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Eric Clapton rolling out documentary and anniversary tour this year

Eric Clapton, shown performing in Los Angeles in 2000, is the subject of a new documentary by filmmaker Lili Fini Zanuck.
(Paul Morse / Los Angeles Times)
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Film producer Lili Fini Zanuck is directing a documentary on rock guitar hero Eric Clapton titled “Eric Clapton: A Life in 12 Bars,” according to Variety.

Buyers at the European Film Market in Berlin, running Feb. 9-17, are scheduled to get the first look at the film by Zanuck, the producer of “Driving Miss Daisy,” among other credits.

Clapton’s “commitment to the blues, its traditions and originators, is absolute from his earliest days,” Zanuck told Variety. “He was also forever restless in his search of a suitable vehicle to shape and grow his artistic voice, often bewildering fans and the media with sudden changes in musical direction, bands, songs, guitar style, tone and physical appearance.”

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Clapton will embark on a 50th anniversary concert tour, with dates scheduled for March 19 and 20 at Madison Square Garden and March 25 and 26 at the Forum in Inglewood. Earlier this week, additional performances were announced for Sept. 17 and 18 at Madison Square Garden and Sept. 25 and 26 at the Forum.

In the program for concerts marking his 70th birthday in 2015, Clapton wrote, “I swear this is it, no more…. I know I’ve been threatening retirement for the last 50 years, but I didn’t think I’d ever really want to stop.

“I love what I do and always have done,” Clapton noted, “but over the last few decades, I’ve found what I was always really looking for, a loving family who love me just the way I am, which means I can relax and rest when I need to, and more and more I treasure the beauty of that...”

For the upcoming shows, Clapton’s band will include keyboardists Chris Stainton and Walt Richmond, drummer Steve Gadd, bassist Nathan East and singers Sharon White and Michelle John. His opening acts will be Gary Clark Jr. and Jimmie Vaughan (older brother of the late Stevie Ray Vaughan).

randy.lewis@latimes.com

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