Eric Clapton lost friends over his controversial anti-vaccine and lockdown views

Eric Clapton has lost friends and mu pals due to his anti-vaccine stance.

The 76-year-old guitar legend is anti-lockdown and had pledged not to perform at gigs where proof of immunisation against coronavirus is required to attend, despite being double-jabbed.

And his controversial views on the pandemic and teaming up with Van Morrison on the anti-lockdown protest song, ‘Stand and Deliver’, has led to Clapton’s friends and peers snubbing him.

The ‘Wonderful Tonight’ hitmaker – who is father to daughters Ruth, 36, Julie, 20, Ella, 18, and 16-year-old Sophie – said: “My family and friends think I am a crackpot anyway.

“Over the last year, there’s been a lot of disappearing – a lot of dust around, with people moving away quite quickly.

“It has, for me, refined the kind of friendship I have.

“And it’s dwindled down to the people that I obviously really need and love.

“Inside my family, that became quite pivotal … I’ve got teenage girls, and an older girl who’s in he thirties – and they’ve all had to kind of give me leeway because I haven’t been able to convince any of them.”

According to the Daily Star newspaper, the ‘Layla’ star – who is married to Melia McEnery – added: “I would try to reach out to fellow muians and sometimes I just don’t hear from them.

“My phone doesn’t ring very often.

“I don’t get that many texts and emails anymore.”

Clapton previously admitted his and Morrison’s anthem gave him a place to voice his “contempt and scorn”.

He wrote at the time: “I continue to tread the path of passive rebellion and try to tow the line in order to be able to actively love my family, but it’s hard to bite my tongue with what I now know.

“Then I was directed to Van [Morrison]; that’s when I found my voice, and even though I was singing his words, they echoed in my heart … I recorded ‘Stand and Deliver’ in 2020, and was immediately regaled with contempt and scorn. ()”

Among the muians who disagree with Clapton is Brian May.

The Queen guitarist insisted he is still his “hero” but admitted their views on many issues differ.

Asked about Clapton’s view and anti-vaxxers as a whole, the 74-year-old rocker said: “I love Eric Clapton, he’s my hero, but he has very different views from me in many ways.

“He’s a person who thinks it’s OK to shoot animals for fun, so we have our disagreements, but I would never stop respecting the man.

“Anti-vax people, I’m sorry, I think they’re fruitcakes. There’s plenty of evidence to show that vaccination helps. On the whole they’ve been very safe. There’s always going to be some side effect in any drug you take, but to go around saying vaccines are a plot to kill you, I’m sorry, that goes in the fruitcake jar for me.”