Eric Clapton admitted he wasn’t a huge fan of The Beatles by the time they released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Despite this, he agreed to go to a listening party when they released the album. Clapton said he ultimately found the experience of listening to the album moving. The experience stuck with him for days, though this had more to do with the drugs he consumed.

Eric Clapton shared his memories of a Beatles listening party

Clapton said he tried a version of LSD for the first time while listening to Sgt. Pepper.

“I was at the club with my girlfriend Charlotte when The Beatles came in with an acetate of their new album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” Clapton wrote in the book Clapton: The Autobiography. “Shortly after, the Monkees wandered in, and one of them started handing out these pills, which he said were called STP. I had no idea what that was, but somebody explained that it was a superstrong acid, which would last for several days.”

After listening to the album, the group spilled out onto the street in the early hours of the morning. Though it had been a long night, Clapton couldn’t sleep. He wouldn’t be able to for the next several days.

“I stayed high for three more days,” he wrote. “I couldn’t sleep and was seeing the most extraordinary things. Without Charlotte’s guidance, I probably would have gone mad. Most of my vision seemed to be through a glass screen with hieroglyphics and mathematical equations painted on it, and I remember I couldn’t eat meat because it looked just like the animal. For a time I was a bit concerned about whether it was ever going to wear off.”

Eric Clapton said he wasn’t all that impressed by The Beatles

Clapton stayed at the listening party because he knew it was an important moment. He was not a diehard fan of The Beatles.

“Even though I was not overawed in the least by The Beatles, I was aware that this was a very special moment in time for anyone that was there,” he wrote. “Their music had been gradually evolving over the years, and this album was expected by everybody to be their masterpiece.”

Ultimately, he felt glad he stayed, a feeling that the drug may have enhanced.

“It was also supposedly written under the influence of acid, so it was an amazing experience to be listening to it in the condition we were in,” he wrote. “They had also begun to explore Indian mysticism, perhaps as a result of George’s influence, and at some point the chanting of ‘Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna’ began to be heard in the club. The acid gradually took effect, and soon we were all dancing to the sounds of ‘Lucy in the Sky’ and ‘A Day in the Life.’ I have to admit I was pretty moved by the whole thing.”

He later appeared on one of their albums

Just a year later, Clapton played guitar on one of the band’s albums. Harrison invited him to play a guitar solo on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” off the White Album.”

Clapton admitted he was “quite taken aback” by the request. He saw Harrison as a talented guitarist. Still, he felt he couldn’t say no.

“I was also quite flattered, thinking that not many people get asked to play on a Beatles record. I hadn’t even brought my guitar with me, so I had to borrow his.”