Derek Trucks thought Eric Clapton’s call was a prank, until the collaboration began

Derek Trucks nearly dismissed a phone call from Eric Clapton as a prank, before the invitation turned out to be real and opened the door to a collaboration that guitar fans would take seriously immediately. The story has spread because it lands on a rare kind of guitar-world surprise: a player with Trucks’ pedigree being caught off guard by a direct call from one of the most recognizable names in blues-rock.

Alan Paul, who has interviewed Trucks for decades and first spoke with him when he was about 16, revisited the anecdote in Low Down and Dirty. That long-running connection matters because it places the moment in the arc of Trucks’ career, from a young prodigy to an established guitarist who could be approached as a peer by Clapton.

The call did not stand alone. Guitar World later reported that Carlos Santana was working with Eric Clapton and Derek Trucks on a spaghetti western-inspired instrumental album, widening the story from one unexpected invitation into a three-way collaboration with real weight behind it. For players who track these things, that pairing signaled more than a celebrity jam. It pointed to a project built around tone, phrasing and shared language rather than guest spots for their own sake.

Trucks and Clapton already had history by then. A 2015 Forbes interview with Trucks referenced the 2005 Cream reunion at Royal Albert Hall, a reminder that Clapton’s orbit had intersected with Trucks’ world for years before the prank-call moment entered circulation. That earlier context helps explain why the invitation carried so much credibility once Trucks realized it was genuine.

The anecdote also traveled quickly across social platforms. Alan Paul repeated it in posts on Instagram and Facebook, and music pages picked it up as well, helping the story move from a private phone call into a piece of guitar lore that kept resurfacing. The reaction was predictable: when Clapton calls, even a player of Derek Trucks’ caliber can assume somebody is having fun at his expense.

What began as a call Trucks thought was a joke became the kind of invitation that only lands when the names on both ends of the line are impossible to ignore.