Jim Gordon, the Grammy-winning rock drummer for Eric Clapton and George Harrison, died in prison on March 13, 2023, after being convicted of murdering his mother in 1983 while suffering from schizophrenia. He was 77.
Gordon’s publicist, Bob Merlis, confirmed to The Post on Wednesday, March 15 2023, that Gordon died of natural causes on Monday at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville “after a long incarceration and lifelong battle with mental illness.”
In 1969 and 1970, he toured with Clapton as part of the band Delaney & Bonnie. Clapton briefly formed a new band, Derek and the Dominos, with Gordon.
Gordon and Clapton also collaborated on Clapton’s 1971 smash hit “Layla.” Gordon received his first and only Grammy Award for that song.
Gordon eventually began to exhibit signs of mental illness, and he allegedly punched his then-girlfriend, singer-songwriter Rita Coolidge, in a hotel in 1970.
Gordon killed his 72-year-old mother, Osa Gordon, with a hammer and a knife on June 3, 1983. He confessed, claiming that a voice inside his head told him to kill her. Following his arrest, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
