It was extraordinarily difficult for an unmarried 16-year-old to raise a child on her own in the mid-1940s. Pat's parents, Rose and Jack Clapp, stepped in as surrogate parents and raised Eric as their own. Thus, he grew up believing his mother was his sister. His grandparents never legally adopted him, but remained his legal guardians until 1963. Eric’s last name comes from Rose's first husband and Pat's father, Reginald Cecil Clapton (d. 1933).

Eric’s mother, Pat, eventually married or wedded and moved to Canada and Germany as her husband, Frank McDonald, continued his military career. They had two girls and a boy. Eric’s half-brother, Brian, was killed in a road accident in 1974 at the age of 26. His half-sisters are Cheryl (b. May 1953) and Heather (b. September 1958).

Eric was raised in a musical household. His grandmother played piano and his uncle both enjoyed listening to the sounds of the big bands. Pat later told Eric’s official biographer, Ray Coleman, that his father was a gifted musician, playing piano in several dance bands in the Surrey area.

Quiet and polite, he was characterized as an above-average student with an aptitude for art. But, 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, he learned the truth about his parentage when Pat returned to England with his six-year-old half brother for a visit. This singular event affected him deeply. He became moody and distant and stopped applying himself at school. Emotionally scarred by this event, Eric 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.

Typical of his introspective nature, Eric looked beneath the surface and explored the roots of rock in American Blues. The blues also meshed perfectly with his self-perception as an outsider and of being "different" from other people. Sometime in 1962, he asked for his grandparents' help in purchasing a £100 electric double cutaway Kay (a Gibson ES-335 clone) after hearing the electric blues of Freddie King, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, and others.

In early 1963, Eric joined his first band, The Roosters. Following the band's demise, he spent one month in the pop-oriented Casey Jones and The Engineers. Before turning to music as a full-time career, he supported himself as a laborer at building sites, working alongside his grandfather, a master bricklayer and plasterer.

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 guitar player on the R&B pub circuit. During his 18-month tenure with The Yardbirds, he earned his nickname “Slowhand” and recorded his first albums: Five Live Yardbirds and Sonny Boy Williamson and The Yardbirds. The band also recorded the single, "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl". But, Eric had not abandoned his serious research into the American Blues. When The Yardbirds began moving towards a more commercial sound with "For Your Love", he quit. His path in music was the blues.

In April 1965, John Mayall invited Eric to join his band, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. With this group, Clapton established his reputation as a guitarist and earned his second nickname: “God”. It came from an admirer’s graffiti on the wall of London’s Islington Tube Station that boldly proclaimed “Clapton is God.” Eric’s time with the band was turbulent and he left for a while to tour Greece with friends. Upon his return from Greece, Eric rejoined the Bluesbreakers. It was during this time that (or this, whichever) the now classic Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton was recorded. While with the Bluesbreakers, Eric also recorded a one-off four-track session with a band dubbed “The Powerhouse”. This studio band included John Paul Jones, Steve Winwood and Jack Bruce.

Following Cream's break-up, 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, he tried to hide from his growing fame by touring as a sideman with Delaney & Bonnie & Friends. While with this outfit, Eric was encouraged to sing by Delaney Bramlett. He also began composing more. A live album from the Delaney & Bonnie tour was released in 1970. Clapton's self-titled debut was released that same year. In the summer of 1970, Eric 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, Pattie. 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 sunk into three years of heroin addiction. Although he rarely emerged from his Surrey Estate, he filled box upon box with tapes of songs. He kicked his drug addiction and re-launched his career in January 1973 with two concerts at London's Rainbow Theater organized by his friend, Pete Townshend (The Who). The concerts represented a turning point in his career. In 1974, he reappeared with a new style and sound with 461 Ocean Boulevard. Eric had become an assured vocalist and composer in addition to a guitar hero.

In 1994, Eric returned to his blues roots with the release of From The Cradle. The album was Clapton's tribute to his musical heroes and contained cover versions of blues classics. 1997 brought an excursion into electronica with the release of TDF / Retail Therapy with Eric posing as X-Sample. In 1998, he released the soul-influenced Pilgrim, his first album of all new material in nine years. In 2000, he continued his love affair with the blues when he recorded an album with American blues legend, B.B. King. Riding With The King was released in June and within three weeks of release, was certified gold. Shortly thereafter, Clapton was back in the studio recording his next solo project. Reptile was released in March 2001. In late 2002, he began to record a new studio album. Work continued through the summer of 2003 and enough material was recorded for two albums. In addition to new solo material, Eric recorded covers of Robert Johnson songs during these sessions. The Johnson songs were assembled and in March 2004, Eric’s tribute album, Me and Mr. Johnson was released. The new solo material is expected to be released in 2005.

In 2005, Eric revisted the past. He, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker re-formed Cream for four very special reunion shows at London's Royal Albert Hall. The concerts took place at the venue where their farewell shows took place 37 years earlier, in November 1968. In October 2005, the men performed three further concerts at New York's Madison Square Garden.

In his more than 40 year career, Eric Clapton has received many awards. He is the only triple inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame (as a member of both the Yardbirds and Cream and as a solo artist). He has also won or shared in seventeen Grammy Awards.

Eric Patrick Clapton was born on March 30, 1945 in England. Clapton's musical career has developed from band member to solo artist and has allowed Clapton to be considered one of the premiere rock and blues guitarists in history. Clapton was raised by his grandmother who he thought was his mother until age 9 when he learned that his "sister" was actually is mom and he was an illegitimate child. By the time Clapton was 15, he was fascinated with the blues and playing guitar (a gift for his 13th birthday) and by age 17, he had dropped out of Kingston College of Art to focus on a career in music in London.

Click here for an excellent Eric Clapton timeline of his career.

During that time he has sold millions of albums and known worldwide fame - but also experienced the pain of drug and alcohol addiction and the tragic death of his son.

Born in Ripley, Surrey, on 30 March, 1945, Eric Patrick Clapton began learning the guitar as a result of his love for blues and US R&B in the shape of artists such as Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley.

He became a serious scholar of the blues, learning about its history, listening to legendary exponents such as Robert Johnson and discovering the work songs of the US deep south.

"It did something to me emotionally," he later said of his affinity with practitioners of the blues sound.

"The blues are what I've turned to, what has given me inspiration and relief in all the trials of my life."

After brief spells with various British blues bands in the early 1960s, Clapton rose to public acclaim in 1964 as a member of The Yardbirds, playing lead guitar at London's Marquee club on the band's first album, Five Live Yardbirds.

While The Yardbirds would go on to recruit fellow guitar heroes Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, Clapton had joined John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, and would soon emerge at the heart of one of the late 1960s' most important rock bands, Cream.

Co-founded with bass player Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker, Cream combined the era's psychedelic influence with hard-rocking remakes of blues standards such as Crossroads and Born Under A Bad Sign.

Before the decade was over, Clapton and drummer Baker joined multi-instrumentalist Steve Winwood and bassist Ric Grech in the so-called supergroup Blind Faith, recording a number one album that was hailed by critics.

After a spell in Delaney and Bonnie & Friends, Clapton began to test his vocal skills, recording a 1970 solo album and the widely-admired track Layla on an album recorded under the name of Derek and the Dominos.

Throughout the 1970s he enjoyed continued success with a string of solo albums featuring hits such as I Shot the Sheriff and Lay Down Sally.

At the height of his fame Clapton was devastated by the death of his four-year-old son Conor, who fell from the 53rd-storey window of a New York City apartment in 1991. Clapton later recorded the song Tears in Heaven in tribute.

He has acknowledged a drug habit that began at art school at the age of 15. By 1969, he was drinking two bottles of vodka a day, and five years later his heroin addiction was costing him £1,500 a week.

He has been sober since 1982 and now raises millions of dollars for his drink and drugs rehabilitation centre in the Caribbean.

A winner of eight Grammys and the only triple inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Clapton, now 58, married American Melia McEnery, 27, the mother of his daughters Ella and Julie, in Surrey a year ago.

For nine years he was married to Patti Boyd, previously the wife of former Beatle George Harrison and the subject of Layla.

Don we now our gay apparel,
Fa la la, la la la, la la la.
Troll the ancient Yule tide carol,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.

See the blazing Yule before us,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Strike the harp and join the chorus.
Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Follow me in merry measure,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
While I tell of Yule tide treasure,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Fast away the old year passes,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Hail the new, ye lads and lasses,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Sing we joyous, all together,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Heedless of the wind and weather,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.