ERIC PATRICK CLAPTON, THE UNFORGETTABLE GUITARIST

Today, The Grandma is still relaxing at home. The weather is warm, but she is too tired to go out, and she has preferred to listening to music. She has chosen Eric Clapton, the English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter, considered one of the greatest guitarists of all time, who was born on a day like today in 1945.

Eric Patrick Clapton (born 30 March 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter.

He 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 of Cream.

Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time.

Clapton ranked second in Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time and fourth in Gibson's Top 50 Guitarists of All Time. He was also named number five in Time magazine's list of The 10 Best Electric Guitar Players in 2009.

After playing in a number of different local bands, Clapton joined the Yardbirds in 1963, replacing founding guitarist Top Topham. Dissatisfied with the change of the Yardbirds sound from blues rock to a more radio-friendly pop rock sound, Clapton left in 1965 to play with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, with whom he played on one album.

After leaving Mayall in 1966, he formed the power trio Cream with drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Jack Bruce, in which Clapton played sustained blues improvisations and arty, blues-based psychedelic pop. After Cream broke up in November 1968, he formed blues rock band Blind Faith with Baker, Steve Winwood, and Ric Grech, recording one album and performing on one tour before they broke up, leading Clapton to embark on a solo career in 1970.

More information: Eric Clapton Official Website

Alongside his solo career, he also performed with Delaney & Bonnie and Derek and the Dominos, with whom he recorded Layla, one of his signature songs. He continued to record a number of successful solo albums and songs over the next several decades, including a 1974 cover of Bob Marley's I Shot the Sheriff, which helped reggae reach a mass market, the country-infused Slowhand album (1977) and the pop rock of 1986's August.

Following the death of his son Conor in 1991, Clapton's grief was expressed in the song Tears in Heaven, which appeared on his Unplugged album, and in 1996 he had another top-40 hit with the R&B crossover Change The World, and in 1998 released the Grammy award-winning My Father's Eyes.

Since 1999, he has recorded a number of traditional blues and blues rock albums and hosted the periodic Crossroads Guitar Festival. His most recent studio album is 2018',s Happy Xmas.

Clapton has received 18 Grammy Awards as well as the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.

In 2004, he was awarded a CBE at Buckingham Palace for services to music. He has received four Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. In his solo career, Clapton has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time.

In 1998, Clapton, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, founded the Crossroads Centre on Antigua, a medical facility for recovering substance abusers.

More information: Twitter-Eric Clapton

Clapton was born on 30 March 1945 in Ripley, Surrey, England, to 16-year-old Patricia Molly Clapton and Edward Walter Fryer, a 25-year-old soldier from Montreal, Quebec.

In 1961, after leaving Hollyfield School in Surbiton, Clapton studied at the Kingston College of Art but was dismissed at the end of the academic year because his focus remained on music rather than art.

In October 1963, Clapton joined the Yardbirds, a blues-influenced rock and roll band, and stayed with them until March 1965. Synthesising influences from Chicago blues and leading blues guitarists such as Buddy Guy, Freddie King, and B.B. King, Clapton forged a distinctive style and rapidly became one of the most talked-about guitarists in the British music scene.

Clapton left the Bluesbreakers in July 1966, replaced by Peter Green, and was invited by drummer Ginger Baker to play in his newly formed band Cream, one of the earliest supergroups, with Jack Bruce on bass.

Clapton's next group, Blind Faith, formed in 1969, was composed of Cream drummer Ginger Baker, Steve Winwood of Traffic, and Ric Grech of Family, and yielded one LP and one arena-circuit tour.

With the intention of counteracting the star cult faction that had begun to form around him, Clapton assembled a new band composed of Delaney and Bonnie's former rhythm section, Bobby Whitlock as keyboardist and vocalist, Carl Radle as the bassist, and drummer Jim Gordon, with Clapton playing guitar.

The band was originally called Eric Clapton and Friends. The eventual name was a fluke that occurred when the band's provisional name of Del and the Dynamos was misread as Derek and the Dominos.

Clapton's career successes in the 1970s were in stark contrast with the struggles he coped with in his personal life, which was troubled by romantic longings and drug and alcohol addiction.

Clapton continued to release albums and toured regularly.

Clapton cites Muddy Waters, Freddie King, B.B. King, Albert King, Buddy Guy, and Hubert Sumlin as guitar playing influences.

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.

More information: Instagram-Eric Clapton

The blues are what I've turned to,
what has given me inspiration and relief
in all the trials of my life.

Eric Clapton