Clapton organizing Cotton Bowl jam

All-star guitarists coming to Dallas for benefit show
10:27 AM CST on Friday, February 27, 2004
By THOR CHRISTENSEN / The Dallas Morning News
British guitar god Eric Clapton has picked the Cotton Bowl in Dallas to host the Crossroads Guitar Festival, his one-of-a-kind summit of six-string deities.
Carlos Santana, ZZ Top, B.B. King and dozens of others will join Mr. Clapton onstage for the unique June 6 event, which will benefit Crossroads Centre Antigua, a drug and alcohol treatment facility founded by Mr. Clapton.
The show promises to be a who's who of guitar aces, including such blues legends as Buddy Guy and Otis Rush; rock players like Steve Vai, Joe Walsh and Brian May (of Queen); and jazz-rock musicians Pat Metheny and Larry Carlton.
"I love Dallas – it's a great place for music," Mr. Clapton said Thursday in a prepared statement. "Just about all my American tours have started there."
That's not the only tie he has to the city. In March, he's releasing Me and Mr. Johnson, a tribute CD made up of songs Robert Johnson recorded in Dallas and San Antonio in the 1930s. As a member of Cream, Mr. Clapton scored a huge hit in 1969 with Mr. Johnson's "Crossroads."
Also performing at the Cotton Bowl concert will be Texas musicians Jimmie Vaughan, Doyle Bramhall II and Eric Johnson. Others on the lineup are Los Lobos' David Hidalgo, former Howlin' Wolf/Muddy Waters guitarist Hubert Sumlin, J.J. Cale, Sonny Landreth, mandolinist Dan Tyminski and pedal-steel wiz Robert Randolph.
Three house bands will back up the players: Mr. Clapton's group, Mr. Vaughan's group and the '60s soul legends Booker T. & the MG's.
The all-star concert will end a weekend full of guitar events at Fair Park. On Friday, June 4, and Saturday, June 5, the festival will feature clinics and exhibits in the Centennial Building, which is being dubbed the "Guitar Center Village." A host of as-yet-unnamed acts will play there on three stages Saturday.
One exhibit will boast dozens of guitars owned by Mr. Clapton, Pete Townshend and others that will be auctioned off June 24 in New York. Proceeds from the sale will also benefit the Crossroads Centre, which Mr. Clapton started in 1997 after going through his own battles with drugs and alcohol.
Tickets to each day of the festival will be sold separately through Ticketmaster starting March 13. Prices are $15 for Friday, $30 for Saturday and $60 for Sunday.

Eric Clapton to auction off the "cream" of his guitar crop
NEW YORK (AFP) - Rocker Eric Clapton will auction off 56 guitars from his collection on June 24 at Christie's in New York, the auction house said. The proceeds from the sale will go to the Crossroads Centre in Antigua, which helps people wrestling with chemical dependency.
Exactly five years earlier, on June 24, 1999, Christie's sold the first part of Clapton's collection.
"These guitars are in fact the ones that I kept back from the first auction because I seriously couldn't consider parting with them at that point. I think they are a really good representation of rock culture, ... all great rock and blues guitars," Clapton said.
Among the items up for bids is the legendary "Blackie," a circa-1956 composite Fender Stratocaster, which Clapton says "has become a part of me."
Estimated at between 100,000 and 150,000 dollars, it is one of a kind, as Clapton assembled it himself from the components of three different Stratocasters bought in Nashville in 1970.
Another gem is a 1964 cherry-red Gibson ES-335, the second electric guitar Clapton ever purchased, which is estimated at between 60,000 and 80,000 dollars. Clapton says he bought the guitar after seeing blues legend Freddie King with a similar model on an album cover.

Also up for sale are guitars from Clapton's friends, including The Who's Pete Townshend as well as others from Brian May of Queen, J.J. Cale and B.B. King.