Eric Clapton

Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist and separately as a member of the Yardbirds and of Cream. In 2004 he was awarded a CBE at Buckingham Palace for services to music.

About Eric Clapton in brief

Summary Eric ClaptonEric Patrick Clapton, CBE is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist and separately as a member of the Yardbirds and of Cream. He has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. In 2004 he was awarded a CBE at Buckingham Palace for services to music. In 1998, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, founded the Crossroads Centre on Antigua, a medical facility for recovering substance abusers. His most recent studio album is 2018’s Happy Xmas. He was born on 30 March 1945 in Ripley, Surrey, England, to 16-year-old Patricia Molly Clapt on and Edward Walter Fryer, a 25- year-old soldier from Montreal, Quebec. He grew up believing that his grandmother, Rose, and her second husband, Jack Clapp, Patricia’s stepfather, were his parents, and that his mother was actually his older sister. The similarity in surnames gave rise to the erroneous belief that his real surname is Clapp. Years later, his mother married another Canadian soldier and moved to Germany, leaving young Eric with his grandparents in Surrey. He picked up the blues at an early age, and practised long hours to learn the chords of music by playing along to the blues records on a reel-to-reel tape recorder. By the age of 16, he was getting noticed around Kingston, West End, and Richmond, West Virginia.

He studied at the Art of Art College of Kingston, but was dismissed at the end of the academic year because his focus was on music rather than art. In 1961, after leaving art school, he joined the band The Yardbirds. He left in 1965 to play with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, with whom he played on one album. After leaving Mayall in 1966, he formed the power trio Cream with drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Jack Bruce. He continued to record a number of successful solo albums and songs over the next several decades, including a 1974 cover of Bob Marley’s \”I Shot the Sheriff\” In 1996 he had another top-40 hit with the R&B crossover \”Change The World\”, and in 1998 released the Grammy award-winning \”My Father’s Eyes\”. He has received 18 Grammy Awards as well as the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. He also performed with Delaney & Bonnie and Derek and the Dominos, with which he recorded one of his signature songs, \”Layla\”, which he later released on his solo career. In 1999, he has recorded a series of traditional blues and blues rock albums and hosted the periodic Crossroads Guitar Festival. In 2009, he won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, including the lifetime Achievement Award for his work in the blues genre.