[pullquote quote="I don't like the way I sing. When I watch Ray Charles I think, 'That's it, that's how it's done.'" credit="Eric Clapton"] I don’t agree, but the famed rocker doesn’t care much for his own singing. The ‘Layla’ legend reveals he’s trying to make himself more tolerable by singing “quietly” on his 19th solo album, Clapton which is due late next month.

In an interview with Mojo earlier this month, Clapton revealed, “I hate my singing. It all sounds like I’m 16 years old from Surbiton. You know, when I watch [lastfm]Ray Charles[/lastfm] sing, I think, ‘That’s it, that’s how it’s done.’ I’m imbued with so much self-doubt about my singing, that it’s very difficult for me to get to that freedom that those kinds of singers have.”

[photogallerylink id=28022 align=left]His upcoming album,Clapton teams Eric with other greats such as, [lastfm]J.J. Cale[/lastfm], [lastfm]Wynton Marsalis[/lastfm], [lastfm]Allen Toussaint[/lastfm], [lastfm]Sheryl Crow[/lastfm] and others on his first studio album in five years, which finds the performer taking classic blues and jazz approaches.

“Yeah. That’s almost like I’m not having to try to sing,” he said. “I can sing very quietly and it’s going to be OK. I learned that from J.J. See, you can have Ray Charles at one end of the spectrum, who can do all kinds of things with the voice, and go up and down in octaves and registers. And, you’ve got J.J. at the other, who creates exactly the same amount of emotional capacity in a very minimal way. And he’s still just as riveting to listen to. So there are different ways to do it.”

Hear selections from the upcoming album this week on New Music Thursday.