The pneumatic drill screamed through solid rock, throwing dust into the cold Algerian air. Engineers from the 19th regiment worked in shifts around the clock, boring two U-shaped tunnel complexes into the wall of a sunless ravine called Speedy Valley. Each shaft ran 160 ft into the cliff face, braced every four feet with 10-in…
Everyone knows Eric Clapton as slow hand, but almost nobody knows the nickname started as mockery. Some say it was because audience members would slow clap when he broke strings. Others say it was because his manager thought his playing was too deliberate, too controlled, not wild enough for 1960s rock. The truth is darker…
Eric Clapton played for six minutes at the Marquee Club before being humiliated and thrown out. Those six minutes of rejection fueled the greatest guitar career in rock history. It was Thursday, April 23rd, 1964, and 19-year-old Eric Clapton was standing outside the Marquee Club in London’s Water Street, clutching his guitar case and trying…
Eric Clapton was holding the guitar wrong. At least that’s what the sales clerk thought. 1963, a guitar shop in London. Clapton was 18 years old, scruffy, unknown outside of a few blues clubs. He picked up a Gibson, wrapped his thumb over the top of the neck. Unconventional grip, wrong by textbook standards. The…
London 1967. Backstage at a small blues club, Jimmy Hendris turned to Eric Clapton and said, “You can play blues, Eric, but you can’t play like me.” Clapton smiled and said five words that would lead to the most legendary guitar battle in rock history. “Let me borrow your guitar.” What happened next left Hendrick…
Eric Clapton was supposed to be studying art, but when he plugged in his guitar at the school talent show, he chose his real future. The principal tried to stop him. It was too late. It was Friday, November 16th, 1962 at Kingston College of Art in Southwest London. The annual autumn talent show was…
Madison Square Garden, 1974. Eric Clapton was halfway through the Leila solo when his E string snapped with a sound like a gunshot. The sound engineer screamed, “Stop the show!” into his headset. But Clapton didn’t stop. What he did next with only five strings made 20,000 people forget how to breathe and proved why…
Eric Clapton’s first studio session was a complete disaster that ended after 5 minutes. Ironically, that disaster became the reason he got discovered by the right people. It was March 12th, 1963, and 18-year-old Eric Clapton was standing outside Olympic Studios in London, holding his guitar case with sweaty palms and trying to calm his…
Eric Clapton was honoring his blues heroes when a voice from the crowd screamed something so vile, so racist that it stopped 25,000 people cold. What happened next made history. It was August 12th, 2008, and Eric Clapton was performing at the Philips Arena in Atlanta as part of his World Blues Masters tour. The…
In 1992, Eric Clapton did something that had never been done in rock history. He stopped his guitar mid solo, walked off stage, and brought a deaf girl up to feel the music. What happened next left 15,000 people speechless. It was November 18th, 1992 at the Birmingham NEC Arena in England. Clapton was in…
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