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| Birth Name(s) : Eric Clapton |
Date of Birth: N/A |
| Status:
Single
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| Profession:
Actor |
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Full Eric Clapton Biography
Casey Jones and the Engineers, The Roosters, The Yardbirds, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Powerhouse, Cream, The Beatles, The Dirty Mac, Blind Faith, The Plastic Ono Band, Delaney, Bonnie & Friends, Derek and the Dominos, Roger Waters, Dire Straits, T.D.F.Website
Cream's farewell album, Goodbye, featured live performances recorded live at The Forum, Los Angeles, 19 October 1968, and it was released shortly after Cream disbanded in 1968; it also featured the studio single "Badge", co-written by Clapton and George Harrison, whom he had met and become friends with after the Beatles had shared a bill with the Clapton-era Yardbirds at the London Palladium. The close friendship between Clapton and Harrison resulted in Clapton's playing on Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" from the Beatles' White Album. By all accounts the presence of an outsider, especially of Clapton's calibre, had the effect of bringing peace to the disharmonious band. In the same year of release as the White Album, Harrison released his solo debut Wonderwall Music that became the first of many Harrison solo records to feature Clapton on guitar, who would go uncredited due to contractual restraints. The pair would often play live together as each other's guests. A year after Harrison's death in 2001, Clapton helped organize the tribute concert, for which he was musical director.
Clapton finished the twentieth century with critically-acclaimed collaborations with Carlos Santana and B. B. King. Clapton's 1996 recording of the Wayne Kirkpatrick/ Gordon Kennedy/Tommy Sims tune "Change the World" (featured in the soundtrack of the movie Phenomenon) won a Grammy award for song of the year in 1997, the same year he recorded Retail Therapy, an album of electronic music with Simon Climie under the pseudonym TDF. The following year, Clapton released the album "Pilgrim", the first record featuring brand new material for almost a decade.
A collaboration with guitar legend J. J. Cale, titled The Road to Escondido, was released on 7 November 2006. The 14 track CD was produced and recorded by the duo in August 2005 in California. The resulting music defies being labeled into any one category, but instead finds influence across the spectrum of blues, rock, country and folk. A hybrid sound that is unique musically, while still bearing the signature styles of Cale and Clapton recognised by fans around the world. The songs are warm and rich, with deep flowing rhythms, yet use an economy of words to express much.
Clapton has performed songs by myriad artists, most notably Robert Johnson and J. J. Cale. Other artists Clapton has covered include Bob Marley and Bob Dylan. He cites Freddie King, B.B. King, Albert King, Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin and primarily Robert Johnson as major influences on his guitar playing, stating in the liner notes of his Robert Johnson tribute album Me and Mr. Johnson "It is a remarkable thing to have been driven and influenced all of my life by the work of one man... I accept that it has always been the keystone of my musical foundation... I am talking of course about Robert Johnson."
In early 1970, Clapton made the switch to the Fender Stratocaster. "I had a lot of influences when I took up the Strat. First there was Buddy Holly, and Buddy Guy. Hank Marvin was the first well known person over here in England who was using one, but that wasn't really my kind of music. Steve Winwood had so much credibility, and when he started playing one, I thought, oh, if he can do it, I can do it." First was "Brownie" used during the recording of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs which in 1971 became the backup to the most famous of all Clapton's guitars, "Blackie." In 1970, Eric bought 6 Fender Stratocasters from the Sho-bud guitar shop in Nashville, Tennessee. He gave one each to George Harrison, Steve Winwood and Pete Townshend. He used the best components of the remaining three to create "Blackie", which was Clapton's favourite stage guitar until its retirement in 1985. Clapton called the 1956/57 Strat a "mongrel". On 24 June 2004, Clapton sold "Blackie" at Christie’s Auction House, New York for $959,500 to raise funds for his Crossroads Centre for drug and alcohol addictions. It held the world record for most expensive guitar until a white Fender Stratocaster, signed by Clapton and a number of other artists, was auctioned to help raise money for victims of 2004's tsunami disaster. Fender's 'Custom Shop' has since produced a limited run of 275 'Blackie' replicas, correct in every detail right down to the 'Duck Brothers' flight case, and artificially aged using Fender's 'Relic' process to simulate thirty years of hard wear. One was presented to Eric upon the model's release.
Clapton frequently appears as a guest on the albums of other musicians. For example, he is credited on Dire Straits’ Brothers in Arms album, as he lent Mark Knopfler one of his guitars for the album. He also played lead guitar on The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking, Roger Waters' debut solo album after leaving Pink Floyd. Another media appearance is on Toots and the Maytals album True Love where he played guitar on the track Pressure Drop. He can aso be heard at the beginning of Frank Zappa's album, "Absolutely Free," repeating the phrase, "Are you hung up?" over and over again. |
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