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Pattie Boyd News – A 14-picture, double video look at Pattie Boyd, former wife of both Eric Clapton and George Harrison, whose autobiography “Wonderful Tonight” describes events inspiring the songs Layla, Wonderful Tonight, Something, and While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

Pattie Boyd, aka Patti Boyd or Patty Boyd, was barely out of her schoolgirl days when she first met George Harrison on the set of the Beatles movie A Hard Days Night.

Pattie, left behind George, played a cute hairdresser whom all the Beatles were gaga over. Life imitated art, and George Harrison fell madly in love with Pattie Boyd.

She brought her sisters on the set to get the Beatles’ autographs and asked Paul and Ringo for theirs, but not John’s, as she was afraid of his sarcasm. When she got to George, he put one kiss under Paula and Jenny’s, but put seven under hers.

“George hardly said hello. When we started filming, I could feel him looking at me and I was a bit embarrassed,” Pattie recalls. He offered her a visit to his trailer, but, Pattie remembers, “I was loyal, not stupid.”

George then proceeded to ask her on a proper date, which she accepted and then found that Beatles manager Brian Epstein would accompany them.

The film appearance did wonders for Pattie’s modeling career and she was at the heart of swinging Sixties London and it’s burgeoning rock scene.

In 1965, George’s friend Eric Clapton met Pattie at a club, and instantly fell in love with her, but she turned him down saying she was happy with George. Eric had skyrocketed to stardom as lead guitarist of the Yardbirds, famously quitting because he considered the song “For Your Love” too commercial. Eric was replaced by Jimmy Page, later of Led Zeppelin fame.

It was the beginning of a convoluted soap opera involving two of rock’s most famous musicians and a beautiful model they both loved.

Pattie Boyd married George Harrison January 21, 1966 and the marriage lasted until June 9, 1977. Coincidentally, Pattie’s younger sister Jennie, who was also a famous model, married Mick Fleetwood.

Pattie and George were rock royalty, drawing huge crowds whenever they appeared in public like this San Francisco visit in 1967.

During Clapton’s early 70’s tenure in Derek and the Dominos, their only studio album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, was dedicated to his unrequited love for Pattie, which consumed Clapton and led to a devastating four-year bout with heroin.

Clapton’s tortured passion for his best friend’s wife produced one of his most famous songs, Layla, a rock song that became a pop hit in two different decades, with two different versions.

Clapton’s desire for Pattie drove him to a heroin addiction that forced him to go on a music hiatus for several years in the early 1970s.

George wrote the song “Something (in the way she moves)” about Pattie and their open marriage involved several torrid affairs on both sides, including George’s affair with Ringo’s wife, Maureen Starr.

Eric Clapton remained smitten with her and wrote the plaintive 1970 song “Layla” for her. “Layla, you’ve got me on my knees. Layla, I’m begging, darling please,” Clapton sang to Boyd.

She said Clapton was not to blame. “There was a natural ending to my relationship with George as husband and wife.”

Pattie ran away with him, after having a huge argument with George. George wanted to patch it up, but it was too late. They were divorced on June 9, 1977.

Eric Clapton and Pattie Boyd were married on March 27, 1979 in Tuscon, Arizona with the ceremony conducted entirely in Spanish.

Attendees included Paul, Ringo, Mick Jagger, Elton John, Denny Laine, David Bowie, and yes, George Harrison.

Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison played and sang together at Eric Clapton’s wedding reception. It was the closest thing there ever was to a Beatles reunion.

Here’s the Eric Clapton Pattie Boyd wedding picture:

Once the two were “finally together”, Clapton released a more sentimental hit, Wonderful Tonight, for Pattie, as well as his tunes Never Make You Cry (from Behind the Sun) and Pretty Girl (from Money and Cigarettes.)

During their marriage, both struggled with alcoholism and Eric had several bouts with drug addictions involving heroin and cocaine. The thing that devastated Pattie was that she could never have children, having had a damaging miscarriage while married to George.

Eric had two children with other women, which was another major impetus leading to their divorce in June 1988.

Pattie Boyd interviewed on 20/20 – Part 1

Pattie Boyd interviewed on 20/20 – Part 2

Pattie now lives in London and has written about her years together with George Harrison and Eric Clapton in her new autobiography, “Wonderful Tonight” which is definitely a fascinating look at the woman who inspired some of rock’s most famous love songs.

And that’s the latest news on rock music’s greatest muse, Pattie Boyd.

Tags: eric clapton, eric clapton autobiography, pattie boyd, patty boyd

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