Eric clapton biography imdb top 250

Play trailer Biography Documentary Music. Director Lili Fini Zanuck. Stephen 'Scooter' Weintraub Larry Yelen. See production info at IMDbPro. Videos 1. Trailer Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars. Photos 34 Add photo. Top cast 46 Edit. Eric Clapton Self. Duane Allman Self archive footage. Ginger Baker Self archive footage. Chuck Berry Self archive footage.

Pattie Boyd Self archive footage. Jack Bruce Self archive footage. Tom Dowd Self archive footage. After about a year Eric had had enough of impersonating his blues idols and decided to form a group of his own, so in he formed a band with bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker who had the idea that became known as Cream. This band was not a purist blues group but a hard-driving rock and blues trio.

They first performed together at a jazz and blues festival in Surrey before signing a record contract. At the same time they released their debut album "Fresh Cream", which was a top-ten hit, going to UK 6 and went on to make US 39 later in the year.

Eric clapton biography imdb top 250

Cream spent most of either touring or writing, recording and producing "Disreali Gears", which was to be one of their finest efforts. The first single that confirmed the group as a mainstream success was "Strange Brew", which went to 17 in the UK. After a hectic worldwide tour, their second album "Disreali Gears" was released and became an enormous worldwide hit, rising to UK 5 and US 4.

The tour took in hundreds of theaters, arenas and stadiums, but in April the band was exhausted and decided to take a short break from touring. However, during their break disaster struck. While Cream was in America Eric had given an interview to the magazine "Rolling Stone" which had Eric the editor make critical points about his guitar playing.

This led to an eruption within the band, which was the beginning of the end. Despite this setback, the band's US tour carried on until June, during which they had been recording their most popular project, "Wheels Of Fire", a double album that was released in August ; the live album shot to UK 3 and the studio effort to UK 7, but both went directly to US 1 for four weeks.

Despite the fact that the band had sold so many records, had sold out nearly every concert, had made millions and even managed to boost "Sunshine Of Your Love" to hit US 5 and UK 25, they decided that after a farewell tour of America Cream would split. With bassist Ric Grech added to the lineup, the band became Blind Faith and started rehearsing and recording material.

In June , after the band finished a recording session for their first and only album, they made their live debut in Hyde Park to a crowd of over , fans. Despite the fact that Baker and Grech felt that the concert was a triumph, Clapton and Winwood, however, were more or less convinced that Blind Faith had blown it first time round.

However, despite their feelings, Blind Faith set out on a summer sellout tour of the US, playing in arenas and stadiums all over the country. Eric Clapton In the Yardbirds, Cream, Derek and the Dominos, and his own bands, guitarist Eric Clapton has continually redefined his own version of the blues. Raised by his grandparents after his mother abandoned him at an early age, Clapton grew up a self-confessed "nasty kid.

He joined the Yardbirds in late and stayed with them until March , when they began to leave behind power blues for psychedelic pop. Upon leaving the Yardbirds, Clapton did construction work until John Mayall asked him to join his Blues-breakers in spring With Mayall, he contributed to several LPs while perfecting the blues runs that drew a cult of worshipers the slogan "Clapton Is God" became a popular graffito in London.

Also with Mayall he participated in a studio band called Powerhouse which included Jack Bruce and Steve Winwood ; they contributed three cuts to a Elektra anthology, What's Shakin'. Clapton perfected his virtuoso style, and Cream's concerts featured lengthy solo excursions, which Clapton often performed with his back to the crowd. During their only U.

As a corrective to Blind Faith's fan worship, Clapton began jamming with tour openers Delaney and Bonnie, then joined their band as an unbilled but hardly unnoticed sideman. He moved to New York in late and continued to work with Delaney and Bonnie through early With several members of the Bramletts' band, and friends like Leon Russell and Stephen Stills, whose solo albums Clapton played on, he recorded his first solo album, Eric Clapton, which yielded a U.

Having swapped his Fender Telecaster and Vox AC30 amplifier for a Gibson Les Paul Standard guitar and Marshall amplifier , Clapton's sound and playing inspired the famous slogan " Clapton is God ", spray-painted by an unknown admirer on a wall in Islington , North London in Clapton is reported to have been embarrassed by the slogan, saying in his The South Bank Show profile in , "I never accepted that I was the greatest guitar player in the world.

I always wanted to be the greatest guitar player in the world, but that's an ideal, and I accept it as an ideal". Clapton left the Bluesbreakers in July 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 Bruce was previously of the Bluesbreakers, the Graham Bond Organisation and Manfred Mann.

Cream established its enduring legend with the high-volume blues jamming and extended solos of their live shows. By early , fans of the emerging blues-rock sound in the UK had begun to portray Clapton as Britain's top guitarist; however, he found himself rivalled by the emergence of Jimi Hendrix , an acid rock -infused guitarist who used wailing feedback and effects pedals to create new sounds for the instrument.

Hendrix's arrival had an immediate and major effect on the next phase of Clapton's career. Clapton first visited the United States while touring with Cream. Clapton used the guitar for most of Cream's recordings after Fresh Cream , particularly on Disraeli Gears , until the band broke up in Cream's repertoire varied from hard rock " I Feel Free " to lengthy blues-based instrumental jams " Spoonful ".

Disraeli Gears contained Clapton's searing guitar lines, Bruce's soaring vocals and prominent, fluid bass playing, and Baker's powerful, polyrhythmic jazz-influenced drumming. Together, Cream's talents secured them as an influential power trio. In 28 months, Cream had become a commercial success, selling millions of records and playing throughout the US and Europe.

They redefined the instrumentalist's role in rock and were one of the first blues-rock bands to emphasise musical virtuosity and lengthy jazz-style improvisation sessions. Though Cream were hailed as one of the greatest groups of its day, and the adulation of Clapton as a guitar legend reached new heights, the supergroup was short-lived. Drug and alcohol use escalated tension between the three members, and conflicts between Bruce and Baker eventually led to Cream's demise.

A strongly critical Rolling Stone review of a concert of the group's second headlining US tour was another significant factor in the trio's demise, and it affected Clapton profoundly. Cream's farewell album, Goodbye , comprising live performances recorded at The Forum , Los Angeles, on 19 October , was released shortly after Cream disbanded. It also spawned the studio single " Badge ", co-written by Clapton and George Harrison Clapton had met and become close friends with Harrison after the Beatles shared a bill with the Clapton-era Yardbirds at the London Palladium.

Harrison's debut solo album, Wonderwall Music , became the first of many Harrison solo records to include Clapton on guitar. Clapton went largely uncredited for his contributions to Harrison's albums due to contractual restraints, and Harrison was credited as "L'Angelo Misterioso" for his contributions to the song "Badge" on Goodbye. The pair often played live together as each other's guest.

A year after Harrison's death in , Clapton was musical director for the Concert for George. In January , when the Beatles were recording and filming what became Let It Be , tensions became so acute that Harrison quit the group for several days, prompting John Lennon to suggest they complete the project with Clapton if Harrison did not return.

Would Eric have become a Beatle? Paul [McCartney] didn't want to go there. He didn't want them to break up. Then George came back. Cream briefly reunited in to perform at the ceremony inducting them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The supergroup debuted before , fans in London's Hyde Park on 7 June Another, "Presence of the Lord", is the first song credited solely to Clapton.

Blind Faith dissolved after less than seven months. Clapton subsequently toured as a sideman for an act that had opened for Blind Faith, Delaney and Bonnie and Friends. Delaney Bramlett encouraged Clapton in his singing and writing. Using the Bramletts' backing group and an all-star cast of session players including Leon Russell and Stephen Stills , Clapton recorded his first solo album during two brief tour hiatuses, titled Eric Clapton.

Cale 's "After Midnight". During this period, Clapton also recorded with artists such as Dr. 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.

It was his intention to show that he need not fill a starring role, and functioned well as a member of an ensemble. They would have three- and four-part harmonies, and the guitar was put back into perspective as being accompaniment. That suited me well, because I had gotten so tired of the virtuosity — or pseudo -virtuosity — thing of long, boring guitar solos just because they were expected.

The Band brought things back into perspective. The priority was the song. 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. Del and Eric were combined and the final name became "Derek and the Dominos".

Clapton's close friendship with George Harrison brought him into contact with Harrison's wife, Pattie Boyd , with whom he became deeply infatuated. When she spurned his advances, Clapton's unrequited affections prompted most of the material for the Dominos' album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs Heavily blues-influenced, the album features the twin lead guitars of Clapton and Duane Allman, with Allman's slide guitar as a key ingredient of the sound.

The album contained the hit love song " Layla ", inspired by the classical poet of Persian literature , Nizami Ganjavi 's The Story of Layla and Majnun , a copy of which Ian Dallas had given to Clapton. The book moved Clapton profoundly, as it was the tale of a young man who fell hopelessly in love with a beautiful, unavailable woman and went crazy because he could not marry her.

The Layla LP was actually recorded by a five-piece version of the group, thanks to the unforeseen inclusion of guitarist Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band. A few days into the Layla sessions, Dowd — who was also producing the Allmans — invited Clapton to an Allman Brothers outdoor concert in Miami. The two guitarists met first on stage, then played all night in the studio, and became friends.

On 9 September, they recorded Hendrix's " Little Wing " and the title track. The following day, the final track, "It's Too Late", was recorded. Tragedy dogged the group throughout its brief career. During the sessions, Clapton was devastated by news of the death of Jimi Hendrix; eight days previously the band had cut a cover of "Little Wing" as a tribute.

On 17 September , one day before Hendrix's death, Clapton had purchased a left-handed Fender Stratocaster that he had planned to give to Hendrix as a birthday gift. Adding to Clapton's woes, Layla received only lukewarm reviews upon release. Despite Clapton's later admission that the tour took place amid a blizzard of drugs and alcohol, it resulted in the live double album In Concert.

Recording of a second Dominos studio album was underway when a clash of egos took place and Clapton walked out, thus disbanding the group. Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident on 29 October Clapton wrote later in his autobiography that he and Allman were inseparable during the Layla sessions in Florida; he talked about Allman as the "musical brother I'd never had but wished I did".

Another tragic footnote to the Dominos story was the fate of drummer Jim Gordon , who had undiagnosed schizophrenia and years later murdered his mother during a psychotic episode. Gordon was confined to years-to-life imprisonment, later being moved to a mental institution, where he remained for the rest of his life. Clapton's career successes in the s 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.

He nursed a heroin addiction , which resulted in a lengthy career hiatus interrupted only by performing at Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh benefit shows in New York in August ; there, he passed out on stage, was revived, and managed to finish his performance. His appearance in the film performing "Eyesight to the Blind" is notable as he is clearly wearing a fake beard in some shots, the result of deciding to shave off his real beard after the initial takes in an attempt to force the director to remove his earlier scene from the film and leave the set.

In , Clapton started living with Boyd they would not marry until and was no longer using heroin although he gradually began to drink heavily. With this band Clapton recorded Ocean Boulevard , an album with an emphasis on more compact songs and fewer guitar solos; the cover version of " I Shot the Sheriff " was Clapton's first number one hit. The album There's One in Every Crowd continued this trend.

The album's original title, The World's Greatest Guitar Player There's One in Every Crowd , was changed before pressing, as it was felt its ironic intention would be misunderstood. The band toured the world and subsequently released the live LP E. Was Here. Cale cover, " Cocaine ". In , he performed as one of a string of notable guests at the farewell performance of The Band, filmed in a Martin Scorsese documentary titled The Last Waltz.

Clapton accepted the invitation and teamed up with Jeff Beck to perform a series of duets — reportedly their first ever billed stage collaboration. Three of the performances were released on the album of the show, and one of the songs appeared in the film. The performances at London's Drury Lane theatre heralded a return to form and prominence for Clapton in the new decade.

Many factors had influenced Clapton's comeback, including his "deepening commitment to Christianity", to which he had converted prior to his heroin addiction. On the flight over, Clapton indulged in a large number of drinks, for fear he would never be able to drink again. Clapton wrote in his autobiography: [ 72 ]. In the lowest moments of my life, the only reason I didn't commit suicide was that I knew I wouldn't be able to drink any more if I was dead.

It was the only thing I thought was worth living for, and the idea that people were about to try and remove me from alcohol was so terrible that I drank and drank and drank, and they had to practically carry me into the clinic. After being discharged, it was recommended by doctors of Hazelden that Clapton not partake in any activities that would act as triggers for his alcoholism or stress.

But it did happen. Clapton would go back to the Hazelden Treatment Center in November He has stayed sober ever since. A few months after his discharge from his first rehab, Clapton began working on his next album, against doctors' orders. Working with Tom Dowd, he produced what he thought as his "most forced" album to date, Money and Cigarettes.

Clapton chose the name of the album "because that's all I saw myself having left" after his first rehabilitation from alcoholism. Since then Waters and Clapton have had a close relationship. In , they performed together for the Tsunami Relief Fund. Clapton, now a regular charity performer, played at the Live Aid concert at John F.

His album output continued in the s, including two produced with Phil Collins, 's Behind the Sun , which produced the hits "Forever Man" and "She's Waiting", and 's August. August was suffused with Collins's trademark drum and horn sound, and became Clapton's biggest seller in the UK to date, matching his highest chart position, number 3. Clapton later remade "After Midnight" as a single and a promotional track for the Michelob beer brand, which had also used earlier songs by Collins and Steve Winwood.

Clapton also got together with the Bee Gees for charity. The supergroup called itself the Bunburys , and recorded a charity album with the proceeds going to the Bunbury Cricket Club in Cheshire, which plays exhibition cricket matches to raise money for nonprofit organisations in England. The s brought a series of 32 concerts to the Royal Albert Hall, such as the 24 Nights series of concerts that took place around January through February , and February to March Then, on 20 March , Clapton's four-year-old son, Conor, died after falling from the 53rd-floor window of his mother's friend's New York City apartment at East 57th Street.

Clapton was informed of his son's death through a hysterical phone call by the boy's mother Lory Del Santo. Once comprehending what had happened he described feeling like he "went off the edge of the world" and ran to the scene. The first person to offer condolences towards Clapton was friend and fellow guitarist Keith Richards , who himself had lost his young son Tara in He contributed guitar and vocals to "Runaway Train", a duet with Elton John on the latter's The One album the following year.

I almost subconsciously used music for myself as a healing agent, and lo and behold, it worked I have got a great deal of happiness and a great deal of healing from music. Clapton's grief was expressed in the song " Tears in Heaven ", which was co-written by Will Jennings. In , Clapton had a relationship with singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow.

The duo performed a Cream hit single, " White Room ". Clapton looked up to King and had always wanted to make an album with him, while King said of Clapton, "I admire the man. I think he's No. Clapton released the album Reptile in March Johnson and Sessions for Robert J. Guitarist Doyle Bramhall II worked on the album with Clapton after opening Clapton's tour with his band Smokestack and joined him on his tour.

In , Rolling Stone ranked Clapton No. Clapton's first album of new original material in nearly five years, Back Home , was released on Reprise Records on 30 August. A collaboration with guitarist J. He invited Trucks to join his band for his — world tour. Bramhall remained, giving Clapton three elite guitarists in his band, allowing him to revisit many Derek and the Dominos songs that he hadn't played in decades.

Trucks remained on set and performed with Clapton's band throughout his performances. In , Clapton learned more about his father, a Canadian soldier who left the UK after the war. Although Clapton's grandparents eventually told him the truth about his parentage, he only knew that his father's name was Edward Fryer. This was a source of disquiet for Clapton, as witnessed by his song " My Father's Eyes ".

A Montreal journalist named Michael Woloschuk researched Canadian Armed Forces service records and tracked down members of Fryer's family, and finally pieced together the story. Fryer was a musician piano and saxophone and a lifelong drifter who was married several times, had several children, and apparently never knew that he was the father of Eric Clapton.

On 26 February , it was reported that Clapton had been invited to play a concert in North Korea by government officials. The two former Blind Faith bandmates met again for a series of 14 concerts throughout the United States in June In March , the Allman Brothers Band amongst many notable guests celebrated their 40th year, dedicating their string of concerts to the late Duane Allman on their annual run at the Beacon Theatre.

Eric Clapton was one of the performers, with drummer Butch Trucks remarking that the performance was not the typical Allman Brothers experience, given the number and musical styles of the guests who were invited to perform. Clapton was scheduled to perform at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 's 25th anniversary concert in Madison Square Garden on 30 October , but cancelled due to gallstone surgery.

On 24 June , Clapton was in concert with Pino Daniele in Cava de' Tirreni stadium before performing a series of concerts in South America from 6 to 16 October He spent November and December touring Japan with Steve Winwood , playing 13 shows in various cities throughout the country. On 29 November , Clapton joined the Rolling Stones at London's O2 Arena during the band's second of five arena dates celebrating their 50th anniversary.

The album includes the original 14 tracks, remastered, as well as 6 additional tracks, including 2 versions of " My Father's Eyes ". The DVD includes a restored version of the concert, as well as over 60 minutes of unseen footage from the rehearsal. On 13 and 14 November , Clapton headlined the final two evenings of the " Baloise Session ", an annual indoor music festival in Basel , Switzerland.

Cale who died on 26 July Although he did return to perform one final song, thousands of fans were upset by the lack of explanation from Clapton or the venue and booed after the concert ended around 40 minutes before advertised to finish. Both Clapton and the venue apologised the next day, blaming 'technical difficulties' for making sound conditions 'unbearable' for Clapton on stage.

Clapton has performed more times at Madison Square Garden than any other US venue, a total of 45 times. On 30 September the live-album Live in San Diego was released. He returned to the road in September , playing eight shows in the southern United States. In May , Clapton revealed in an interview with The Real Music Observer that he was working on a new studio album, titled Meanwhile , with the hopes of releasing it in the fall of that year.

In his autobiography, Clapton refers to Muddy Waters as "the father figure I never really had". Until his death in , Waters was a part of Clapton's life. King on their album Riding with the King. The music video for the title track shows Clapton as the chauffeur , with one of his idols in the back seat. Clapton has said that blues musician Robert Johnson is his single most important influence.

In , Clapton released Sessions for Robert Johnson , containing covers of Johnson's songs using electric and acoustic guitars. Robert Johnson to me is the most important blues musician who ever lived. He was true, absolutely, to his own vision, and as deep as I have gotten into the music over the last 30 years, I have never found anything more deeply soulful than Robert Johnson.

His music remains the most powerful cry that I think you can find in the human voice, really Clapton also singled out Buddy Holly as an influence. It was thick and fat and very melodic. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time. In , The Guardian attributed the creation of the cult of the guitar hero to Clapton, ranking it number seven on their list of the 50 key events in rock music history;.

Nothing is more central to rock mythology than the cult of the lead guitarist. And no one did more to create that cult than Eric Clapton. He had already been a member of the Yardbirds before joining John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, the clearing house for guitarists, in April His two stints with Mayall saw his reputation grow to the extent that a famous graffito captured the popular appraisal of him among rock fans: " Clapton is God ".

Elias Leight of Rolling Stone writes that Clapton "influenced recording techniques as well as guitar-playing technique". It seemed to me that if you wanted to get the atmosphere we were getting in the clubs, you needed it to sound like you were in the audience 10 feet away, not three inches". Clapton then moved the microphones, with Pink Floyd's Roger Waters stating, "That changed everything.

Before Eric, guitar playing in England had been Hank Marvin of the Shadows, very simple, not much technique. Suddenly we heard something completely different. The records sounded unlike anything we had heard before. In , Clapton was among the British cultural icons selected by artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his artwork — the Beatles' Sgt.

Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover — to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life that he most admires to mark his 80th birthday. Robert Christgau , in a dissenting appraisal of Clapton's legacy, writes:. A promiscuous sideman whose monklike aura has never diminished his extravagant appetites, Clapton likes to get paid, and he's amassed a discography that for an artist of his caliber is remarkably undistinguished.

In his self-protective self-deprecation he often attributes this to his own laziness or his need for a catalyst, but it's also guitar hero's disease: like many other guys whose hand-ear coordination is off the curve, he's a casual tunesmith and a corny lyricist, and his band concepts are chronically hit-or-miss. Due to Clapton's impact in the music industry, he has also been mentioned in several songs.

However, the original lyric, which she sometimes performs live, is "We hate Eric Clapton" instead of "We hate 'Tears in Heaven'. Like Hank Marvin , the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, Clapton exerted a crucial and widespread influence in popularising particular models of electric guitar. He became exclusively a Gibson player for a period beginning in mid, when he purchased a used sunburst Gibson Les Paul guitar from a guitar store in London.

Clapton commented on the slim profile of the neck, which would indicate it was a model. He continued to play Les Pauls exclusively with Cream one bought from Andy Summers was almost identical to the stolen guitar [ ] until , when he acquired his most famous guitar in this period, a Gibson SG , dubbed " the Fool ". I'm developing what I call my 'woman tone.

Clapton used it at the last Cream show in November as well as with Blind Faith, played it sparingly for slide pieces in the s, used it on "Hard Times" from Journeyman , the Hyde Park live concert of , and the From the Cradle sessions and tour of — The was only the second electric guitar Clapton bought. Lucy was stolen from Harrison, though later tracked down and returned to him — he lent it to Clapton for his comeback concert at the Rainbow.

Rundgren restored the guitar and nicknamed it "Sunny", after "Sunshine of Your Love". In late Clapton made the switch to the Fender Stratocaster. 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".

His first Stratocaster, Brownie, was purchased on 7 May [ ] and made its debut in on his first solo album, in concert with Derek and the Dominos as well on the album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.