Eric Clapton says new album might be his last

LOS ANGELES, May 19 (UPI) -- Rock legend Eric Clapton hints his latest album, I Still Do, could be his last at age 71.

Due out Friday, Clapton's latest solo album, his 23rd overall, and the 7th of the last 16 years, seems to show him not slowing down at all, but various health problems and the desire to spend more time with his daughters has him thinking it over.

Clapton told Rolling Stone magazine the album's final track, a cover of the standard "I'll Be Seeing You" could be a way to ride off into the sunset.

"It's one of those things that's been haunting me," Clapton said. "I love the song and I love the sentiment. Just in case I don't cut another record, this is how I feel. I kind of might be saying goodbye. But I've been doing that for a while."

Despite a reunion with producer Glyn Johns, and what he called the "conviviality of the studio," making I Still Do was more physically difficult than he thought.

"It was a nightmare," he said about eczema that made it painful to play guitar. "I started thinking that it was psychosomatic, that maybe I was nervous. And maybe I was. Who knows? I had full-body eczema and it ended up my hands."

Clapton has also been plagued by other problems that have left him looking at each album as the potential exit on his long career as one of the world's greatest guitar players.

"I've had some health issues with my back and a neurological thing that is tricky, that affects my hands," Clapton said. "If there's no serious fallout, I'll start looking to do some work. If there is, I'll have to figure out what to do next – maybe take it easy for a while."