Eric Clapton looking forward to Crossroads

Eric Clapton set up this year's Crossroads Guitar Festival to encourage one-off collaborations on stage, and he's ready. Along with Clapton, the lineup features Jeff Beck, Sheryl Crow, Vince Gill, B.B. King, and John Mayer, among many others, and Clapton's really looking forward to what might happen. He told the Associated Press, "Some of it's mapped and some of it isn't. We have to leave a little bit of it to chance."

Proceeds from the July 28th event in Bridgeview, Illinois, will go to the Crossroads Center drug treatment facility that Clapton helped found in 1998 in Antigua. He said, "I haven't had a drink or drug for quite a long time and it's changed my life completely. That's something I want to pass on and share with other people."

He added that the need for such an operation is very strong, but he added, "I think it's suffered a little bit in some of the recent publicity with the celebrities who go there. It's a bit of a witch hunt going on in some of the news channels about rehabs in general. It's a little scary because... the last thing we want is to lose any of the rehabs."

Clapton said that after the Crossroads festival, "I'm going to disappear for a year or two and have some fun."

Mr Slowhand and his band play on Monday, April 2nd at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri.
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