Fact Check: Story of Eric Clapton paying funeral expenses of Texas flood victims doesn't hold water

Yahoo

4 days ago

Claim:
In July 2025, musician Eric Clapton donated money to the families of victims of the floods in Texas for funeral expenses and compensation.
Rating:
A rumor that circulated online in July 2025 claimed musician Eric Clapton had paid for the funeral expenses for victims of massive flooding in Texas. According to the story, he had also offered other ways to compensate the victims. Snopes readers searched the site wondering if the rumor was true.
For example, on July 7, 2025, the Facebook page Clapton's Guitar Legends posted (archived) the story, which had received 148,000 reactions and 20,000 reshares as of this writing. The post displayed a photograph of Clapton and other photographs of the floods in Texas. "SURPRISE!," the story began. "Eric Clapton has stepped in to pay for the funeral expenses and compensation for the families of the victims of the devastating Texas flash floods for their emotional and financial losses, leaving fans VERY EMOTIONAL..."
(Facebook page Clapton's Guitar Legends)
Other Facebook users left comments that indicated they took the claim at face value. "Wow, what a great human being Clapton is," one said. "Billionaires could follow suit!! Yay Eric!," another wrote.
The post featured a link in a pinned comment leading to an article hosted on an unknown blog. The article read:
In аn unexpected and deeply touching act of generosity, music legend Eric Clapton has stepped forward to cover the funeral expenses and provide finаnсіаl compensation for the families of those affected by the devastating flash floods in Texas. This surprising and heartfelt gesture has left fans and the public profoundly moved, showcasing nоt оnlу Clapton's immense talent but also his deep compassion and willingness to use his platform to help those in need.
Note: The Cyrillic "п" and Greek "υ" characters were used in the original copy as the following screen capture indicates:
(scoreus.livextop.com)
However, searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo found no news media outlets reporting about Clapton's supposed donation. Prominent news media outlets would have widely reported this rumor, if true. For example, CBS affiliate in East Texas CBS19 published a list of celebrities and companies who announced they would donate to the victims of the July 4, 2025 floods in Texas. Clapton was not one of them.
Rather, the person or people who authored the story fabricated the entire story as one of hundreds of inspirational tales that depicted celebrities and athletes performing inspiring acts of kindness. They aimed to earn advertising revenue on websites linked from the aforementioned Facebook posts. As we'll lay out later in this article, the story about Clapton amounted to fiction.
An examination of the Clapton's Guitar Legends page's stories found multiple indications of artificial intelligence-generated (AI) images and text. For example, regarding a picture included in one post that claimed Clapton had helped rescue five missing children in the floods, the Sightengine AI detection found a 99% probability that someone "likely" generated the image with AI. The photo included visible signs of AI, for example smooth facial features and an odd green sign that said "Texas."
Snopes contacted a manager of the Clapton's Guitar Legends Facebook page to ask about the fictional stories displayed on the feed, and will update this story if we receive more information.
These stories all very much resembled glurge, which Dictionary.com defines as "stories, often sent by email, that are supposed to be true and uplifting, but which are often fabricated and sentimental."
Snopes previously reported on another story claiming Pope Leo XIV had fallen down stairs.