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Tonight we turn to a musician whose name has become shorthand for guitar mastery, blues devotion, and, depending on who you ask, the very idea of the rock “guitar hero.”

Eric Clapton.

For some listeners, he is the ultimate guitarist: the Yardbirds prodigy, the “Clapton Is God” graffiti on London walls, the molten solos with Cream, the aching beauty of “Layla” and “Tears in Heaven,” the tasteful bends and vocal-like phrasing that defined what an electric guitar could say.

For others, his legacy is more complicated—shaped not only by brilliance, but by band breakups, addictions, controversies, and changing times.

Today I want to trace how a quiet, art-school kid obsessed with American blues records became one of the most influential guitarists in history, move through the bands that forged his sound, and look at how his work helped define what “great guitar playing” means for generations of musicians.

Eric Patrick Clapton was born March 30, 1945, in Ripley, Surrey, England. Raised believing his grandparents were his parents and his mother was his older sister, he grew up with a complicated sense of identity and a strong inwardness that would later surface in his playing — that mix of control, melancholy, and sudden intensity. 

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