by Eric Clapton
First published 2007
Eric Clapton opens his life story with raw honesty. At eighteen, he joined the Yardbirds with only his guitar as comfort. By twenty-two, he had formed Cream and become a global star. His obsession with Patti Boyd, George Harrison's wife, drove him into drug addiction so severe he vanished from public view in the mid-seventies. He fought back from dependency and married Patti, but their relationship crumbled under his alcoholism in the late eighties. With an Italian model, he fathered Connor, whom he lost in tragic circumstances. The song he wrote for his son, Tears in Heaven, became one of rock's biggest sellers. At sixty, Clapton had overcome alcoholism and found peace with his three daughters. He chronicles his journey from teenage guitarist to rock icon, through the depths of addiction and the pain of loss, to eventual recovery and spiritual calm.
Genres: 20th-century, autobiography, biography-memoir, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: overcoming-adversity, redemption
Setting: Yardbirds, Cream
Period: 1960s, 1970s, 1980s
320 pages · Paperback
Content warnings: addiction, alcohol-abuse