Eric Clapton has written a new single, Heart of a Child, with vaccine skeptic Robin Monotti. The song is due to arrive on Friday (December 24).
It’s the latest addition to Clapton’s crop of tracks that take aim at lockdowns, vaccines and other Covid-19 safety measures, following August’s This Has Gotta Stop and Stand and Deliver, for which he recruited another vaccine skeptic, Van Morrison.
Monotti, who is currently suspended on Twitter, has been active throughout the pandemic, and hosted Clapton for an interview earlier this year that saw the pair discuss their anti-vaccine views.
As per Rolling Stone’s report, the track’s lyrics include, “We lost the love of a man / I was proud to know / They locked you down boy / Made you grieve alone. Turn off the TV / Throw your phone away / Don’t you remember / What your daddy used to say.”
Monotti, an Italian architect and film producer, was also the recipient of a letter from Clapton, in which the bluesman slated the “propaganda” that surrounded the vaccine and commented, “I feared I would never play again.”
In the letter, which was shared by Monotti on Telegram, Clapton also said, “Needless to say the reactions were disastrous, my hands and feet were either frozen, numb or burning, and pretty much useless for two weeks.”
His views have resulted in various disagreements with his guitar contemporaries. Brian May labeled “anti-vax people” as “fruitcakes”, and said “there’s plenty of evidence to show that vaccination helps” – most recently, his own recovery after testing positive for Covid.
Robert Cray, meanwhile, recently cut all ties with Clapton, with whom he’s played with countless times over the years, most notably at the Crossroads Festival.
In response to Clapton’s Stand and Deliver lyrics, which seemed to compare slavery to lockdown, Cray commented, “I’d just rather not associate with somebody who’s on the extreme and being so selfish.
“We started playing a music that wasn’t particularly popular to start off with at the time we started playing,” Cray continued. “We’ve gained some notoriety, and I’m fine with that, but I surely don’t need to hang out with Eric Clapton for that to continue.”
In other Clapton news, Slowhand recently successfully sued a 55-year-old German widow for listing a bootleg CD on eBay for $11.
