Clapton plays on in wake of deaths

BONNER SPRINGS, Kan. — Apparently wishing to let his music speak for him, guitar master Eric Clapton performed without mention of blues comrade Stevie Ray Vaughan and other friends killed in a helicopter crash.

He went through the show Tuesday night at Sandstone Amphitheatre seemingly like any other rock ‘n’ roll performance, although he had been on stage with Vaughan 48 hours earlier in Wisconsin.

Gus Fasone, general manager at Sandstone, said Clapton refused all interviews and demanded that reporters and camera crews be barred from backstage.

“The people around him, it’s like they are in shock,” Fasone said. “Backstage, it’s like they aren’t functioning, they’re going through the motions.”

Little of that showed to the more than 16,000 fans at the outdoor theater, about 20 miles west of Kansas City, Mo.

“I think (the band) did an extremely brave thing,” Fasone said.

The helicopter crashed in dense fog early Monday, a few hours after a blues jam featuring Clapton, Vaughan and guitarist Robert Cray at Alpine Valley Music Theatre near East Troy, Wis.

“When I heard the radio I almost cried,” said Mark Petitt, a 25-year-old Kansas City, Mo., man wearing a Stevie Ray Vaughan T-shirt. “I said, `Man, why him?’ Especially after he cleaned up his life. I don’t understand it, but I think his music will live.”

Petitt said it was the tradition of rock to play on after the tragic deaths of stars.

“I think Stevie Ray Vaughan would have wanted him to go on,” Petitt said.

Clapton, 45, and Vaughan, 35, made their careers leading bands with guitar-driven rocking blues — Clapton beginning in his native England and Vaughan in Texas.

Both fell victim to drugs and alcohol, but each overcame problems to advance their careers. This year, Vaughan won a Grammy for the album “In Step,” referring to the “12 Steps” program used by recovering alcoholics.

The others killed were agent Bobby Brooks of Los Angeles, bodyguard Nigel Browne and tour manager Colin Smythe, both of London, and pilot Jeffrey W. Brown, 42, of East Chicago, Ind.