But Clapton is also facing forward, working on his next studio album. "I'm in the middle of it," he reveals, noting that "it started with the leftover" from the cache of rare and previously unrecorded demos that formed the basis of his 2014 covers tribute, The Breeze: An Appreciation of JJ Cale. "I still have some JJ songs that we're playing with. "Sometimes we mix them with dub, sometimes we take it back to pure country." Clapton is writing new material as well with his studio collaborator and keyboard player Simon Climie.