John Lennon’s 1971 draft letter requesting Eric Clapton form a new supergroup with him is expected to fetch €100,000 and €150,000 at auction.
The late Beatles legend penned in the eight-page note that he was keen to recruit the 79-year-old guitar hero for a new musical project alongside Klaus Voormann, Jim Keltner, Nicky Hopkins, and Phil Spector, after they all had stints in Lennon and his widow Yoko Ono’s musical collective the Plastic Ono Band.
The letter will go under the hammer via International Autograph Auctions Europe SL on December 5.
Lennon – who was murdered in 1980 in New York at the age of 40 – believed that with Clapton on board they could “bring back the balls in rock ‘n’ roll”.
‘Layla’ hitmaker Clapton performed with the Plastic Ono Band in Toronto in 1969, just before the legendary Liverpool group split.
Although the final letter has never been seen, the same draft sold for €22,728 in 2012.
The handwritten note has some crossings out and has two styles of handwriting, suggesting Lennon wrote it with his wife.
He penned to Clapton: “You must know by now that Yoko and I rate your music and yourself very highly, always have.”
The ‘Eleanor Rigby’ hitmaker believed that he and the other proposed members could “bring out the best” in Clapton.
Alluding to Clapton’s substance abuse struggles, he wrote: “I really feel that I/we can bring out the best in you — (some kind of security financial or otherwise will help) but the main thing is the music. I consider Klaus, Jim, Nicky, Phil, Yoko, you could make the kind of sound that could bring back the Balls in rock ´n´ roll. Both of us have been thru the same kind of s***/pain that I know you’ve had — and I know we could help each other in that area — but mainly Eric — I know I can bring out something great — in fact greater in you that has been so far evident in your music.”
Lennon also wildly proposed they hire out a “big ship” and recruit a film crew to shoot them in action.
He penned: “We get EMI or a sane film co. to finance a big ship with 30 people aboard (including crew) — we take 8 track recording equipment with us (mine probably) movie equipment — and we rehearse on the way over — record if we want, play anywhere we fancy.”
Lennon was first wowed by Clapton when he joined The Beatles on the George Harrison-penned track ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’.
He was not officially credited, but Clapton overdubbed a lead guitar part.
Lennon had suggested Clapton replace lead guitarist George – who died in 2001 at the age of 58 – when he briefly quit The Beatles in 1969, not long before their eventual split.