The million-selling, Grammy award-winning master of the blues guitar, Eric Clapton still generates the kind of adulation that led fans to graffiti London underground stations in 1965 with the statement, 'Clapton is God'. And yet Clapton has more thanan astonishing professional story to tell: he has survived a personal journey blighted by tragedy and heartbreak. In 1990 he lost four of his closest friends in a helicopter crash, followed a year later by the devastating death of his four-year-old son Conor.

In this definitive study of the man and his music, Michael Schumacher reveals with compassion and insight both the depths of Clapton's sorrow and the roots of his remarkable musical power. From his days with the Yardbirds, through spells with Cream and Derek and the Dominoes to a solo career that has spanned over a quarter of a century, Schumacher superbly charts the development of an enduring guitar legend.