Post by Taxigirl on Nov 3, 2004 9:18:10 GMT
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/3977571.stm
Influential guitarist and songwriter Eric Clapton is to be made a CBE at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday.
The 59-year-old, who rose to fame in the Yardbirds in the 1960s, is being given the award for services to music as part of the New Year's Honours list.
The musician was a member of the band Cream before going on to have a successful solo career with songs such as Layla and Wonderful Tonight.
Clapton, who was born in Surrey, was made an OBE in 1994.
As a member of Cream, he recorded rock covers of blues numbers including Crossroads and Born Under a Bad Sign.
He then went on to record Layla under the name Derek and the Dominos, written about his first wife Patty Boyd.
But with his early success came an addiction to alcohol and heroin, with Clapton admitting he spent £1,500 a week on drugs and drank at least two bottles of vodka a day.
He conquered his addictions in 1982 with the help of a treatment centre in the Caribbean, which he continues to support through fundraising.
Tribute to son
He went on to have a string of successful albums under his own name, and his MTV Unplugged session sold more than 15 million copies in 1992.
But in 1991 his son, four-year-old Connor, died after he fell from the 54th-floor window of a New York apartment.
He went on to write the hit track Tears in Heaven as a tribute to his son.
Clapton married American Melia McEnery on New Year's Day, 2002.
Influential guitarist and songwriter Eric Clapton is to be made a CBE at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday.
The 59-year-old, who rose to fame in the Yardbirds in the 1960s, is being given the award for services to music as part of the New Year's Honours list.
The musician was a member of the band Cream before going on to have a successful solo career with songs such as Layla and Wonderful Tonight.
Clapton, who was born in Surrey, was made an OBE in 1994.
As a member of Cream, he recorded rock covers of blues numbers including Crossroads and Born Under a Bad Sign.
He then went on to record Layla under the name Derek and the Dominos, written about his first wife Patty Boyd.
But with his early success came an addiction to alcohol and heroin, with Clapton admitting he spent £1,500 a week on drugs and drank at least two bottles of vodka a day.
He conquered his addictions in 1982 with the help of a treatment centre in the Caribbean, which he continues to support through fundraising.
Tribute to son
He went on to have a string of successful albums under his own name, and his MTV Unplugged session sold more than 15 million copies in 1992.
But in 1991 his son, four-year-old Connor, died after he fell from the 54th-floor window of a New York apartment.
He went on to write the hit track Tears in Heaven as a tribute to his son.
Clapton married American Melia McEnery on New Year's Day, 2002.