Eric Patrick Clapton CBE is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. He was ranked second on Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and fourth on Gibson's "50 Greatest Guitarists of All Time." In 2023, Rolling Stone named Clapton the 35th greatest guitarist of all time. He was also named number five on Time magazine's list of "The 10 Greatest Electric Guitarists" in 2009.

Early life

Clapton was born on 30 March 1945 in Ripley, Surrey, England, to 16-year-old Patricia Molly Clapton (1929–1999) and Edward Walter Fryer (1920–1985), a 25-year-old soldier from Montreal, Quebec. Fryer was drafted to war before Clapton's birth and then returned to Canada. Clapton 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 Clapton's real surname is Clapp (Reginald Cecil Clapton was the name of Rose's first husband, Eric Clapton's maternal grandfather). Years later, his mother married another Canadian soldier and moved to Germany, leaving Eric with his grandparents in Surrey.

Influences

Clapton cites Muddy Waters, Freddie King, B.B. King, Albert King, Buddy Guy, and Hubert Sumlin as guitar-playing influences. In his 2007 autobiography, Clapton refers to Muddy Waters as "the father figure I never really had". Until his death in 1983, Waters was a part of Clapton's life. "When I got to know Muddy, unfortunately, my drinking career was in full sway." In 2000, Clapton collaborated with B.B. King on their album Riding with the King. The music video for the title track shows Clapton as the chauffeur, with one of his idols in the back seat.

Legacy

Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time. Clapton 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 Cream. He ranked second in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and fourth in Gibson's Top 50 Guitarists of All Time.

Guitars

Like Hank Marvin, the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, Clapton exerted a crucial and widespread influence in popularising particular models of electric guitar. With the Yardbirds, Clapton played a Fender Telecaster, a Fender Jazzmaster, a double-cutaway Gretsch 6120, and a 1964 Cherry-Red Gibson ES-335. He became exclusively a Gibson player for a period beginning in mid-1965, when he purchased a used sunburst Gibson Les Paul guitar from a guitar store in London. Clapton commented on the slim profile of the neck, which would indicate it was a 1960 model.

Personal life

Clapton's partner from the late 1960s to 1974 was Alice Ormsby-Gore, a British aristocrat. They were together for three years and were both addicted to heroin. He briefly dated funk singer Betty Davis.

Clapton became friends with George Harrison in the late 1960s and they began writing and recording music together. Clapton fell in love with Pattie Boyd who was married to Harrison at this time. Harrison and Boyd divorced in 1977 and she married Clapton on 27 March 1979, in Tucson, Arizona. Their marriage was marred by his infidelities and domestic violence. During a 1999 interview with The Sunday Times, Clapton admitted to raping and abusing her while they were married and he was a "full-blown" alcoholic who felt entitled to sex. In 1984, while recording Behind the Sun, Clapton began a relationship with Yvonne Kelly, the manager of AIR Studios Montserrat. Although both were married to other partners at the time, they had a daughter named Ruth Kelly Clapton in January 1985. Ruth's existence was kept from the public until the media realised she was his child in 1991.