10 Songs That Emotionally DESTROYED Artists

Every one of us is going to have to face our mortality someday. No one can be around forever, and countless artists have used the grieving process in their songs as a way to help them heal. It’s a different story when you’re dealing with the death of a child though.

While Eric Clapton was out on tour, he was dealt every parents’ worst nightmare when he got the news of his son’s death, having accidentally fallen out of a window of an apartment building. While Eric had never meant to pour his heart out into song, Tears in Heaven fell out of him, framed as an imaginary conversation that he would have with his son when he saw him in the afterlife. For all of the wrong that Eric has done in his life, these lyrics are the most vulnerable he has ever been, blaming himself for not being there for his son and knowing that he doesn’t belong in heaven when the time calls for it.

Although the song has been a staple of Clapton’s solo career, he has mentioned retiring it from the setlist because of how hard it is to relive the song night after night. It might get easier over time, but it never gets easy.