Eric Clapton Biography

Legendary musician Eric Clapton was born in 1945 in Ripley, Surrey, England. Young Eric was given an acoustic guitar for a birthday as a teenager, and he immediately fell in love with the instrument. Clapton spent his early years influenced by some of the most iconic blues performers in music – Howlin’ Wolf, Son House, and Robert Johnson. Immediately upon joining the Yardbirds, he established himself with a unique style, one he carried into his time with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers.

In the mid 1960’s, Eric Clapton formed Cream with Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce. With hit singles like “White Room” and “Sunshine of Your Love,” his popularity as a distinctive guitarist outlived the band’s existence, and by the time they’d released their final album in 1968, Eric Clapton was ready to move on. After joining Blind Faith in 1969, and then releasing Eric Clapton in 1970, he disappeared into the background, occasionally performing with other bands collaboratively, before resurfacing in 1974 with 461 Ocean Boulevard. The album featured his now-famous cover of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff.” A string of successful albums continued throughout the rest of the 1970’s and 1980’s, including There’s One in Every Crowd (1975), No Reason to Cry (1976), Slowhand (1977), Backless (1978), Another Ticket (1981), Money and Cigarettes (1983), Behind the Sun (1985), August (1986), and Journeyman (1989.)

In 1991, tragedy struck Eric Clapton’s life with the devastating loss of his son. The young four-year old died after accidentally falling out of the Clapton’s apartment window. The Grammy-winning “Tears in Heaven” was the result of that heartbreak. Clapton continued through the 1990’s and into the new millennium with From the Cradle (1994), Pilgrim (1998), Reptile (2001), Me and Mr. Johnson (2004), Back Home (2005), Road to Escondido (with JJ Cale, in 2006), and Old Sock (2013.)

Today, now well into his seventies, Eric Clapton continues to perform and record. He performed multiple shows at Madison Square Garden in 2015, followed immediately by seven shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Clapton’s most recent studio album, I Still Do, arrived in 2016. Later in the year, he released the live album Live in San Diego.