Mark Phillips' Pages: Workbook: 6/22/08: You and Eric Clapton are together in the audience at a large outdoor music festival in the U.K...

Jacob Lawrence, "Dreams No. 1," 1965 — Jacob Lawrence, *Dreams No. 1* (1965)

June 22, 2008:

You and Eric Clapton are together in the audience at a large outdoor music festival in the U.K., when an announcement is made that the Rolling Stones will make a surprise appearance toward the middle of the bill. The two of you run into the VIP section of reserved seats - bar stools, really - in the pit before the stage. This is exciting: of all the times you've seen this band you've never been this close. The band play their sound check, a sloppy and uninspired version of Chuck Berry's "Carol". You think, I could play this better. To your great surprise, Ronnie Wood ties off using rubber surgical tubing, on stage in front of all. As he searches for a vein blood spurts into the crowd. Clapton shoves you urgently out of the way: you're both concerned about HIV. As the two of you back away you see blood spatters on the ground like small trails of experience: many earlier musicians have done the same.