“I heard the chorus... Then we took it into the studio. I'll never forget it – for me, it was like I wasn't playing the song”: Veteran bassist Nathan East on recording one of Eric Clapton's most personal – and well-loved – songs

Of all the songs in Eric Clapton’s extensive repertoire, Tears in Heaven is perhaps the most moving – and certainly one of the best known.

From the outset, the guitar icon made no secret of the fact that the 1991 track held special meaning, having written it as a lament following the tragic death of his four-year-old son, Conor, that same year. Clapton himself has described the song as “so personal and so sad... it is unique in my experience of writing songs.”

In a new interview, the bassist on that project, Nathan East, recalls the profound moments of observing the veteran guitarist writing the song and, ultimately, being involved in the recording process of such an intimate track.

“It was one of those songs that I heard Eric working on,” East tells Vertex Effects. “After Conor went home to be with the Lord, Eric would have his acoustic guitar, and, thank God, [he had] music where he could express himself.

“And so I heard the chorus, Tears in Heaven, as it was being written on the road. Then we took it into the studio. I'll never forget it – for me, it was like I wasn't playing the song.”

He continues, “It was very, very emotional, obviously, but again, when I approached the music, I approached [it] from just a spirit of giving, so that, literally, I was just holding the bass, and these notes were coming out from the heart.”

Discussing the short bass solo that adds another melancholic shade to the palette of an already multi-layered song, East reveals he decided to record it on a fretless bass – specifically a Yamaha – due to the instrument's inherently evocative quality.

“We recorded the track, and then I pulled the fretless out and asked for another track," he recalls. “It's kind of just hearing another part in addition to laying down the bassline. So that was one of those instances where you step out, and the fretless is such an expressive instrument.”

Beyond Tears in Heaven, East also contributed his bass chops to several Eric Clapton projects – including the guitarist's Babyface-produced chart-topper, Change The World, from the 1996 romantic comedy Phenomenon.