Eric Clapton

A special thing about working at Rockmount is the unexpected. One day in 2005, we received an email from Eric Clapton. He had seen our shirts in a London store, went online and asked if he could order.

This began a flurry of emails that resulted in shipping 16 shirts. He said he had picked up Rockmount over the prior 40 years touring the US.

He sent this photo taken by his wife to show me the shirt he had so that he could order other colors. It’s the #640, our signature and longest running shirt design in America – 70 years.

Eric then mentioned he would wear the shirts on Thursday at the Cream reunion concert. I replied that shipping to London takes a week, but he could have the shirts in time if I hand-carried them. He invited me to the concert. A friend and I flew the next day, meeting him and his family for a meal at the “green room” in the Royal Albert Hall before the concert.

Afterwards, we stopped back in the green room and were stunned. There were only a few people in the room: Paul McCartney, Ringo, Bill Wyman and Tom Hanks, but that's another story...

Later, Eric and I collaborated on a shirt design.