Eric Clapton's name is definitely among the greatest musicians of the 20th century.
He's been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times, for goodness sake.
But great art often comes at a steep price.
Here's the true, tragic story of how Eric Clapton made it to where he is today.
When Clapton was a preteen, his world turned upside down when it was revealed that the
people he thought were his parents were actually his grandparents, and the woman he thought
was his older sister Patricia was actually his mother.
It turned out Patricia had become pregnant with Eric at the age of 16 after an encounter
with a Canadian serviceman named Edward Fryer, who was stationed in England during World
War II.
According to the book Guitar Gods, the revelation hit Clapton hard.
He became moody and distant.
But at the age of 13, he found a place to channel his emotions.
After being mesmerized by the sight and sounds of Jerry Lee Lewis performing "Great Balls
of Fire" on TV, he asked for a guitar for his birthday.
Making music soon became his primary hobby.
Many years later, Clapton wrote the song "My Father's Eyes" about his absentee dad, who
died in 1985 without ever meeting Eric.
Clapton told the Ottawa Citizen,
"I never met my father.
And I realized that the closest I ever came to looking into my father's eyes was when
I looked into my son's eyes."
Clapton became so obsessed with playing the guitar that he was eventually kicked out of
art school for failing to complete his assignments.
Working for his grandfather by day to pay the bills, Clapton joined a band and played
gigs at night.
His first band, The Roosters, lasted less than a year.
He soon joined The Yardbirds, but quit the same day their first top ten single came out,
unhappy with the band's new mainstream sound.
After a pair of influential stints with the Bluesbreakers, Clapton joined the new supergroup
Cream in 1966, launching him to international superstardom at the tender age of 21 and spawning
the "Clapton is God" meme that still lives on today.
"I when you think of God, you see Jesus."
"No man, it's Clapton!"
"Oh my God, man, I drew Clapton too!"
Success doesn't mean happiness, though.
Even gods get depressed.
By the late 1960's, Clapton had become addicted to heroin.
And as if that wasn't bad enough, he also fell in love with his best friend's wife.
The friend was none other than legendary Beatles guitarist George Harrison, and the woman was
Pattie Boyd.
According to Boyd's autobiography Wonderful Today, things came to a head when a drunk
Clapton played a new song he had written for and about her: "Layla."
When Harrison asked what was going on, Clapton said,
"I have to tell you, man, that I'm in love with your wife."
That led to a crazy incident where Clapton showed up on their doorstep and challenged
Harrison to a guitar duel for Boyd's love.
Without a word, the two musically battled for two full hours, but though Boyd said Clapton
won the faceoff, she stayed with Harrison, and Clapton continued his descent into drugs
and alcohol, at one point reportedly spending an incredible $16,000 a week on stuff.
Clapton hit rock bottom in 1976 with a public meltdown that still haunts his legacy today.
During a 1976 concert in Birmingham, England, an inebriated Clapton went on a
rant that included the statement, "England is for white people."
Public reaction was swift, with fellow musicians speaking out against Clapton and forming the
Rock Against Racism movement.
For his part, Clapton has since apologized for his outburst.
He told Rolling Stone,
"I just have to face the guy that I became when I was fueled on stuff.
It's incomprehensible to me, in a way, that I got so far out."
In 1977, Harrison and Boyd divorced after years of marital issues.
Two years later, Boyd and Clapton finally married.
It should have been perfect, especially since Clapton had finally kicked his addiction.
But it didn't work out.
Though he was off, Clapton was hitting the bottle harder than ever.
The couple also had issues conceiving children.
That would have painful enough, but Boyd later learned that Clapton had not only been cheating
on her, he actually fathered children with two other women.
Clapton and Boyd separated, and then finally divorced in 1989.
There was one upside to Clapton's difficult personal life.
In 1986, girlfriend Lory Del Santo gave birth to their son Conor, which eventually prompted
Clapton to get completely sober, as he didn't want his son to see him drunk.
In 1991, though, Clapton and Del Santo experienced a heartbreaking tragedy when the 4-year-old
Conor fell 49 stories to his death.
The boy was playing in a Manhattan apartment when a housekeeper opened the window to clean
it.
Conor reportedly ran past the housekeeper and straight out the open window.
Clapton wrote in his autobiography,
"I remember walking down Park Avenue, trying to convince myself that everything was really
all right… as if anyone could make a mistake about something like that."
Even after seeing the police and paramedics and identifying Conor's body, he was still
in disbelief.
Clapton was traumatized by his son's passing, eventually channeling his grief into the classic
song "Tears in Heaven."
After a history of rocky relationships, death, and addiction, Clapton finally found the family
life he always craved.
In 2002, he married Melia McEnery; together, the couple have had three children, all girls.
And he's even become a grandfather.
Clapton described his surprisingly domestic new life to USA Today as a quiet time in the
country.
It sounds like he doesn't love today's pop stars, though:
"My girls go to school and meet other kids who will talk about a certain pop star, and
that has its own life.
What I try to do is redirect by playing in the background or having music in the background;
blues, country music, New Orleans jazz, opera, classical.
I think it's important that they hear old music."
Welcome to old age, Gramps!
In 2016, Clapton revealed that he had been diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy, which
can cause numbness, shooting pain, and a lack of coordination in the extremities.
Luckily, though, so far Clapton is mostly experiencing the symptoms in his legs, rather
than his hands, meaning it hasn't affected his ability to create and play the music he
loves.
And in 2018, Clapton revealed on BBC Radio 2 that he is suffering from both hearing loss
and tinnitus, which can cause a high pitched ringing in the ears.
He said he has no plans to retire, though, as long as people keep coming out to see him.
"I’m hoping that people will come along and see me just because, or maybe more than
because I’m a curiosity…
It’s amazing to myself that I’m still here."
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