirds, was electrocuted by a guitar in West London in 1976.
Two members of Derek and the Dominos, the band founded by Clapton, died young: guitarist Duane Allman, 24, killed in a motorcycle crash in 1971, and bassist Carl Radle, 37, who died in 1980 of a chronic kidney ailment.
A third bandmate, drummer Jim Gordon, was institutionalized. The break-up of Derek and the Dominos after a single album left Clapton traumatized, and contributed to his heroin addiction.
Clapton's personal life has also been fraught with problems.
During the early 1970s, Clapton's struggle with heroin forced him out of the music scene. Electro-acupuncture treatments enabled him to kick the habit, and he returned with a triumphant concert at London's Rainbow Theater in January 1973.
But he was still troubled by drug abuse and alcoholism until 1987, when he dried out. The guitarist has openly discussed his ongoing recovery from those problems.
Even Clapton's arguably greatest work - "Layla," recorded with Derek and the Dominos - was fueled by his passion for Patti Boyd, the wife of his good friend (and ex-Beatle) George Harrison.
Clapton finally married Patti in 1979 after she split with Harrison, but the couple was unable to have children. They were divorced in 1988, two years after Clapton had his son with Del Santo.
by CNB