Pilgrim

Pilgrim is the thirteenth solo studio album by the British rock musician Eric Clapton, released on 10 March 1998 for Reprise Records. The album features all-new studio-recorded material, the first to do so since Clapton's 1989 hit album Journeyman and was nominated for several music awards. Although most of the critics responded negatively to the 1998 studio effort, it was one of Clapton's most commercially successful albums, reaching the Top 10 in twenty-two countries. Background The album was recorded during 1997 in both Ocean Way and the Olympic Studios. The release of Pilgrim marked Clapton's first album of all-new original studio material since 1989's Journeyman album. When being interviewed by Larry King in February 1998, Clapton explained how the album title came to be: "Well, it's kind of – I suppose – there's a track on the album called 'Pilgrim' which came first. And when I came to title the album I used that track as a key point to go from, because I thought it was a good way of actually following the thread from Journeyman which was the same kind of meaning, really. Just looking at my life as a musician and a lot of other respects. It is autobiographical. And I see myself as kind of being like a lone guy on a quest". The album cover and packaging for Pilgrim was originally conceived by Clapton himself. However, Clapton ultimately commissioned Japanese artist Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, best known for his work on Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water and Neon Genesis Evangelion, to expand upon his concept and produce the final version of the album cover and packaging artwork. Clapton had become aware of Sadamoto not though his manga and anime work, but his 1993 art book Alpha. In his 2007 autobiography, Clapton noted that he asked his drummer, Steve Gadd, how he would feel about making the saddest record of all time. Gadd said he could work on Clapton's idea and the British recording artist chose to start working on the new project, although Clapton felt it could be a worrying time recording the saddest record that has ever been made. Because "My Father's Eyes" and "Circus" were the only finished tunes Clapton had when going into the studio, he wrote several new songs stating he worked nearly a whole year every day and night to record good songs with perfect detail. Clapton calls Pilgrim one of his favourite albums because he put so much passion and hard work into making it.