Eric Clapton’s heartbreaking promise to his son Conor, 4, one day before tragic death in accident as legend turns 80
ERIC Clapton made a heartbreaking promise to son Conor just one day before the youngster’s death in a tragic accident.
The legendary guitarist – who has just turned 80 – and Italian model Lory Del Santo welcomed their little boy in 1986.
In March 1991, a horrifying accident saw Conor – aged four – fall to his death from the 53rd floor of a New York building.
A day earlier, Eric took Conor out for the first time on his own, to Nassau Coliseum in Long Island.
According to The Mirror, biographer Philip Norman said: “That sawdust-scented afternoon showed him what he’d been missing.
“When they returned to the apartment, with Conor chattering excitedly about the clowns and elephants, Eric told Lory that, from now on, he intended to be a proper father.”
According to accounts, the four-year-old fell from a cantilevered window which a housekeeper had left open.
He had been preparing to visit the Bronx Zoo with his rocker dad that day.
The tragic event spurred Eric to write hit song Tears in Heaven, which appeared on the 1991 Rush film soundtrack.
This song was Eric’s best-selling single in the US and reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100.
In addition, it charted in the top 10 in more than 20 countries around the world.
Eric described his son as “the one thing in my life that good could come out of”.
According to People, the guitarist previously opened up about the moment ex Lory called to tell him the heart-wrenching news.
He said: “I remember putting the phone down and calmly walking from my hotel [in N.Y.C.] to that place as if nothing happened.
“And I walked past the street and, this is a terrible thing of shame for me, which I’ll never, ever perhaps recover from.
“And seeing that, seeing a crowd of people and a paramedic van and knowing that he was there [trying to be resuscitated] and walking by,
“I’ll punish myself forever about why didn’t I run?
“Why didn’t I go to see him? … the truth is I couldn’t. I was so frightened.”
Conor was later laid to rest at St Mary Magdalen in Ripley, Surrey – close to his father’s birthplace.
The tot’s funeral took place on March 28 – just two days before Eric’s 46th birthday.
Famous mourners in attendance included Phil Collins and George Harrison, along with others from the music world.
Over a decade after Conor’s death, Eric married Melia McEnery on New Year’s Day 2002.
They originally met in 1998 and went public with their romance in the following year.
After tying the knot, the pair subsequently welcomed three daughters together.
Eric also has an older daughter named Ruth Kelly Clapton, who was born in 1985.