Cream’s formation began when drummer Ginger Baker approached Eric Clapton about joining the band. That quickly led to other artists joining. In a 2013 interview with Uncut, the guitarist revealed how he blackmailed the drummer to form the lineup he desired.
When asked, ‘You practically had to blackmail Ginger into letting Jack join Cream,’ the guitarist replied:
“When Ginger Baker invited me to join, I wanted to know who else was in the band. He replied, ‘I don’t know yet.’ So I recommended Jack Bruce. He replied, “No, what did you have to go and mention him for?” ‘Because I just played with him, and he’s a great bass player, and you guys played together with Graham Bond and Alexis, so I thought you’d be pleased.’”
Bruce and Baker had been rivals since their days on the Graham Bond Organisation roster, constantly trying to outdo each other. In an interview with Jim Clash, the drummer recalled a moment he shared with Jack. Ginger explains:
“Jack’s personality was Jekyll and Hyde. If you said the wrong thing, he’d suddenly turn against you. One day, during my drum solo, Jack started playing bass with me. I was really getting into it, phrasing with him on the bass drum. He abruptly turned around and said, ‘You’re playing too f*cking loud.’ As a result, I came very close to killing him. A bouncer had to pull me away.”
The rivalry escalated to the point where it began to play out on stage. Ginger fired Jack from Graham Bond, but the bassist continued to attend rehearsals. Bruce recalled what had happened between them and stated:
“He [Baker] took it upon himself to fire me from Graham Bond, even though he was not the band’s leader. He claimed I was ‘too busy’. I believe I was just discovering myself… He didn’t exactly agree with that.”
When Jack didn’t take Ginger’s firing of him seriously, Baker pulled a knife on Bruce as he approached the stage one night. Bruce walked away when he noticed the knife.
So Eric Clapton, who may have been unaware of Bruce and Baker’s fight, assumed Ginger would agree with his suggestion to bring Jack into the band, but the drummer’s response was different. He added:
“And he said, ‘No, we don’t get along well at all. I withdrew at that point. Then I stated that I would only go in with Ginger if he went in with Jack. So he had to say “Okay.”
