50 facts about Eric Clapton

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. Learn 50 facts about musician Eric Clapton.

1. His full name is Eric Patrick Clapton.

2. He was born on 30 March 1945 in his grandparents' home in England.

3. He was the son of 16-year-old Patricia Molly Clapton and Edward Walter Fryer a 24-year-old Canadian soldier stationed in England during World War II.

4. Before Eric was born, Fryer returned to his wife in Canada.

5. His grandparents Rose and Jack Clapp, stepped in as surrogate parents and raised Eric as their own.

6. He grew up believing his mother was his sister.

7. His grandparents never legally adopted him, but remained his legal guardians until 1963.

8. Eric's last name comes from Rose's first husband and Pat's father, Reginald Cecil Clapton.

9. Eric's mother, Pat, eventually married and moved to Canada and Germany as her husband, Frank MacDonald, continued his military career.

10. He had a half-brother, Brian, and has half-sisters Cheryl, and Heather.

11. Eric was raised in a musical household.

12. His grandmother played piano and his uncle and mother both enjoyed listening to the sounds of the big bands.

13. His father was a gifted musician, playing piano in several dance bands in the Surrey area.

14. Quiet and polite, he was characterized as an above-average student with an aptitude for art.

15. At the age of nine, he learned the truth about his parentage when his mother 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.

16. 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.

17. In early 1963, 17 year-old Eric joined his first band, The Roosters. Following the band's demise in August 1963, he spent one month in the pop-oriented Casey Jones and The Engineers.

18. 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.

19. In October 1963, Keith Relf and Paul Samwell-Smith recruited him to become a member of The Yardbirds because Clapton was the most talked about guitar player on the R&B pub circuit.

20. During his 18-month tenure with The Yardbirds, he earned his nickname, Slowhand, and recorded his first albums: Five Live Yardbirds and Sonny Boy Williamson and The Yardbirds.

21. In July 1966, Eric teamed up with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker to form Cream. Extensive touring in the U.S. and three solid albums - Fresh Cream, Disraeli Gears, and Wheels of Fire - brought the band worldwide acclaim.

22. While a member of Cream, he cemented his reputation as rock's premier guitarist and was elevated to superstar status.

23. Although Cream was together for only two years, they are considered one of the most influential rock groups of the modern era.

24. 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.

25. In the summer of 1970, Eric formed Derek and the Dominos with Jim Gordon, Carl Radle and Bobby Whitlock from Delaney & Bonnie's band . The Dominos would go on to record the seminal rock album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.

26. 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. He kicked his drug addiction and re-launched his career in January 1973 with two concerts at London's Rainbow Theater organized by his friend, Pete Townshend (The Who).

27. In 1985, Clapton found a new audience following his performance at the worldwide charity concert, Live Aid. Annual stands at the Royal Albert Hall and successful albums like August, Journeyman and the Crossroads box set kept him well in the public mind.

28. In the late 80s, he carved out a second career as the composer of film scores.

29. His career went from strength to strength and reached new heights in 1992 with the release of Unplugged and the Grammy winning single, "Tears In Heaven."

30. He, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce re-formed Cream for four very special reunion shows at London's Royal Albert Hall. The concerts took place at the venue where their farewell shows took place 37 years earlier, in November 1968. In October 2005, the men performed three further concerts at New York's Madison Square Garden. The London shows were released on CD and DVD in late 2005.

31. He is a triple inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame (as a member of both the Yardbirds and Cream and as a solo artist).

32. He has also won or shared in eighteen Grammy Awards.

33. Eric has also contributed to numerous artists' albums over the decades. The most well known session occurred in September 1968, when he added guitar to George Harrison's composition, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

34. He can also be heard on albums by Aretha Franklin, Steven Stills, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Plastic Ono Band (John Lennon and Yoko Ono), Ringo Starr, Sting, and Roger Waters.

35. After conquering his heroin addiction in the early 70s, Eric replaced it with an addiction to alcohol. Throughout the remainder of the decade and into the 1980s, his life and work suffered due to his alcoholism. In January 1982, Eric entered the Hazelden Foundation, a rehabilitation facility in the United States. He did backslide but entered rehab a second time a few years later. He has been sober since 1987 through the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. Since that time, Eric has been committed to working with others who suffer from addictions to drugs and alcohol.

36. In February 1998, Eric announced the opening of Crossroads Centre, a rehabilitation facility for drug and alcohol abuse on the island of Antigua. One of its principles is to provide subsidized care for some of the poorest people of the Caribbean who can not afford such care on their own. A foundation was established to provide "scholarships" for these individuals.

37. On 24 June 1999, Clapton auctioned 100 of his guitars, including "Brownie" (the guitar on which he recorded "Layla"), at Christie's Auction House / New York. The 1999 auction netted almost $5 million (US) for the foundation.

38. On 30 June 1999, Clapton hosted a concert to benefit the Centre at New York City's Madison Square Garden. Proceeds from its airing on America's VH1 and DVD and video sales benefited the Centre.

39. Five years later, Eric planned the second and final major fundraising effort for the Centre. On 4, 5 and 6 June 2004, he hosted the First Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas, Texas. The three day event presented the cream of the world's guitarists in a benefit event for the Centre. The event was filmed and proceeds from the sale of the DVD also benefit the foundation. Additionally, a second guitar auction took place on 24 June 2004. It raised an additional $6 million for the foundation and included the sale of "Blackie", his legendary Fender Stratocaster and a cherry red Gibson ES335, known as "The Cream Guitar". The Second Crossroads Guitar Festival, with proceeds again benefitting the Crossroads Centre Foundation, took place on 28 July 2007 in Chicago, Illinois. The event was filmed and a DVD was released on 6 November 2007.

40. In October 2007, Eric's autobiography, Clapton, was published.

41. His autobiography is available in twelve languages and topped the best-seller lists around the world.

42. Eric is married. He and his wife, Melia, have three daughters - Julie Rose, Ella Mae and Sophie.

43. The couple married on 1 January 2002.

44. Eric's eldest child is his daughter, Ruth.

45. His son, Conor, died on 20 March 1991 when he fell from a window in his mother's New York City apartment. Conor's mother is Lori del Santo, a film actress / television personality.

46. Eric married his first wife, Pattie Boyd Harrison on 27 March 1979. They had no children and divorced in 1989.

47. The death of his son was the inspiration for Clapton's song, "Tears in Heaven".

48. In 1993, Clapton was appointed a director of Clouds House, a UK treatment centre for drug and alcohol dependence, and served on their board until 1997.

49. In 2008, he donated a song to Aid Still Required's CD to assist with the restoration of the devastation done to Southeast Asia from the 2004 tsunami.

50. His grandson Isaac Eric Owen Bartlett was born in June 2013 to his oldest daughter Ruth and her husband Dean Bartlett.

Source: ericclapton.com/eric-clapton-biography, Wikipedia