Eric was raised in a musical household. His grandmother played piano and his uncle and mother both enjoyed listening to the sounds of the big bands. Quiet and polite, he was characterized as an above-average student with an aptitude for art. At the age of nine, he learned the truth about his parentage when Pat returned to England with his six-year-old half brother for a visit.
This singular event affected him deeply and was a defining moment in his life. He became moody and distant and stopped applying himself at school. Emotionally scarred by this event, Eric failed the all-important 11 Plus Exams. He was sent to St. By , Rock and Roll had exploded onto the world.
For his 13th birthday, Eric asked for a guitar. Finding the inexpensive German-made Hoyer difficult to play - it had steel strings - he put it aside. In , when he was 16, Eric began studying at the Kingston College of Art on a one-year probation. He was expelled at the end of that time for lack of progress as he had not submitted enough work. The reason? Guitar playing and listening to the blues dominated his waking hours.
Typical of his introspective nature, Eric looked beneath the surface and explored the roots of rock in American Blues. King, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, and others. Eric spent his early days in music busking around Richmond and Kingston, he also began spending time in London and the West End.
In early , 17 year-old Eric joined his first band, The Roosters. Before turning to music as a full-time career, he supported himself as a laborer at building sites, working alongside his grandfather, a master bricklayer and plasterer. But, Eric had not abandoned his serious research into the American Blues. His path in music was the blues. Upon his return from Greece, Eric rejoined the Bluesbreakers.
Extensive touring in the U. Although Cream was together for only two years, they are considered one of the most influential rock groups of the modern era. Clapton was unique because he did not simply replicate the blues riffs he heard on records. He incorporated the emotion of the original performances into his own style of playing, thus expanding the vocabulary of blues guitar. While with this outfit, Eric was encouraged to sing by Delaney Bramlett.
He also began composing more. The band would drift apart following an American tour and a failed attempt at recording a second album. Hit hard by the break up of The Dominos, the commercial failure of the Layla album and his unrequited love, Eric sunk into three years of heroin addiction.
Although he rarely emerged from his Surrey Estate, he filled box upon box with tapes of songs. The concerts represented a turning point in his career. In , he reappeared with a new style and sound with Ocean Boulevard. Eric had become an assured vocalist and composer in addition to a guitar hero.
With each album after Ocean Boulevard , Eric reinvented himself musically. Throughout the s and early s, albums and tours would follow year in and year out. The album, which included songs such as "What'd I Say" and "Ramblin' on My Mind," is widely considered among the greatest blues albums of all time.
Clapton's miraculous guitar-playing on the album also inspired his most flattering nickname, "God," popularized by a bit of graffiti on the wall of a London Tube station reading "Clapton is God.
Despite the record's success, Clapton soon left the Bluesbreakers as well; a few months later, he teamed up with bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker to form the rock trio Cream. Performing highly original takes on blues classics such as "Crossroads" and "Spoonful," as well as modern blues tracks like "Sunshine of Your Love" and "White Room," Clapton pushed the boundaries of blues guitar.
On the strength of three well-received albums, Fresh Cream , Disraeli Gears and Wheels of Fire , as well as extensive touring in the United States, Cream achieved international superstar status. Yet they, too, broke up after two final concerts at London's Royal Albert Hall, citing clashing egos as the cause.
After the breakup of Cream, Clapton formed yet another band, Blind Faith, but the group broke up after only one album and a disastrous American tour. Then, in , he formed Derek and the Dominos, and went on to compose and record one of the seminal albums of rock history, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.
A concept album about unrequited love, Clapton wrote Layla to express his desperate affection for Pattie Boyd, the wife of the Beatles' George Harrison. The album was critically acclaimed but a commercial failure, and in its aftermath a depressed and lonely Clapton deteriorated into three years of heroin addiction.
Clapton finally kicked his drug habit and reemerged onto the music scene in with two concerts at London's Rainbow Theater organized by his friend Pete Townshend of The Who.
Despite his great musical productivity during these years, Clapton's personal life remained in woeful disarray. However, by this time Clapton had simply replaced his heroin addiction with alcoholism, and his drinking placed a constant strain on their relationship.
He was an unfaithful husband and conceived two children with other women during their marriage. Clapton and Boyd divorced in In , Clapton's son Conor died when he fell out of the window of his mother's apartment.
The tragedy took a heavy toll on Clapton and also inspired one of his most beautiful and heartfelt songs, "Tears in Heaven. In , with the help of the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, Clapton finally quit drinking and has remained sober ever since. Being sober for the first time in his adult life allowed Clapton to achieve the kind of personal happiness he had never known before.
In , he founded the Crossroads Centre, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility, and in , he married Melia McEnery.
Clapton, who published his autobiography in , was ranked the second greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone in An time Grammy Award winner and the only triple inductee of the Rock and Roll of Fame as a member of The Yardbirds, as a member of Cream and as a solo artist , he continued to record music and tour through his 60s, while also performing charity work.
In , Clapton revealed that he had been diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy three years earlier, a condition that left him with back and leg pain. In early , he admitted in an interview that he was also dealing with tinnitus, a ringing in the ears caused by noise-induced hearing loss. His increasing versatility and instrumental prowess garnered Clapton mainstream attention, stirring one graffiti artist to write "Clapton is God" on the wall of a London subway station.
Defining the term "Power-trio," Cream released three well-receieved albums, Fresh Cream , Disraeli Gears , and Wheels of Fire , and became regarded as one of the best live bands in the world. Extensive touring and internal strife, however, caused the band to implode after only two years. They released one album and quickly disbanded as Clapton grew more frustrated with his iconic roll as a "guitar god.
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