British guitar legend Eric Clapton is the only person to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times (as a member of the Yardbirds, a member of Cream and as a solo artist), and is one the most respected and influential musicians of his time.

Through his extensive use of Fender guitars—particularly his famous Stratocaster®, "Blackie"—Clapton has expanded the vocabulary of blues guitar and achieved enormous success in a career spanning five decades. Fender's Eric Clapton Signature Stratocaster guitar was the first signature model the company ever produced.

Eric Patrick Clapton was born in Ripley, England, on March 30, 1945. Inspired by blues artists Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry, Clapton took up guitar as a child. After joining several British blues bands in the early '60s, he rose to prominence in the Yardbirds (which later boasted Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page). He left in 1965 to join John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, and formed Cream in 1966 with bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker.

In 1969, he formed Blind Faith and reached number one in many countries with the group's self-titled album. He then became a solo artist and soon released legendary solo albums Eric Clapton and Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Other classic '70s Clapton albums include There's One In Every Crowd, E.C., No Reason To Cry and Slowhand, which went triple platinum. Since then, he has continued to release enormously successful solo albums including Backless (1978), Just One Night (1980), Another Ticket (1981), Money and Cigarettes (1983), Behind The Sun (1985), August (1986), Crossroads (1988), Journeyman (1989; sold 2 million copies and included Grammy®-winning single "Bad Love"), 24 Nights (1991), Unplugged (1992), Pilgrim (1998; platinum-selling Grammy® winner), Riding With The King (2000; with B.B. King), Reptile (2001), Me and Mr. Johnson (2004) and Back Home (2005).

Clapton has also recorded for a host of film soundtracks, and has at times recorded and toured as a sideman with other artists (i.e., Delaney and Bonnie and Friends in the early '70s and Roger Waters in the mid-'80s).

On June 24, 2004, Clapton's famous "Blackie" Stratocaster was put up for auction at New York's Christie's to raise money for Clapton's Crossroads drug rehabilitation charity and center in Antigua, fetching a then-record price of $959,500 (£526,000).

Clapton reconvened Cream in 2005 with Bruce and Baker, playing four nights at London's Royal Albert Hall in early May of that year and three nights at New York's Madison Square Garden that October.


Visit Eric Clapton online at www.ericclapton.com.