“What seemed to evolve out of the ’60s and into the ’70s and then, in another way, the ’80s — heavy metal came out of all of this stuff — was, like, volume and proficiency and virtuosity. There didn’t seem to be any reasonable limit to that; it was just crazy. I wanted to go in the other direction and try to find a way to make it minimal, but still have a great deal of substance. That was the essence of J.J.’s music to me, apart from the fact that he summed up so many of the different essences of American music: rock and jazz and folk, blues. He just seemed to have an understanding of it all.”

NPR interviewer Eric Clapton om forholdet til forbilledet, afdøde J. J. Cale. Og det er mere end “noter om et venskab”, som radiokanalen kalder det. Clapton får fremstillet Cale som et forbillede. Ikke kun som guitarist, men som et menneske, der i modsætning til Clapton selv forstod at undgå alle musikindustriens udenomsværker: berømmelsen, livet i mediernes søgelys osv.