‘LAYLA’ BREAKS SILENCE – SONG MUSE TELLS ALL ABOUT ERIC, GEORGE

‘LAYLA’ BREAKS SILENCE – SONG MUSE TELLS ALL ABOUT ERIC, GEORGE

Source and Published by NY Post, HASANI GITTENS WRONG NOTE: Model and "Layla" subject Pattie Boyd famously left husband George Harrison (above) to be with ’70s guitar god Eric Clapton. August 6, 2007 — Maybe it’s just her foolish pride. Pattie Boyd, the blond model Eric Clapton stole from his Beatle friend George Harrison, in her first interview in 35 years, yesterday talked about why she’s had three of the most famous love songs in rock history written for her. Her dalliances with Clapton began in 1970 – four years after marrying Harrison – when Clapton first played her the song he wrote for her, "Layla." London’s Daily Mail interviewed Boyd and excerpted passages from her new autobiography, "Wonderful Today," in which she reveals what had the two men "on their knees, beggin’ darlin’ please."

"We met secretly at a flat in South Kensington," she said. "Eric had asked me to come because he wanted me to listen to a new number he had written. He switched on the tape machine, turned up the volume and played me the most powerful, moving song I had ever heard. It was ‘Layla.’ " "My first thought was, ‘Oh, God, everyone’s going to know this is about me,’ " Boyd said. "Layla" was the second song written for Boyd. Harrison had penned "Something," his smash hit from the Beatles’ "Abbey Road" album in 1969. Then after stealing her away from Harrison, Clapton wrote "Wonderful Tonight" about Boyd in 1977. The same night she heard "Layla" for the first time, Boyd, Harrison and Clapton were all at a party at the home of pop entrepreneur Robert Stigwood, who managed Clapton’s group Cream and the Bee Gees. Harrison "kept asking, ‘Where’s Pattie? But no one seemed to know. He was about to leave when he spotted me in the garden with Eric." "George came over and demanded, ‘What’s going on?’ To my horror, Eric said, ‘I have to tell you, man, that I’m in love with your wife.’ "I wanted to die. George was furious. He turned to me and said: ‘Well, are you going with him or coming with me?’ " She went home with Harrison, but Clapton kept pursuing her. At one point, Clapton, drunk on brandy, arrived at their house, and Harrison decided to have a duel for Boyd’s love. "George handed him a guitar and an amp – as an 18th-century gentleman might have handed his rival a sword – and for two hours, without a word, they dueled." "At the end, nothing was said but the general feeling was that Eric had won. He hadn’t allowed himself to get riled or go in for instrumental gymnastics as George had. Even when he was drunk, his guitar-playing was unbeatable." In 1974, she finally left Harrison, calling their life "ludicrous and hateful" and found solace in the guitar-holding arms of Clapton. They married in 1979 – but once again a series of extramarital affairs, this time on Clapton’s part, led to divorce in 1988.