Jim Gordon, Eric Clapton drummer and convicted murderer, dies at 77

music

by Erin Keller

March 15, 2023 | 9:04 p.m

Jim Gordon – Grammy Award-winning rock drummer for Eric Clapton and George Harrison – who was convicted of killing his mother in 1983 has died while suffering from schizophrenia. He was 77 years old.

Publicist Bob Mirless confirmed to The Post on Wednesday that Gordon Monday passed away at the California medical facility in Vacaville for natural causes “after a long prison term and a lifelong battle with mental illness”.

The Post has reached out to Clapton’s rep for comment.

Born July 14, 1945, Gordon backed the Everly Brothers and played on The Beach Boys’ 1966 album Pet Sounds.

He toured with Clapton in 1969 and 1970 as part of the Delaney & Bonnie band. Clapton briefly formed a new band, Derek and the Dominos, which also included Gordon.

The group worked on guitarist George Harrison’s 1970 solo album All Things Must Pass.

Gordon and Clapton also co-wrote Clapton’s 1971 smash hit “Layla”. Gordon won his first and only Grammy Award for that song.

Gordon eventually began to show signs of mental illness and reportedly punched his then-girlfriend, singer-songwriter Rita Coolidge, in a hotel in 1970.

Gordon attacked his 72-year-old mother, Osa Gordon, with a hammer and then a knife on June 3, 1983. He confessed, claiming that a voice inside his head ordered him to kill her.

He was correctly diagnosed with schizophrenia after his arrest.

Gordon was Sentenced in 1984 From 16 years to life in prison, as he died on Monday.

Despite being diagnosed with schizophrenia, a judge ruled that he could not be proven innocent by reason of insanity under the California insanity laws of the time.

He was denied parole for the tenth time in March 2018 after he reportedly refused to attend parole hearings.