In March 1966, while still a member of the Bluesbreakers, Clapton briefly collaborated on a side project with Jack Bruce and Steve Winwood among others, recording only a few tracks under the name Eric Clapton and the Powerhouse.

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 3 and fourth in Gibson s Top 50 Guitarists of All Time.

He was also named number five in Time magazines list of The 10 Best Electric Guitar Players in 2009.

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.

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), 7 the country -infused Slowhand album (1977) and the pop rock of 1986s August.

Following the death of his son Conor in 1991, Claptons 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 RB crossover Change The World, and in 1998 released the Grammy award-winning My Fathers Eyes.

Since 1999, he has recorded a number of traditional blues and blues rock albums and hosted the periodic Crossroads Guitar Festival.

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.

Clapton grew up believing that his grandmother, Rose, and her second husband, Jack Clapp, Patricias stepfather, were his parents, and that his mother was actually his older sister.

The similarity in surnames gave rise to the erroneous belief that Claptons real surname is Clapp (Reginald Cecil Clapton was the name of Roses first husband, Eric Claptons maternal grandfather).

Years later, his mother married another Canadian soldier and moved to Germany, 15 leaving young Eric with his grandparents in Surrey.

Around this time, Clapton began busking around Kingston, Richmond, and the West End.

In 1962, Clapton started performing as a duo with fellow blues enthusiast David Brock in pubs around Surrey.

When he was seventeen years old, Clapton joined his first band, an early British RB group, the Roosters, whose other guitarist was Tom McGuinness.

He stayed with this band from January until August 1963.

In October of that year, Clapton did a seven- gig stint with Casey Jones the Engineers.

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.

The band initially played Chess Checker Vee-Jay blues numbers and began to attract a large cult following when they took over the Rolling Stones residency at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond.

They toured England with American bluesman Sonny Boy Williamson II; a joint LP album, recorded in December 1963, was issued in 1965.

The English audiences would wait out the delay by doing what is called a slow handclap.

Claptons nickname of Slowhand came from Giorgio Gomelsky, a pun on the slow handclapping that ensued when Clapton stopped playing while he replaced a string.

In December 1964, Clapton made his first appearance at the Royal Albert Hall, London, with the Yardbirds.

Since then, Clapton has performed at the Hall over 200 times, and has stated that performing at the venue is like playing in my front room.

In part because of its success, the Yardbirds elected to move toward a pop-oriented sound, much to the annoyance of Clapton, who was devoted to the blues and not commercial success.

Beck and Page played together in the Yardbirds for a while, but Beck, Page, and Clapton were never in the group together.

They first appeared together on the 12-date benefit tour for Action for Research into multiple sclerosis in 1983 with the first date taking place on 23 September at the Royal Albert Hall.

In June, Clapton was invited to jam with Jimmy Page, recording a number of tracks that were retroactively credited to The Immediate All-Stars.

In the summer of 1965 he left for Greece with a band called the Glands, which included his old friend Ben Palmer on piano.

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