Eric Clapton Tickets

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About Eric Clapton

Eric Patrick Clapton was born on 30 March 1945 in his grandparents' home at 1 The Green, Ripley, Surrey, England. He was the illegitimate son of 16-year-old Patricia Molly Clapton (b. 7 January 1929, d. March 1999) and Edward Walter Fryer (b. 21 March 1920, d. 1985), a 24-year-old Canadian soldier stationed in England. Before Clapton was born, Fryer returned to his wife in Canada. Pat's parents, Rose and Jack Clapp*, cared for young Eric. Eventually, Pat met another Canadian soldier, Frank McDonald. After their marriage, they would move to Canada and Germany as McDonald continued his military career. Pat would have three more children: Brian (b. 1948, d. 1974), Cheryl (b. 5 May 1953), and Heather (b. 27 September 1958). Eric Clapton's grandparents never legally adopted him, but remained his guardians until 1963.

Quiet and polite, Eric Clapton was characterized as an above-average student with an aptitude for art. From his earliest years in school, he realized something was not quite right when he wrote his name as "Eric Clapton" and his parents' names as "Mr. and Mrs. Clapp". At the age of nine, Eric Clapton's emotional world was shattered when Pat returned to England with his six-year-old half brother for a visit. He had been raised under the illusion that his grandparents were his parents and that his mother was his older sister, ostensibly to protect him from the truth. This singular event would change Clapton's personality and create a loss of identity. He became moody and distant and stopped applying himself at school. Emotionally scarred by this event, Eric Clapton failed the all-important 11 Plus Exams. He was sent to St. Bede's Secondary Modern School, and two years later, entered the art branch of Holyfield Road School. In 1961, Clapton began studying at the Kingston College of Art on a one-year probation. He was expelled at the end of that time for not submitting enough work. The reason was that guitar playing and listening to the Blues dominated his waking hours. Before turning to music as a career, he supported himself as a laborer at building sites, working alongside his grandfather.

Eric Clapton was raised in a musical household. His grandmother played piano and his mother and uncle both enjoyed listening to the sounds of the big bands. (It is interesting to note that his father often made a living by playing piano.) By 1958, Rock and Roll had exploded onto the world. Typical of his nature, Clapton began exploring its roots in American Blues. The blues meshed perfectly with his self-perception as an outsider and being "different" from other people. For his 13th birthday, he asked for a guitar. Finding it difficult to play, Eric Clapton put the Spanish Hoya aside for a time. He began playing again around the time he started college. Sometime in 1962, he asked for his grandparents' help in purchasing a 100 pound electric double cutaway Kay (a Gibson ES335 clone) after hearing the electric blues of Freddie King, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, and others.

In early 1963, Eric Clapton joined his first band, The Roosters. Following the band's demise, he spent one month in the pop-oriented Casey Jones and The Engineers. In October 1963, Keith Relf and Paul Samwell-Smith recruited him to become a member of The Yardbirds because Clapton was the most talked about player on the R&B pub circuit. It was with The Yardbirds that Eric Clapton made his first albums Five Live Yardbirds, Sonny Boy Williamson and The Yardbirds, and the single, "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl". During this time, he also earned his nickname, "Slowhand", because whenever he would break a string on stage, he would change it to the accompaniment of a "slow hand clap" from the audience. His serious research into the American Blues continued and when The Yardbirds began moving towards a more commercial sound with the single "For Your Love", he quit the band. His path in music was the blues.

In April 1965, John Mayall invited Eric Clapton to join his band, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. During his tenure with this band, Clapton established his reputation as a guitarist. His time with the band was turbulent and Eric Clapton even left for a while to tour Greece with friends. Upon his return, the album Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton was recorded.
In late 1966, he teamed up with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker to form Cream. Extensive touring in the U.S. and three solid albums - Fresh Cream, Disraeli Gears, and Wheels of Fire - brought the band worldwide acclaim. While a member of Cream, he cemented his reputation as rock's premier guitarist. The band crumbled beneath the weight of the member's egos and constant arguing. Following Cream's break-up in 1968, Eric Clapton founded Blind Faith - rock's first "supergroup" - with Steve Winwood, Ginger Baker, and Rick Grech. Disbanding after one album and a disastrous American tour, Clapton tried to hide from his growing fame by touring as a sideman with Delaney & Bonnie. A live album from that tour was released in 1970. Clapton's self-titled debut was also released in that year. In the summer of 1970, he formed Derek and the Dominos with members from Delaney & Bonnie's band. The Dominos would go on to record the seminal rock album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. A concept album, its theme revolved around Clapton's unrequited love for George Harrison's wife, Patti**. The band would drift apart following an American tour and a failed attempt at recording a second album.

Hit hard by the break up of The Dominos, the commercial failure of the Layla album and his unrequited love, Eric Clapton sunk into three years of heroin addiction. Although he and his girlfriend, Alice Ormsby-Gore, emerged rarely from his Surrey Estate, he filled box upon box with tapes of songs. Eric Clapton kicked his drug addiction and re-launched his career in January 1973 with two concerts at London's Rainbow Theater. In 1974, he would reappear with a new style and sound with the now-classic album, 461 Ocean Boulevard. Sadly, he replaced heroin with an addiction to alcohol. Throughout the 70s and 80s, his life and studio work suffered because of it. In 1981, he was hospitalized for ulcers caused by a combination of pain killers and prodigious quantities of brandy. In January 1982, he entered the Hazelden Foundation, a rehabilitation facility for alcoholics. He would backslide, but Eric Clapton has remained sober since 1987 through membership in Alcoholics Anonymous. In February of 1998, he announced the opening of Crossroads Center, a rehabilitation facility in Antigua. One of its founding principles is to provide subsidized care for some of the poorest people of the Caribbean who could not afford to enter such a facility on their own.

On 26 August 1990, guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton road-crew members Colin Smythe and Nigel Browne were killed in a helicopter crash following a performance at Wisconsin's Alpine Valley Music Center. Rather than end the tour, Clapton and his band completed the final dates as a tribute to their friends. Less than one year later, on 20 March 1991, his son Conor (b. 15 August 1986) fell to his death from his mother's Manhattan high-rise apartment. Clapton's grief would be expressed in the song "Tears In Heaven", which would bring him worldwide accolades and a legion of new fans, following its release on the album Unplugged. It is a tribute to his resolve that Eric Clapton did not return to drink or drugs following these events. Since the early 1990s, he has developed a solid relationship with his daughter, Ruth Kelly Clapton (b. 11 January 1985).

With each album subsequent to 461 Ocean Boulevard, Eric Clapton has reinvented himself musically. This practice has continued to the present day. In 1985, Eric Clapton found a new audience following his performance at the worldwide charity concert, Live Aid. In the last years of that decade, he reemerged as a musical force to be reckoned with. Eric Clapton also carved out a second career as the composer of film scores. Annual stands at the Royal Albert Hall and successful albums like August, Journeyman, Unplugged, and the Crossroads box set kept him well in the public mind. Eric Clapton returned to his blues roots with the 1994 release From The Cradle. The album was Clapton's tribute to his musical heroes and contained cover versions of Blues classics. The year 1997 brought an excursion into electronica with the release of TDF / Retail Therapy with Clapton posing as X-Sample. In 1998, Eric Clapton released Pilgrim, his first album of all new material in nine years.

Eric Clapton Tickets

Ticket Retriever sells tickets for Eric Clapton concert events. We specialize in providing you with premium and other Eric Clapton Tickets that are in high demand. We can help you gain access to tickets for all major events.

How to Find Eric Clapton Tickets:

1. Browse our ticket inventory by clicking on the "Eric Clapton" button.

2. Sort ticket events by price, section, or row.

3. Use the seating chart to help you find the Eric Clapton tickets that meet your preferences.

4. Place your ticket order for Eric Clapton Tickets on our secure system.