Eric Clapton is holding a concert for the benefit of Crossroads Centre, the drug-rehab facility he founded in Antigua a decade ago.
Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival, is scheduled for July 28 in Chicago. Performers at the concert include B.B. King, Willie Nelson, Vince Gill, Sheryl Crow, Jeff Beck and John Mayer.
This will be Clapton’s second concert to raise funds for the Caribbean rehab facility, which includes a halfway house and community-education program. The earlier one was held in Dallas in 2004.
Clapton says that establishing the rehab center was a personal dream. 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 rehab clinics such as Crossroads are ‘very necessary.’ About the recent celeb trend of rehab stints he said,
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.
The 62-year-old guitarist will be wrapping up his world tour in April and take a family break in England before the Crossroads concert.
