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Childhood

Eric Patrick Clapton was born March 30, 1945 in his grandparents' home in England. His parents were sixteen-year-old Patricia Molly Clapton and Edward Walter Fryer, a 24-year-old Canadian soldier stationed in England during World War Two. Fryer had a wife in Canada and he returned to her before Eric was born. Patricia left Eric with his grandparents and moved to Germany. There she married another Canadian soldier, Frank McDonald. As a young boy Eric was told that his grandparents were his parents. At age nine he was told the truth when his "sister" came to visit with Eric's six-year-old half-brother, Brian. Before this event Eric was a quiet and polite child, and an above average student with a talent for art. After he was told the truth he became distant and moody and stopped doing his school work. After failing his important 11 Plus Exams he was sent to St. Bede's Secondary Modern School for two years.

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His Beginning In Music

On his thirteenth birthday he asked for his first guitar. After finding it difficult to play, he put it aside for a few years. Jerry Lee Lewis's performance on British television along with Eric's love for the blues and American R&B gave him the desire to learn how to play the guitar. He went to Kingston College of Art on a one-year probation but was expelled for not doing enough work because he was always playing his guitar. He got a job as a manual laborer and after persuading his grandparents to buy him an electric guitar; he started practicing it whenever he could. He eventually joined his first band, The Roosters. After that band broke up he joined Casey Jones and the Engineers for one month. Then he decided to use music as a full-time career and joined the Yardbirds.

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Becoming Famous

While with the Yardbirds Clapton earned his nickname "Slowhand". During his playing he would break the guitar strings and replace them onstage while the crowd engaged in slow hand-clapping. Despite how popular his first two albums were Eric left the Yardbirds in 1965. He wanted to play the Blues and he felt the Yardbirds were playing on more of a pop focus. He then joined John Mayall's band the Bluesbreakers and his popularity sky-rocketed. "Clapton is God" was the cry that brought the Bluesbreakers album to No. 6. In Mid-1966, though, Eric left the Bluesbreakers to start his own band the Cream.

His Bands

With bassist, Jack Bruce, and drummer, Ginger Baker, the Cream quickly became the preeminent rock trio of the late sixties. With their first three albums (Fresh Cream, Disraeli Gears, and Wheels of Fire) and extensive touring, the Cream achieved International fame. Sadly with warring egos and intense chemistry the band did a farewell tour and released their last album, Goodbye. After the Cream, Clapton started rocks first "Supergroup" Blind Faith. It ended one year after it began. Afterwards Eric had a solo debut. His song "Layla" was a song inspired by a love triangle between him, his close friend, George Harrison and Harrison's wife Pattie.

Downfall

Eric started getting into heroin and other drugs as many musicians eventually do. Then he became an alcoholic and ended up hospitalized. After getting these addictions under control, Eric became traumatized when several of his close friends, including Stevie Ray Vaughan, and many road crew members were killed in a helicopter crash. Then a few months later his son, Connor, died when he fell 49 stories from his mother's apartment building. Clapton channeled his grief into his song "Tears in Heaven". He continued singing but was never as famous as before, and he continued struggling with his addictions.