‘I asked for that in my divorce!’ Pattie Boyd says she ‘wanted royalties’ from ex-husband Eric Clapton after his obsession with the model led to him writing rock anthem Layla
- Boyd, the sixties muse who inspired some of George Harrison and Eric Clapton’s best known hits, admits she hasn’t seen a penny in royalties
- The model married softly-spoken Beatles guitarist Harrison in 1966, two years after meeting on the set of A Hard Day’s Night
- But she would be doggedly pursued by an infatuated Clapton, a close friend of the couple and a Beatles collaborator
- His obsession with the model would provide the inspiration for one of his biggest hits – Layla – released nine years before they married
Her intimate connection to two of the greatest musicians of any generation has spawned songs that are still played, and revered, by fans across the world to this very day.
But Pattie Boyd, the sixties muse behind some of George Harrison and Eric Clapton’s best known hits, admits she hasn’t seen a penny in royalties despite being responsible for their creation.
The model, now 78 and a successful author, married softly-spoken Beatles guitarist Harrison in 1966, two years after meeting on the set of the band’s first feature length film, A Hard Day’s Night.
But she would then be doggedly pursued by an infatuated Clapton, a close friend of the couple and a Beatles collaborator, having provided lead guitar on Harrison’s 1968 hit While My Guitar Gently Weeps, with the pair eventually marrying themselves in 1979.
However, Clapton’s then unrequited obsession with the model, who would rebuff his proclamations of love to remain with Harrison until his own repeated infidelities led to their divorce in 1974, would provide the inspiration for one of the rocker’s biggest hits – Layla.
Released during his short-lived period with Derek And The Dominoes in 1970, the iconic track served as the foundation for the band’s one and only album, Layla And Other Love Stories, and has since become a stalwart of the classic rock cannon.
A paean to unrequited love, the song served was inspired by a love story that originated in 7th-century Arabia and later formed the basis of the 12-century Persian tome The Story of Layla and Majnun, a copy of which playwright Ian Dallas gave to Clapton.
The book – which details a tale of a young man who falls hopelessly in love with a beautiful young girl who doesn’t immediately return his affection – would then move a then 25-year-old Clapton so profoundly, he went to pen Layla, a song that has since been hailed as one of the best tunes of all time and broadcasted millions of times.
Despite its success, however, Boyd – who married Clapton five years after divorcing Harrison – now claims she hasn’t received a single royalty check in the 52 years since the track’s release.
Short-changed: Pattie Boyd, the sixties muse who inspired some of George Harrison and Eric Clapton’s best known hits, admits she hasn’t seen a penny in royalties from either (pictured with Clapton in 1993)
Opening up: The model, now 78 and a successful author, has reflected on her marriages to Beatles legend Harrison and his close friend, guitar virtuoso Clapton
Old times: Boyd married softly-spoken Beatles guitarist Harrison in 1966, two years after meeting on the set of the band’s first feature length film, A Hard Day’s Night
With tongue firmly in cheek, she told The Sunday Times’ Style magazine: ‘I asked for that in my divorce, and he said, ‘Are you kidding?”
Boyd, who also served as the inspiration to Clapton’s 1977 song Wonderful Tonight, then scoffed: ‘That’s why I have to write books.’
Boyd, an English model and photographer from Somerset, served not only as a muse for Clapton – then a young musician who began collaborating with Harrison shortly after the Beatle wed Boyd, with the two quickly becoming close friends – but for her first husband as well.
Boyd, an English model and photographer from Somerset, served not only as a muse for Clapton – then a young musician who began collaborating with Harrison shortly after the Beatle wed Boyd, with the two quickly becoming close friends, but for her first husband as well
She inspired some of Harrison’s finer work with The Beatles – notably I Need You, If I Needed Someone, Love You To and the 1969 ballad Something – one of the stand-outs from their classic album, Abbey Road.
Harrison would also write 1973 solo track So Sad about his then deteriorating marriage to Boyd, which bore no children and was plagued by Harrison’s then rampant alcohol and drug overuse, as well as numerous affairs – including with bandmate Ringo Starr’s ex wife, Maureen Starkey Tigrett.
During this time, Clapton secretly romanced Boyd, getting in her good graces before they would eventually marry in 1979.
The song Layla was inspired by this period of time, with its distinctive chord progression, plaintive chorus and lengthy climactic coda since turning the song into one of the most instantly recognizable rock songs of its era.
Obsessed: But she would be doggedly pursued by an infatuated Clapton, a close friend of the couple and a Beatles collaborator, with the musician later writing classic track Layla about her
Muse: Boyd also inspired some of Harrison’s finer work with The Beatles, notably I Need You, If I Needed Someone, Love You To and the 1969 ballad Something
Iconic: Boyd became synonymous with the swinging sixties counter culture thanks to her association with The Beatles
After penning the then unreleased love song for Boyd, Clapton secretly met the still married Boyd in London to serenade her with the tune, as he tried to steal away his friend’s wife for himself – setting up a heated encounter between the two rockers.
‘We met secretly at a flat in South Kensington,’ Boyd told the New York Post. ‘Eric had asked me to come because he wanted me to listen to a new number he had written.
‘He switched on the tape machine, turned up the volume and played me the most powerful, moving song I had ever heard. It was “Layla.”‘
She told the paper: ‘My first thought was, ‘Oh, God, everyone’s going to know this is about me.
‘That night, Boyd and Clapton met at a party at manager Robert Stigwood’s house. When George arrived, he kept asking, “Where’s Pattie?” But no one seemed to know. He was about to leave when he spotted me in the garden with Eric,’ Boyd recalled.
‘George came over and demanded, “What’s going on?” To my horror, Eric said, “I have to tell you, man, that I’m in love with your wife.”‘
‘I wanted to die,’ the aging model went on. ‘George was furious. He turned to me and said: “Well, are you going with him or coming with me?”‘
Boyd would go home with George, but their relationship was left on thin ice.
Shortly after, in 1973, George began an affair with Starr’s wife Maureen – a discretion that pushed Boyd to Clapton even more.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=pKwQlm-wldA%3Frel%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26hl%3Den-US
The pair would divorce the following year, after which Clapton and Boyd began dating, eventually marrying in 1979. The couple would stay together for the better part of a decade, divorcing in 1989.
Despite her rocky marriage with Harrison – who died of brain cancer in 2003 – Boyd said Sunday that she still remembers the Beatle fondly, despite not receiving any compensation for the several songs she inspired,
Recalling her first meeting with the Beatles legend on the set of A Hard Day’s Night, she said: ‘He was so good looking and sweet, chatting away. They [The Beatles] were all wearing little dark suits and little black ties.’
Two years later the couple married at Epsom Registry Office, but after nearly six years of Harrison’s infidelity and hard-partying ways, Boyd was pushed into the arms of Clapton, now 77.
‘Yes, he was very gorgeous and sexy, very stylish,’ she recalled of her first meeting with the musician, at the height of Beatle-mania in the mid-sixties.
‘[Beatles manager] Brian Epstein had a theatre and Eric was playing there. We all went back to Brian’s flat and he became friends with George.’
The couple would divorce in 1989 – with Boyd Sunday admitting that she knew her rock star romances were over after their separation.
‘I didn’t need to say it to myself,’ she said. ‘I already knew it.’
The model has since married a third time, wedding property developer Rod Weston in 2015, after meeting during a holiday in Sri Lanka.
Source: Read Full Article
