Eric Clapton

Eric Patrick Clapton CBE born 30 March 1945 is an English guitarist vocalist and songwriter Clapton is the only threetime inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame once as a solo artist and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time Clapton ranked fourth in Rolling Stone magazines list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time and fourth in Gibsons Top 50 Guitarists of All Time In the mid sixties Clapton left the Yardbirds to play blues with John Mayall the Bluesbreakers In his oneyear stay with Mayall Clapton gained the nickname Slowhand and graffiti in London declared Clapton is God Immediately after leaving Mayall Clapton formed with drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Jack Bruce the power trio Cream in which Clapton played sustained blues improvisations and arty bluesbased psychedelic pop For most of the seventies Claptons output bore the influence of the mellow style of JJ Cale and the reggae of Bob Marley His version of Marleys I Shot the Sheriff helped gain reggae a mass market Two of his most popular recordings were Layla recorded by Derek and the Dominos and Robert Johnsons Crossroads recorded by Cream A recipient of seventeen Grammy Awards in 2004 Clapton was awarded a CBE for services to music In 1998 Clapton a recovering alcoholic and drug addict founded the Crossroads Centre on Antigua a medical facility for recovering substance abusers Description above from the Wikipedia article Eric Clapton licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia