Who's your guitar daddy now?

Top flight musicians are like professional athletes in that on any given night they'll be good, real good. But on some special nights they'll be utterly fantastic. Tiger Woods doesn't win ever round of golf, Kobe doesn't score 81 every night and Clapton isn't God-like at every show. It's just the way it is.

Tvad, Clapton's commercial success is a two edged sword. The positives are obvious, but the downside has him trapped as a mid-60 year old man having to play what he played when he was in his 20s. Forty years of playing "Crossroads" and "Badge" has got to take it's toll. And if he tries something different, then his fans will probably abandon him. Think Miles Davis. Some purist never forgave him from going beyond the Shorter/Hancock quintet. He said he just couldn't play "My Funny Valentine" anymore. It was too emotional for him. You grow old and you evolve, but your fans always want something from and idealized past.

Eddie Van Halen once confessed that he couldn't currently play many of the guitar parts from the first few Van Halen albums. At the time he had a family and other interests and just wasn't playing guitar 10 to 12 hours everyday. It doesn't matter who you are, but nobody stays at their peak.