Fact #91190

Glyn Johns (producer) : There is a massive amount of psychology involved. It depends on the individual. In certain instances, say ‘Slowhand,’ I was overdubbing Eric Clapton playing lead guitar on an instrumental called ‘Peaches and Diesel.’ Basically, it was a weekend, there was no one else there, just him and me. He was just goofing around. He wasn’t giving it anything. And I realized, knowing Eric as I did, Eric is quite lazy. It’s difficult to drag him into a studio and put a guitar in his hands and get him to play. So he’s playing, and it’s not really going anywhere. So I deliberately ticked him off. I was really rude to him. And he played one of the most aggressive, astonishing solos. He got really mad, and he played like he was mad. And it worked. So there’s an example, not of making them relaxed, but the other side. It can work both ways.

(Source : interview with Larry Rohter in New York Times, 2014)