page_title: Eric Clapton
section_title: Influences
hierarchical_section_title: Eric Clapton / Influences
caption_attribution_description: The thrill is not gone yet!
context_page_description: Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist and separately as a member of the Yardbirds and of Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time. Clapton ranked second in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and fourth in Gibson's "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". He was also named number five in Time magazine's list of "The 10 Best Electric Guitar Players" in 2009.
  After playing in a number of different local bands, Clapton joined the Yardbirds in 1963, replacing founding guitarist Top Topham. Dissatisfied with the change of the Yardbirds sound from blues rock to a more radio-friendly pop rock sound, Clapton left the Yardbirds in 1965 to play with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, with whom he played on one album. After leaving Mayall in 1966, Clapton formed the power trio Cream with drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Jack Bruce, in which Clapton played sustained blues improvisations and "arty, blues-based psychedelic pop".
context_section_description: Clapton cites Muddy Waters, Freddie King, B.B. King, Albert King, Buddy Guy, and Hubert Sumlin as guitar playing influences. In his 2007 autobiography, Clapton referred to Muddy Waters as "the father figure I never really had." Until his death in 1983, Waters was a part of Clapton's life. "When I got to know Muddy, unfortunately, my drinking career was in full sway." In 2000 Clapton collaborated with B.B. King in their album Riding with the King, with the music video for the title track seeing Clapton as the chauffeur with one of his idols in the back seat. Clapton has said that blues musician Robert Johnson is his single most important influence. In 2004 Clapton released CDs and DVDs entitled Sessions for Robert Johnson, comprising covers of Robert Johnson songs using electric and acoustic guitars. 
  Clapton co-authored with others the book Discovering Robert Johnson, in which Clapton said Johnson was:
  ...the most important blues musician who ever lived. He was true, absolutely, to his own vision, and as deep as I have gotten into the music over the last 30 years, I have never found anything more deeply soulful than Robert Johnson. His music remains the most powerful cry that I think you can find in the human voice, really. ... it seemed to echo something I had always felt.
  Clapton also singled out Buddy Holly as an influence. The Chirping Crickets was the first album Clapton ever bought; he later saw Holly on Sunday Night at the London Palladium. In his autobiography, Clapton recounted the first time he saw Holly and his Fender, saying, "I thought I'd died and gone to heaven ... it was like seeing an instrument from outer space and I said to myself: 'That's the future – that's what I want'". In the 2017 documentary film, Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars, Clapton cites Bismillah Khan as an influence: "I wanted my guitar to sound like his reed instrument". In the same documentary he also cited harmonica player Little Walter as an influence: "The sound he made with the harmonica playing through an amplifier. It was thick and fat and very melodic".
caption: Clapton and B.B. King in 2010
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