“I always thought that Pink Floyd were a band for people who don’t like music or rock’n’roll”: Jack Bruce’s wild tales of Ginger Baker, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Leslie West and more

Jack Bruce posing for a photograph with a bass guitar in 2001.

The late Jack Bruce was one of the greats of British music. A highly respected figure on the British jazz and R&B circuit in the early 1960s, he made his name playing with The Graham Bond Organisation but it was Cream – the late 60s supergroup he formed with Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton – that propelled him to stardom, In 2008, Bruce – who passed away in 2014 – sat down with Classic Rock to look back over at his first encounters with Baker and Clapton, magical times with the doomed Graham Bond, the brilliance of George Harrison and Jimi Hendrix, the bizarre eating habits of man-Mountain Leslie West and the accidental formation of Pink Floyd, something he wasn’t sure whether was a good thing or not.