Carl Radle

Who was Carl Radle?

Carl Dean Radle was a bass guitarist who toured and recorded with many of the most influential recording artists of the late 1960s and 1970s. He was posthumously inducted to the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2006.

Ultimately, Radle was best known for his lifetime association with Eric Clapton, starting in 1969 with Delaney and Bonnie and Friends and 1970 with Derek and the Dominos, recording alongside drummer Jim Gordon, guitarist Duane Allman, and keyboardist Bobby Whitlock. In 1970 he took part in Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour. He worked on all of Clapton's solo projects from 1970 until 1979 and was a member of Clapton's touring band Eric Clapton & His Band from 1974 through 1979. Radle was instrumental in facilitating Clapton's return to recording and touring in 1974. During Clapton's three-year hiatus, Radle furnished him with a supply of tapes of musicians with whom he'd been working. Dick Sims and Jamie Oldaker were musicians who became the core of Clapton's band during the 1970s. Radle served as more than a sideman, acting also as arranger on several songs, most notably "Motherless Children".