Eric+Clapton



Mired in the pop-sensationalized culture of the 1960s, Eric Clapton emerged as one of rock and roll's most influential guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer. Born in Surrey, England in 1945 as an illegitimate child to a 16 year-old mother and a 24 year-old father, Clapton had a rough childhood. His teachers at school saw him as moody as distant, and a quiet kid from his peers. Clapton became very serious about his music from then on, and on his 13th birthday, he received an acoustic Spanish Hoya guitar.

Music became an outlet for Clapton to escape from the rigors of home and school. At seventeen, he joined his first band called The Roosters. He stayed with The Roosters for two years before joinging with a new band, The Yardbirds, a blues rock and roll group that launched Clapton into the limelight of Britain.