Demetri Martin (born May 25, 1973) is an American comedian, actor, artist, musician, writer and humorist. Martin is best known for his work as a stand-up comedian, contributor on ''The Daily Show'' and for his Comedy Central show ''Important Things with Demetri Martin''.

Early life

Demetri Martin was born to a Greek American family in New York City, New York, and grew up in Toms River, New Jersey. He is the son of Lillian, a nutritionist, and Dean C. Martin, a Greek Orthodox priest. Martin graduated from Yale University in 1995. Although he was accepted into Harvard Law School, he went to New York University School of Law after he received a full scholarship. In 1996 Martin interned for the Domestic Policy Council at the Clinton White House, then after completing his second year of law school he dropped out.

Career

In 2001, Martin caught his first big break in stand-up comedy when he appeared on Comedy Central's stand-up showcase ''Premium Blend''. At the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe he won the Perrier award with his show ''If I...''. The show was turned into a British television special in 2004. From 2003 to 2004, Martin wrote for ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien''. In 2004, Martin had his own ''Comedy Central Presents'' stand-up special. His special was divided into three parts. In the first, he performed in traditional stand-up comedy fashion. In the second segment, he used humorous drawings as visual aids, which would serve either as the punchline or a background. During the third segment, he played a guitar and put on a pseudo-play where he would strum his guitar while talking; some of his comedian friends dressed as fairies and dragons acted according to the story he was telling, detailing the magical land where his jokes came from. Martin's mother and grandmother also appeared.

Since late 2005, he has been credited as a contributor on ''The Daily Show'', on which he has appeared as the named "Senior Youth Correspondent" and on which he hosts a segment called "Trendspotting". He has used this segment to talk about so-called hip trends among youth such as hookahs, wine, guerilla marketing and Xbox 360. A piece about social networking featured his profile on MySpace. On March 22, 2007, Demetri made another appearance on ''The Daily Show'', talking about the Viacom lawsuit against Google and YouTube.

He has recorded a comedy CD/DVD titled ''These Are Jokes'', which was released on September 26, 2006. This album also features ''Saturday Night Live'' member Will Forte and stand-up comedian Leo Allen.

Martin returned to ''The Daily Show'' on March 22, 2006, as the new Youth Correspondent, calling his segment "Professional Important News with Demetri Martin". In 2007, he starred in a Fountains of Wayne music video for "Someone to Love" as Seth Shapiro, a character in the song. He also starred in the video for the new Travis single "Selfish Jean", in which he wears multiple t-shirts with lyrics written on them.

On September 2, 2007, Martin appeared on the season finale of the HBO series ''Flight of the Conchords''. He appeared as a keytar player named Demetri.

He also had a part in the movie ''The Rocker'' (2008) starring Rainn Wilson. Martin played the part of the videographer when the band in the movie was making their first music video.

In 2009, he hosted and starred in his own television show called ''Important Things With Demetri Martin'' on Comedy Central. Later in June, it was announced his show had been renewed for a second season. The second season premiered, again on Comedy Central, on February 4, 2010. Martin has stated that ''Important Things'' will not return for a third season.

Prior to completing work on his second season, Martin starred in the comedy-drama film ''Taking Woodstock'' (2009), directed by Ang Lee, which premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. In the film Martin plays Elliot Tiber, a closeted gay artist who has given up his ambitions in the city to move upstate and help his old-world Jewish family run their Catskill Mountains motel. The film is based on the book written by Tiber.

On April 25, 2011, Martin released his first book, titled ''This Is a Book''.

Future plans

Martin sold his movie concept ''Will'' to DreamWorks; he is expected to play a key supporting role. He will play the lead in the film ''Moon People'', a pitch that he sold to Columbia Pictures.

Martin also signed a blind script deal with CBS in October 2010 to produce, write, and star in his own television series.

After CBS was shown the pilot for the series, they decided not to air it.

On August 11, 2011, Fox ordered a presentation of a new animated show they might air.

''If I''

''If I'' is a Perrier Comedy Award-winning comedy one-man show written and performed by Demetri Martin at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It was also aired on British television as a special. The show is an autobiographical examination of Martin's life, as seen through various definitions of the word "if."

The title of the special comes from a lengthy palindromic poem that Martin wrote; the words "if I" are at the center of the poem.

Comedic style

Martin is known for being an unconventional stand-up comic. He uses extensive wordplay (particularly paraprosdokians), one-liners, and drawings on a "large pad", as well as accompanying his jokes with music on either guitar, harmonica, piano, keyboard, glockenspiel, toy bells, ukulele, or tambourine, sometimes all at once. He has cited comedian Steven Wright as an important influence (both use deadpan one-liners in their acts) and he is also a fan of Bill Cosby.

Personal life

According to a July 2011 interview on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast , Demetri had a short-lived marriage to a girl he knew from high school. They began dating after high school and got married when he was in NYU Law School and she was attending NYU Medical School. He was aged 25 and in the end of his marriage/going through divorce when his stand-up career began .

Martin moved to Santa Monica, California in 2009.

Discography

''Invite Them Up'' (2005)

''These Are Jokes'' (2006)

''Demetri Martin. Person.'' (2007)

Filmography and television work

''If I'' ''12:21'' ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' "''Someone to Love (Fountains of Wayne song) ''Flight of the Conchords (TV series) ''The Rocker (film) ''Paper Heart'' ''Post Grad'' ''Moon People'' ''Taking Woodstock'' ''Important Things with Demetri Martin'' ''Take Me Home Tonight (film) ''Contagion (film) ''Conan''

Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
2002	''Analyze That''	Personal Assistant
2003	|	Himself	British television special, also writer
2004	|	Himself	short film, also writer
2004	|	Himself	1 episode, series writer
2007	Someone to Love''" ||	Seth Shapiro	''Fountains of Wayne'' music video
2007	Flight of the Conchords'' ||	Demetri	Season 1, Episode 12
2008	The Rocker'' ||	Kip (a music video producer)
2009	|	Himself
2009	|	Ad Exec
2009	|		lead role and writer
2009	|	Elliot Tiber	lead role
2009–2010	|	Himself / Various	lead role, writer, series creator, executive producer, and composer
2011	Take Me Home Tonight'' ||	Goldman Sachs Employee	supporting role
2011	Contagion'' ||
2011	|	Himself	guest

Written works

''This Is a Book'', April 2011, .

Awards and nominations

AwardPerrier Comedy AwardEmmy Awards Shared with Mike Sweeney (writer)Writers Guild of America Award Shared with Mike Sweeney (writer)Barry Award (for comedy)

Year	|	For	Category	Result	Other notes
2003	|	''If I''		Won	At the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
2004	|	''Late Night with Conan O'Brien''	Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music, or Comedy Program	Nominated	Mike Sweeney (head writer), Chris Albers, Jose Arroyo, Andy Blitz, Kevin Dorff, Daniel J. Goor, Michael Gordon, Brian Kiley, Michael Koman, Brian McCann, Guy Nicolucci, Conan O'Brien, Allison Silverman, Robert Smigel, Brian Stack, Andrew Weinberg
2005	|	''Late Night with Conan O'Brien''	Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) - Series	Won	Mike Sweeney (head writer), Chris Albers, Jose Arroyo, Andy Blitz, Kevin Dorff, Daniel J. Goor, Michael Gordon, Brian Kiley, Michael Koman, Brian McCann, Guy Nicolucci, Conan O'Brien, Allison Silverman, Robert Smigel, Brian Stack, Andrew Weinberg
2006	Barry Award ||	''Dr. Earnest Parrot Presents Demetri Martin''		Won	Award for best show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival

References

External links

Interview from November, 2006, in Onion AV Club

Interview from October 2006, in The DePaulia

Article, in ''The Scotsman''

Article, in ''Gelf Magazine''

Interview by Brian M. Palmer

MP3 Audio Interview on ''The Sound of Young America'' public radio show and podcast

Interview Believer Mag

New Jersey Monthly Magazine

Fresh Air, NPR.org

Category:1973 births Category:Actors from New Jersey Category:Actors from New York City Category:American comedians Category:American comedy musicians Category:American comedy writers Category:American film actors Category:American humorists Category:American people of Greek descent Category:American stand-up comedians Category:American television actors Category:American television writers Category:Living people Category:New York University alumni Category:Writers from New Jersey Category:Writers from New York City Category:Writers Guild of America Award winners Category:Yale University alumni

cs:Demetri Martin da:Demetri Martin de:Demetri Martin fr:Demetri Martin gl:Demetri Martin it:Demetri Martin simple:Demitri Martin fi:Demetri Martin sv:Demetri Martin

name	Alicia Keys
background	solo_singer
birth name	Alicia Augello Cook
alias	Lellow
birth place	January 25, 1981
origin	New York City, New York, United States
instrument	Vocals, piano, keyboards, cello, synthesizer, vocoder, guitar, bass guitar
genre	Soul, R&B;, pop, hip hop, jazz, neo soul, electronic
occupation	singer-songwriter, record producer, actress
years active	1997–present
label	RCA, J, Arista, Columbia
website	}}

Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), better known by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an American R&B; singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Keys was raised by a single mother in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York City. At age seven, Keys began playing the piano. She attended Professional Performing Arts School and graduated at 16 as valedictorian. Keys released her debut album with J Records, having had previous record deals first with Columbia and then Arista Records.

Keys' debut album, ''Songs in A Minor'', was a commercial success, selling over 12 million copies worldwide. She became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B; artist of 2001. The album earned Keys five Grammy Awards in 2002, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for "Fallin'". Her second studio album, ''The Diary of Alicia Keys'', was released in 2003 and was also another success worldwide, selling eight million copies. The album garnered her an additional four Grammy Awards in 2005. Later that year, she released her first live album, ''Unplugged'', which debuted at number one in the United States. She became the first female to have an ''MTV Unplugged'' album to debut at number one and the highest since Nirvana in 1994.

Keys made guest appearances on several television series in the following years, beginning with ''Charmed''. She made her film debut in ''Smokin' Aces'' and went on to appear in ''The Nanny Diaries'' in 2007. Her third studio album, ''As I Am'', was released in the same year and sold six million copies worldwide, earning Keys an additional three Grammy Awards. The following year, she appeared in ''The Secret Life of Bees'', which earned her a nomination at the NAACP Image Awards. She released her fourth album, ''The Element of Freedom'', in December 2009, which became Keys' first chart-topping album in the United Kingdom. Throughout her career, Keys has won numerous awards and has sold over 30 million albums worldwide and 25 million singles, which makes her one of the best selling artists of all time. ''Billboard'' magazine named her the top R&B; artist of the 2000–2009 decade, establishing herself as one of the best-selling artists of her time. In 2010, VH1 included Keys on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. ''Billboard'' magazine placed her number ten on their list of Top 50 R&B;/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years.

Life and career

1981–96: Early life

Keys was born Alicia Augello Cook on January 25, 1981, in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan, in New York City, New York. She is the only child of Teresa Augello, a paralegal and part-time actress, and Craig Cook, a flight attendant. Keys' mother is of Italian, Scottish, and Irish descent, and her father is African American; Keys has expressed that she was comfortable with her biracial heritage because she felt she was able to "relate to different cultures". Her parents separated when she was two and she was subsequently raised by her mother during her formative years in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan. In 1985, Keys made an appearance on ''The Cosby Show'' at the age of four, where she and a group of girls played the parts of Rudy Huxtable's sleepover guests in the episode "Slumber Party". Throughout her childhood, Keys was sent to music and dance classes by her mother. She began playing the piano when she was seven and learned classical music by composers such as Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin. Keys enrolled in the Professional Performing Arts School at the age of 12, where she majored in choir and began writing songs at the age of 14. She graduated in three years as valedictorian at the age of 16.

In 1994 Keys met long-term manager Jeff Robinson after she enrolled in his brother's after-school program. The following year Robinson introduced Keys to her future A&R; at Arista Records, Peter Edge, who later described his first impressions to HitQuarters: "I had never met a young R&B; artist with that level of musicianship. So many people were just singing on top of loops and tracks, but she had the ability, not only to be part of hip-hop, but also to go way beyond that." Edge helped Robinson create a showcase for Keys and also got involved in developing her demo material. He was keen to sign Keys himself but was unable to do so at that time due to being on the verge of leaving his present record company. Keys signed to Columbia Records soon after. At the same time as signing a recording contract with Columbia Records, Keys was accepted into Columbia University. At first, Keys attempted to manage both but after four weeks dropped out of college to pursue her musical career fulltime.

1997–2000: Career beginnings

Keys signed a demo deal with Jermaine Dupri and So So Def Recordings, where she appeared on the label's Christmas album performing "The Little Drummer Girl". She also co-wrote and recorded a song entitled "Dah Dee Dah (Sexy Thing)", which appeared on the soundtrack to the 1997 film, ''Men in Black''. The song was Keys' first professional recording; however, it was never released as a single and her record contract with Columbia ended after a dispute with the label. Keys was unhappy with the label because her career had stalled during her two years under contract at Columbia due to executive indecision over her direction and major changes within the company. Keys called Clive Davis, who sensed a "special, unique" artist from her performance and signed her to Arista Records, which later disbanded. Keys almost chose Wilde as her stage name until her manager suggested the name Keys after a dream he had. Keys felt that name represented her both as a performer and person. Following Davis to his newly formed J Records label, she recorded the songs "Rock wit U" and "Rear View Mirror", which were featured on the soundtracks to the films ''Shaft'' (2000) and ''Dr. Dolittle 2'' (2001), respectively.

2001–2002: ''Songs in A Minor''

Keys released her first studio album, ''Songs in A Minor'', in June 2001. It debuted at number one on the ''Billboard'' 200 and sold 236,000 copies in its first week. The album sold over 6.2 million copies in the United States, where it was certified six times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It went on to sell over 12 million copies worldwide, establishing Keys' popularity both inside and outside the United States, where she became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B; artist of 2001. The album's lead single, "Fallin'", spent six weeks at number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The album's second single, "A Woman's Worth", was released in February 2002 and peaked at number 7 on the ''Billboard Hot 100'' and number three on the ''Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs'', as her second Top 10 single in both charts. The album's third single, "How Come You Don't Call Me", was released in June 2002 and peaked at number 59 on the ''Billboard Hot 100'' and number 30 on the ''Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs''. The album's fourth single, "Girlfriend", was released in November 2002 in UK and peaked at number 82 on the ''Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs''. The following year, the album was reissued as ''Remixed & Unplugged in A Minor'', which included eight remixes and seven unplugged versions of the songs from the original.

''Songs in A Minor'' led Keys to win five awards at the 2002 Grammy Awards: Song of the Year, Best Female R&B; Vocal Performance, and Best R&B; Song for "Fallin'", Best New Artist, and Best R&B; Album; "Fallin'" was also nominated for Record of the Year. Keys became the second female solo artist to win five Grammy Awards in a single night, following Lauryn Hill at the 41st Grammy Awards. That same year, she collaborated with Christina Aguilera for the latter's upcoming album ''Stripped'' on a song entitled "Impossible", which Keys wrote, co-produced, and provided with background vocals. During the early 2000s, Keys also made small cameos in television series ''Charmed'' and ''American Dreams''.

2003–2005: ''The Diary of Alicia Keys'' and ''Unplugged''

Keys followed up her debut with ''The Diary of Alicia Keys'', which was released in December 2003. The album debuted at number one on the ''Billboard'' 200, selling over 618,000 copies its first week of release, becoming the largest first-week sales for a female artist in 2003. It sold 4.4 million copies in the United States and was certified four times Platinum by the RIAA. It sold eight million copies worldwide, becoming the sixth biggest-selling album by a female artist and the second biggest-selling album by a female R&B; artist. The album's lead single, "You Don't Know My Name", peaked at number three on the ''Billboard Hot 100'' and number one on ''Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs'' for eight consecutive weeks, his first Top 10 single in both charts since 2002's "A Woman's Worth ". The album's second single, "If I Ain't Got You", was released in February 2004 and peaked at number 4 on the ''Billboard Hot 100'' and number one on the ''Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs'' for six weeks. The album's third single, "Diary", peaked at number 8 on the ''Billboard Hot 100'' and number two on the ''Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs'' chart, being their third consecutive Top 10 single in both charts. The album's fourth and final single, "Karma", which peaked at number 20 on the ''Billboard Hot 100'' and number 17 on the ''Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs'', first release to fail to achieve top ten status on both charts. "If I Ain't Got You" became the first single by a female artist to remain on the ''Billboard'' Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs chart for over a year. Keys also collaborated with recording artist Usher on the song "My Boo" from his 2004 album, ''Confessions (Special Edition)''. The song topped the ''Billboard Hot 100'' for six weeks and ''Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs'' for three weeks, became her first number-one single in ''Hot 100'' since 2001's "Fallin'".

Keys won Best R&B; Video for "If I Ain't Got You" at the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards; she performed the song and "Higher Ground" with Lenny Kravitz and Stevie Wonder. Later that year, Keys released her novel ''Tears for Water: Songbook of Poems and Lyrics'', a collection of unreleased poems from her journals and lyrics. The title derived from one of her poems, "Love and Chains" from the line: "I don't mind drinking my tears for water." She said the title is the foundation of her writing because "everything I have ever written has stemmed from my tears of joy, of pain, of sorrow, of depression, even of question". The book sold over US$500,000 and Keys made ''The New York Times'' bestseller list in 2005. The following year, she won a second consecutive award for Best R&B; Video at the MTV Video Music Awards for the video "Karma". Keys performed "If I Ain't Got You" and then joined Jamie Foxx and Quincy Jones in a rendition of "Georgia on My Mind", the Hoagy Carmichael song made famous by Ray Charles in 1960 at the 2005 Grammy Awards. That evening, she won four Grammy Awards: Best Female R&B; Vocal Performance for "If I Ain't Got You", Best R&B; Song for "You Don't Know My Name", Best R&B; Album for ''The Diary of Alicia Keys'', and Best R&B; Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals" for "My Boo" with Usher.

Keys performed and taped her installment of the ''MTV Unplugged'' series in July 2005 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. During this session, Keys added new arrangements to her original songs and performed a few choice covers. The session was released on CD and DVD in October 2005. Simply titled ''Unplugged'', the album debuted at number one on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200 chart with 196,000 units sold in its first week of release. The album sold one million copies in the United States, where it was certified Platinum by the RIAA, and two million copies worldwide. The debut of Keys' ''Unplugged'' was the highest for an ''MTV Unplugged'' album since Nirvana's 1994 ''MTV Unplugged in New York'' and the first ''Unplugged'' by a female artist to debut at number one. The album's first single, "Unbreakable", peaked at number 34 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and number four on the Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs. It remained at number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot Adult R&B; Airplay for 11 weeks. The album's second and final single, "Every Little Bit Hurts", was released in January 2006, it failed to enter the U.S. charts.

Keys opened a recording studio in Long Island, New York, called The Oven Studios, which she co-owns with her production and songwriting partner Kerry "Krucial" Brothers. The studio was designed by renowned studio architect John Storyk of WSDG, designer of Jimi Hendrix' Electric Lady Studios. Keys and Brothers are the co-founders of KrucialKeys Enterprises, a production and songwriting team who assisted Keys in creating her albums as well as create music for other artists.

2006–2008: Film debut and ''As I Am''

In 2006, Keys won three NAACP Image Awards, including Outstanding Female Artist and Outstanding Song for "Unbreakable". She also received the Starlight Award by the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In October 2006, she played the voice of Mommy Martian in the "Mission to Mars" episode of the children's television series ''The Backyardigans'', in which she sang an original song, "Almost Everything Is Boinga Here". That same year, Keys nearly suffered a mental breakdown. Her grandmother had died and her family was heavily dependent on her. She felt she needed to "escape" and went to Egypt for three weeks. She explained: "That trip was definitely the most crucial thing I've ever done for myself in my life to date. It was a very difficult time that I was dealing with, and it just came to the point where I really needed to—basically, I just needed to run away, honestly. And I needed to get as far away as possible."

Keys made her film debut in early 2007 in the crime film ''Smokin' Aces'', co-starring as an assassin named Georgia Sykes opposite Ben Affleck and Andy García. Keys received much praise from her co-stars in the film; Reynolds said that Keys was "so natural" and that she would "blow everybody away". ''Smokin' Aces'' had a hit moderate performance at the box office, earning only $57,103,895 worldwide during its theatrical run. In the same year, Keys earned further praise for her second film, ''The Nanny Diaries'', based on the 2002 novel of the same name, where she co-starred alongside Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans. ''The Nanny Diaries'' had a hit moderate performance at the box office, earning only $44,638,886 worldwide during its theatrical run. She also guest starred as herself in the "One Man Is an Island" episode of the drama series ''Cane''.

Keys released her third studio album, ''As I Am'', in November 2007; it debuted at number one on the ''Billboard'' 200, selling 742,000 copies in its first week. It gained Keys her largest first week sales of her career and became her fourth consecutive number one album, tying her with Britney Spears for the most consecutive number-one debuts on the ''Billboard'' 200 by a female artist. The week became the second largest sales week of 2007 and the largest sales week for a female solo artist since singer Norah Jones' album ''Feels like Home'' in 2004. The album has sold nearly four million copies in the United States and has been certified three times Platinum by the RIAA. It has sold nearly six million copies worldwide. Keys received five nominations for ''As I Am'' at the 2008 American Music Award and ultimately won two. The album's lead single, "No One", peaked at number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 for fifth consecutive weeks and Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs for ten consecutive weeks, became her first number-one single in ''Hot 100'' since 2004's "My Boo" and becoming Keys' third and fifth number-one single on each chart, respectively. The album's second single, "Like You'll Never See Me Again", was released in late 2007 and peaked at number 12 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and number one on the ''Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs'' for seven consecutive weeks. From October 27, 2007, when "No One" reached No. 1, through February 16, 2008, the last week "Like You'll Never See Me Again" was at No. 1, the Keys was on top of the chart for 17 weeks, more consecutive weeks than any other artist in ''Hot R&B;/Hip/Hop Songs'' chart. The album's third single, "Teenage Love Affair", which peaked at number 54 on the '''Billboard Hot 100'' and number three on the ''Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs''. The album's fourth and final single, "Superwoman", which peaked at number 82 on the ''Billboard Hot 100'' and number 12 on the ''Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs''.

"No One" earned Keys the awards for Best Female R&B; Vocal Performance and Best R&B; Song at the 2008 Grammy Awards. Keys opened the ceremony singing Frank Sinatra's 1950s song "Learnin' the Blues" as a "duet" with archival footage of Sinatra in video and "No One" with John Mayer later in the show. Keys also won Best Female R&B; Artist during the show. She starred in "Fresh Takes", a commercial micro-series created by Dove Go Fresh, which premiered during ''The Hills'' on MTV from March to April 2008. The premiere celebrated the launch of new Dove Go Fresh. She also signed a deal as spokesperson with Glacéau's VitaminWater to endorse the product, and was in an American Express commercial for the "Are you a Cardmember?" campaign. Keys, along with The White Stripes' guitarist and lead vocalist Jack White, recorded the theme song to ''Quantum of Solace'', the first duet in Bond soundtrack history. In 2008, Keys was ranked in at number 80 the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists. She also starred in ''The Secret Life of Bees'', a film adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd's acclaimed 2003 bestseller novel of the same name alongside Jennifer Hudson, Dakota Fanning, Paul Bettany and Queen Latifah, released in October 2008 via Fox Searchlight. ''The Secret Life of Bees'' had a hit moderate performance at the box office, earning only $39,947,322 worldwide during its theatrical run. Her role earned her a nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture at the NAACP Image Awards. She also received three nominations at the 2009 Grammy Awards and won Best Female R&B; Vocal Performance for "Superwoman".

In an interview with ''Blender'' magazine, Keys allegedly said "'Gangsta rap' was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other, 'gangsta rap' didn't exist" and went on to say that it was created by "the government". The magazine also claimed she said that Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. were "essentially assassinated, their beefs stoked by the government and the media, to stop another great black leader from existing". Keys later wrote a statement clarifying the issues and saying her words were misinterpreted. Later that year, Keys was criticized by anti-smoking campaigners after billboard posters for her forthcoming concerts in Indonesia featured a logo for the A Mild cigarette brand sponsored by tobacco firm Philip Morris. She apologized after discovering that the concert was sponsored by the firm and asked for "corrective actions". In response, the company withdrew its sponsorship.

2009–2010 ''The Element of Freedom'', marriage and motherhood

Keys and manager Jeff Robinson signed a film production deal to develop live-action and animated projects with Disney. Their first film will be a remake of the 1958 comedy ''Bell, Book and Candle'' and will star Keys as a witch who casts a love spell to lure a rival's fiancé. Keys and Robinson also formed a television production company called Big Pita. Keys and Robinson will develop live-action and animated projects from their company, Big Pita and Little Pita, with Keys as producer, thespian, banner spearheading soundtrack and music supervision.

Keys collaborated with the record producer Swizz Beatz to write and produce "Million Dollar Bill" for Whitney Houston's seventh studio album, ''I Look to You''. Keys had approached Clive Davis for permission to submit a song for the album. Keys also collaborated with the recording artist Jay-Z on the song "Empire State of Mind" from his 2009 album, ''The Blueprint 3''. The song topped the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and became her fourth number-one single on that chart. At the 53rd Grammy Awards ceremony, "Empire State of Mind" won Best Rap/Sung Collaboration and Best Rap Song. It had also been one of the five nominees for Record of the Year. The following month, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers honored Keys with the Golden Note Award, an award given to artists "who have achieved extraordinary career milestones". She collaborated with Spanish recording artist Alejandro Sanz for "Looking for Paradise", which topped the Hot Latin Songs chart, this was Keys' first number one on all three charts, which also made her the first African-American of non-Hispanic origin to reach #1 on the ''Hot Latin Tracks''. Keys released her fourth studio album, ''The Element of Freedom'', in December 2009. It debuted at number two on the ''Billboard'' 200, selling 417,000 copies in its first week. As part of the promotional drive for the album, she performed at the Cayman Island Jazz Festival on December 5, the final night of the three day festival which will be broadcast on Black Entertainment Television (BET). The album's lead single, "Doesn't Mean Anything", has peaked at number 60 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and number 14 on the ''Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs''. Keys was ranked as the top R&B; recording artist of the 2000–2009 decade by ''Billboard'' magazine and ranked at number five as artist of the decade, while her song, "No One", was ranked at number six on the magazine's songs of the decade. In the United Kingdom, ''The Element of Freedom'' became Keys' first album to top the UK Albums Chart. The album's second single, "Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart", was released in November 2009 and peaked at number 27 on the ''Billboard Hot 100'' and number two on the ''Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs''. The album's third single, "Put It in a Love Song", featuring Grammy-winner Beyoncé, peaked at number 60 on the ''Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs''. The music video for the single, which was filmed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has been postponed several times, and later it was confirmed that Alicia Keys' team made a decision not to release the video. The album's fourth single, "Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down", was released in February 2010 and peaked at number 55 on the ''Billboard Hot 100'' and number 76 on the ''Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs''. The album's fifth single, "Un-Thinkable (I'm Ready)", was released in May 2010 and peaked at number 21 on the ''Billboard Hot 100'' and number one on the ''Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs'', for twelve consecutive weeks and became the album's most successful single, becoming Keys' eighth number-one single on ''Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs'' chart. The album's sixth and final single, "Wait Til You See My Smile", was released in December 2010 in the U.K only.

In May 2009, Swizz Beatz announced that he and Keys were romantically involved, and in May 2010, a representative for Keys and Swizz Beatz confirmed that they were engaged and expecting a child together. During the time of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the couple took part of a union and had the unborn child blessed in a Zulu ceremony, which took place in the Illovo suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. Keys and Swizz Beatz were married on the French island of Corsica on July 31, 2010. On October 14, 2010, Keys gave birth to a son, Egypt Daoud Ibarr Dean, in New York City.

2011-Present: Ten Year Celebration, Project 5, Stick Fly and Upcoming New Album

In June 2011, ''Songs in A Minor'' was re-released as deluxe and collector's editions in commemoration of its 10th anniversary. To support the release, Keys embarked on a four-city promotional tour, entitled Piano & I: A One Night Only Event With Alicia Keys, featuring only her piano. Keys is also set to co-produce the Broadway premiere of ''Stick Fly'', which will open in December 2011. On September 26, 2011, was the premiere of ''Project 5'' known as ''Five'', short film that marks the debut of Alicia Keys as a director. It is a documentary of five episodes that tell stories of five women who were victims of breast cancer and how it affected their lives. The production also has co-direction of the actresses Jennifer Aniston, Demi Moore and film director Patty Jenkins.

On September 23, she performed at ''iHeart Music Festival'' and sang her new song "A Place Of My Own", which is present in her fifth studio album. On October 7, RCA Music Group announced it was disbanding J Records along with Arista Records and Jive Records. With the shutdown, Keys (and all other artists previously signed to these three labels) will release her future material on the RCA Records brand.

Musical style

An accomplished pianist, Keys incorporates piano into a majority of her songs and often writes about love, heartbreak and female empowerment. She has cited several musicians as her inspirations, including Prince, Nina Simone, Barbra Streisand, Marvin Gaye, Quincy Jones, Donny Hathaway and Stevie Wonder. Keys' style is rooted in gospel and vintage soul music, supplemented by bass and programmed drumbeats. She heavily incorporates classical piano with R&B;, soul and jazz into her music. She began experimenting with other genres, including pop and rock, in her third studio album, ''As I Am'', transitioning from neo soul to a 1980s and 1990s R&B; sound with her fourth album, ''The Element of Freedom''. Patrick Huguenin of the ''New York Daily News'' stated that her incorporation of classical piano riffs contributed to her breakout success. ''Jet'' magazine states she "thrives" by touching her fans with "piano mastery, words and melodious voice". ''The Independent'' described her style as consisting of "crawling blues coupled with a hip-hop backbeat", noting that her lyrics "rarely stray from matters of the heart". ''Blender'' magazine referred to her as "the first new pop artist of the millennium who was capable of changing music."

Keys has a vocal range of a contralto, which spans three octaves. She can sing from B flat over an octave below middle C (B₂) to B below soprano C (B₅). Often referred to as the "Princess of Soul", Keys has been commended as having a strong, raw and impassioned voice; others feel that her voice is "emotionally manufactured" at times and that she pushes her voice out of its natural range. Keys' songwriting is often criticized for lack of depth, which has led to her writing abilities being called limited. Her lyrics have been called generic, clichéd and that her songs revolve around generalities. Greg Kot of the ''Chicago Tribune'' feels that she "[pokes] around for multi-format hits rather than trying to project any sort of artistic vision". Diversely, Jon Pareles of ''Blender'' magazine stated that the musical composition of her songs makes up for their lyrical weakness, while Gregory Stephen Tate of ''The Village Voice'' compared Keys' writing and production to 1970s music.

Joanna Hunkin of ''The New Zealand Herald'' reviewed one of Keys' performances, where Kylie Minogue also attended. She described Minogue's reaction to Keys' performance, saying "it was obvious she was just as much of a fan as the 10,000 other people at Vector Arena". She went on to say that Minogue was "the original pop princess bowing down to the modern-day queen of soul". Hunkin characterized Keys' opening performance as a "headbanging, hip-gyrating performance" and her energy as "high-octane energy most bands save for their closing finale". At the end of her two-hour performance, fans "screamed, stomped and begged for a second encore". Hillary Crosley and Mariel Concepcion of ''Billboard'' magazine noted that her shows are "extremely coordinated" with the audience's attention span "consistently maintained". The show ended with a standing ovation and Keys "proved that a dynamic performance mixed with superior musicianship always wins". Throughout her career, Keys has won numerous awards and is listed on the Recording Industry Association of America's best-selling artists in the United States, with 15 million certified albums. She has sold over 30 million albums worldwide and has established herself as one of the best-selling artists of her time.

Philanthropy

Keys is the co-founder and Global Ambassador of Keep a Child Alive, a non-profit organization that provides medicine to families with HIV and AIDS in Africa. Keys and U2 lead singer Bono recorded a cover version of Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush's "Don't Give Up", in recognition of World AIDS Day 2005. Keys and Bono's version of the song was retitled "Don't Give Up (Africa)" to reflect the nature of the charity it was benefiting. She visited African countries such as Uganda, Kenya and South Africa to promote care for children affected by AIDS. Her work in Africa was documented in the documentary ''Alicia in Africa: Journey to the Motherland'' and was available in April 2008.

Keys has also donated to Frum tha Ground Up, a non-profit organization that aids children and teenagers with scholarships. She performed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as part of the worldwide Live 8 concerts to raise awareness of the poverty in Africa and to pressure the G8 leaders to take action. In 2005, Keys performed on ''ReAct Now: Music & Relief'' and ''Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast'', two benefit programs that raised money for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. In July 2007, Keys and Keith Urban performed The Rolling Stones' 1969 song "Gimme Shelter" at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey at the American leg of the Live Earth concerts.

Keys performed Donny Hathaway's 1973 song "Someday We'll All Be Free" at the ''America: A Tribute to Heroes'' televised benefit concert following the September 11 attacks. She participated in the Nobel Peace Prize Concert which took place at the Oslo Spektrum in Oslo, Norway, on December 11, 2007, along with other various artists. She recorded a theme song for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. She joined Joss Stone and Jay-Z on the effort, which served as a theme song for Obama's campaign. For her work, Keys was honored at the 2009 BET Awards with the Humanitarian Award. Keys performed the song "Prelude to a Kiss", retitled "Send Me an Angel", from her 2007 album ''As I Am'' for the "Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief" telethon in response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Discography

''Songs in A Minor'' (2001)

''The Diary of Alicia Keys'' (2003)

''As I Am'' (2007)

''The Element of Freedom'' (2009)

''TBA'' (2012)

;Live albums

''Unplugged'' (2005)

Tours

{|class="wikitable" ! style="background:darkGrey;"| Year !! style="background:darkGrey;"| Title !! style="background:darkGrey;"| Number ofperformances |- style="background:#dcdcdc;" | style="text-align:center; width:5px;;"| 2001/2002 || style="background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center;"| ''Songs in A Minor Tour'' || style="background:#dcdcdc;"| 58 |- style="background:#dcdcdc;" | style="text-align:center; width:5px;;"| 2004|| style="background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center;"| ''Verizon Ladies First Tour'' || style="background:#dcdcdc;"| 25 |- style="background:#dcdcdc;" | style="text-align:center; width:5px;;"| 2005 || style="background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center;"| ''The Diary Tour'' || style="background:#dcdcdc;"| 36 |- style="background:#dcdcdc;" | style="text-align:center; width:5px;;"| 2008 || style="background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center;"| ''As I Am Tour'' || style="background:#dcdcdc;"| 94 |- style="background:#dcdcdc;" | style="text-align:center; width:5px;;"| 2010 || style="background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center;"| ''The Freedom Tour'' || style="background:#dcdcdc;"| 50 |- style="background:#dcdcdc;" | style="text-align:center; width:5px;;"| 2011 || style="background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center;"| ''Piano & I: A One Night Only Event With Alicia Keys'' || style="background:#dcdcdc;"| 5 |}

Filmography

Television
!Year	!Title	!Role	!Notes
1985	''The Cosby Show''	Maria
2001	''Charmed''	P3 VIP Patron (uncredited)
	''American Dreams''	Fontella Bass	"Rescue Me" (season 2, episode 6)
''The Proud Family''	Herself (voice)
2005	''Sesame Street''	Herself	Season 36
2006	''The Backyardigans''	Mommy Martian (voice)
		Herself	"One Man Is an Island" (season 1, episode 7)
''Elmo's Christmas Countdown''	Herself	Christmas television special
2008		Alex	Starred in all five episodes
2010	American Idol (season 9)	Herself	Mentor
Film
!Year	!Title	!Role	!Notes
	''Smokin' Aces''	Georgia Sykes	Debut filmMain role
	Lynette	Support role
2008		June Boatwright	Main role
Director
!Year	!Title	!Type	!Notes
	2004		Music video	MTV Video Music Award for Best R&B; Video
2011	''Project 5''	Short film/Documentary

See also

List of artists who reached number one in the United States

List of awards and nominations received by Alicia Keys

List of honorific titles in popular music

References

Further reading

External links

Alicia Keys at Billboard.com

Alicia Keys at Discogs

Alicia Keys at Metacritic

Category:1981 births Category:Living people Category:Actors from New York City Category:African American composers Category:African American female singer-songwriters Category:African American film actors Category:African American pianists Category:African American poets Category:African American record producers Category:American contraltos Category:American hip hop musicians Category:American multi-instrumentalists Category:American music arrangers Category:American music video directors Category:American musicians of Irish descent Category:American people of Italian descent Category:American people of Scottish descent Category:American philanthropists Category:American pop singer-songwriters Category:American rhythm and blues keyboardists Category:American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters Category:American soul keyboardists Category:American soul singers Category:American television actors Category:Echo winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Hip hop singers Category:Neo soul singers Category:People from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan Category:J Records artists Category:RCA Records artists Category:Rhythm and blues pianists Category:Singers from New York City Category:Songwriters from New York Category:World Music Awards winners

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name	Eric Clapton
alias	Slowhand
landscape	Yes
background	solo_singer
birth name	Eric Patrick Clapton
born	March 30, 1945Ripley, Surrey, England
instrument	Vocals, guitar
genre	Rock, blues-rock, blues, psychedelic rock, hard rock
occupation	Musician, songwriter, producer, artist
years active	1962–present
label	Warner Bros., Reprise, Polydor, RSO, Atco, Apple, Deram
associated acts	The Yardbirds, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Powerhouse, Cream, Free Creek, The Dirty Mac, Blind Faith, J.J. Cale, The Plastic Ono Band, Delaney, Bonnie & Friends, Derek and the Dominos, The Beatles, Phil Collins, The Rolling Stones, Luciano Pavarotti, The Band, Freddie King, B.B. King, Mark Knopfler, Brian Wilson
website	Official website
notable instruments	}}

Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, (born 1945) is an English guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. Clapton 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 Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time. Clapton ranked fourth in ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and fourth in ''Gibson's'' ''Top 50 Guitarists of All Time.''

In the mid 1960s, Clapton left the Yardbirds to play blues with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. In his one-year stay with Mayall, Clapton gained the nickname "Slowhand", and graffiti in London declared "Clapton is God." Immediately after leaving Mayall, Clapton formed, with drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Jack Bruce, the power trio Cream, in which Clapton played sustained blues improvisations and "arty, blues-based psychedelic pop." For most of the 1970s, Clapton's output bore the influence of the mellow style of J.J. Cale and the reggae of Bob Marley. His version of Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" helped gain reggae a mass market. Two of his most popular recordings were "Layla", recorded by Derek and the Dominos, and Robert Johnson's "Crossroads", recorded by Cream. A recipient of seventeen Grammy Awards, in 2004 Clapton was awarded a CBE for services to music. In 1998 Clapton, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, founded the Crossroads Centre on Antigua, a medical facility for recovering substance abusers.

Life and career

Early years

Eric Patrick Clapton was born in Ripley, Surrey, England, the son of 16-year-old Patricia Molly Clapton (b. 1929) and Edward Walter Fryer ( 1920 – 1985), a 24-year-old soldier from Montreal, Quebec. Fryer shipped off to war prior to Clapton's birth and then returned to Canada. Clapton grew up with his grandmother, Rose, and her second husband, Jack Clapp, who was stepfather to Patricia Clapton and her brother Adrian, believing they were his parents and that his mother was actually his older sister. The similarity in surnames gave rise to the erroneous belief that Clapton's real surname is Clapp (Reginald Cecil Clapton was the name of Rose's first husband, Eric Clapton's maternal grandfather). Years later, his mother married another Canadian soldier and moved to Germany, leaving young Eric with his grandparents in Surrey.

Clapton received an acoustic Hoyer guitar, made in Germany, for his 13th birthday, but the inexpensive steel-stringed instrument was difficult to play and he briefly lost interest. Two years later Clapton picked it up again and started playing consistently. Clapton was influenced by the blues from an early age, and practiced long hours to learn the chords of blues music by playing along to the records. He preserved his practice sessions using his portable Grundig reel-to-reel tape recorder, listening to them over and over until he felt he'd got it right.

After leaving school in 1961, Clapton studied at the Kingston College of Art but was dismissed at the end of the academic year because his focus remained on music rather than art. His guitar playing was so advanced that by the age of 16 people were starting to notice him. Around this time Clapton began busking around Kingston, Richmond, and the West End of London. In 1962, Clapton started performing as a duo with fellow blues enthusiast David Brock in the pubs around Surrey. When he was 17 years old Clapton joined his first band, an early British R&B; group, "The Roosters", whose other guitarist was Tom McGuinness. He stayed with this band from January through August 1963. In October of that year, Clapton did a seven-gig stint with Casey Jones & The Engineers.

1960s

The Yardbirds and the Bluesbreakers

In October 1963 Clapton joined The Yardbirds, a blues-influenced rock and roll band, and stayed with them until March 1965. Synthesising influences from Chicago blues and leading blues guitarists such as Buddy Guy, Freddie King, and B. B. King, Clapton forged a distinctive style and rapidly became one of the most talked-about guitarists in the British music scene. The band initially played Chess/Checker/Vee-Jay blues numbers and began to attract a large cult following when they took over the Rolling Stones' residency at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond. They toured England with American bluesman Sonny Boy Williamson II; a joint LP album, recorded in December 1963, was issued in 1965.

It was during this time period that Clapton's Yardbirds rhythm guitarist, Chris Dreja, recalled that whenever Clapton broke a guitar string during a concert, he would stay on stage and replace it. The English audiences would wait out the delay by doing what is called a "slow handclap". Clapton told his official biographer, Ray Coleman, that, "My nickname of 'Slowhand' came from Giorgio Gomelsky. He coined it as a good pun. He kept saying I was a fast player, so he put together the slow handclap phrase into Slowhand as a play on words".

In March 1965 the Yardbirds had their first major hit, "For Your Love", on which Clapton played guitar. The Yardbirds elected to move toward a pop-oriented sound, in part because of the success of "For Your Love", written by pop songwriter-for-hire Graham Gouldman, who had also written hit songs for teen pop outfit Herman's Hermits and The Hollies. Still musically devoted to the blues, Clapton was opposed to the move, and left the band. He recommended fellow guitarist Jimmy Page as his replacement, but Page was at that time unwilling to relinquish his lucrative career as a freelance studio musician, so Page in turn recommended Clapton's successor, Jeff Beck. While Beck and Page played together in the Yardbirds, the trio of Beck, Page, and Clapton were never in the group together. However, the trio did appear on the 12-date benefit tour for Action for Research into Multiple Sclerosis, as well as on the album ''Guitar Boogie''.

Clapton joined John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers in April 1965, only to quit a few months later. In the summer of 1965 he left for Greece with a band called The Glands, which included his old friend Ben Palmer on piano. In November 1965 he rejoined John Mayall. It was during his second Bluesbreakers stint that his passionate playing established Clapton's name as the best blues guitarist on the club circuit. Although Clapton gained world fame for his playing on the influential album, ''Blues Breakers'', this album was not released until Clapton had left the Bluesbreakers for the last time. Having swapped his Fender Telecaster and Vox AC30 amplifier for a 1960 Gibson Les Paul Standard guitar and Marshall amplifier, Clapton's sound and playing inspired a well-publicised graffito that deified him with the famous slogan "Clapton is God". The phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington Underground station in the autumn of 1967. The graffiti was captured in a now-famous photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall. Clapton is reported to have been embarrassed by the slogan, saying in his ''The South Bank Show'' profile in 1987, "I never accepted that I was the greatest guitar player in the world. I always ''wanted'' to be the greatest guitar player in the world, but that's an ideal, and I accept it as an ideal". The phrase began to appear in other areas of Islington throughout the mid 1960s.

Cream

Clapton left the Bluesbreakers in July 1966 (to be replaced by Peter Green) and formed Cream, one of the earliest supergroups, with Jack Bruce on bass (also of Manfred Mann, the Bluesbreakers, and the Graham Bond Organisation) and Ginger Baker on drums (another member of the Graham Bond Organisation). Before the formation of Cream, Clapton was not well known in the United States; he left the Yardbirds before "For Your Love" hit the American Top Ten, and had yet to perform there. During his time with Cream, Clapton began to develop as a singer, songwriter, and guitarist, though Bruce took most of the lead vocals and wrote the majority of the material with lyricist Pete Brown. Cream's first gig was an unofficial performance at the Twisted Wheel Club in Manchester on 1966 before their full debut two nights later at the National Jazz and Blues Festival in Windsor. Cream established its enduring legend with the high-volume blues jamming and extended solos of their live shows.

In early 1967 Clapton's status as Britain's top guitarist was rivalled by the emergence of Jimi Hendrix, an acid rock-infused guitarist who used wailing feedback and effects pedals to create new sounds for the instrument. Hendrix attended a performance of the newly-formed Cream at the Central London Polytechnic on 1966, during which Hendrix sat in on a double-timed version of "Killing Floor". Top UK stars including Clapton, Pete Townshend, and members of The Rolling Stones and The Beatles avidly attended Hendrix's early club performances. Hendrix's arrival had an immediate and major effect on the next phase of Clapton's career, although Clapton continued to be recognised in UK music polls as the premier guitarist.

Clapton first visited the United States while touring with Cream. In March 1967, Cream performed a nine-show stand at the RKO Theater in New York. They recorded ''Disraeli Gears'' in New York from 1967. Cream's repertoire varied from hard rock ("I Feel Free") to lengthy blues-based instrumental jams ("Spoonful"). ''Disraeli Gears'' featured Clapton's searing guitar lines, Bruce's soaring vocals and prominent, fluid bass playing, and Baker's powerful, polyrhythmic jazz-influenced drumming. Together, Cream's talents secured themselves as an influential power trio.

In 28 months, Cream had become a commercial success, selling millions of records and playing throughout the U.S. and Europe. They redefined the instrumentalist's role in rock and were one of the first blues-rock bands to emphasise musical virtuosity and lengthy jazz-style improvisation sessions. Their U.S. hit singles include "Sunshine of Your Love" (#5, 1968), "White Room" (#6, 1968) and "Crossroads" (#28, 1969) – a live version of Robert Johnson's "Cross Road Blues". Though Cream was hailed as one of the greatest groups of its day, and the adulation of Clapton as a guitar hero reached new heights, the supergroup was short-lived. Drug and alcohol use escalated tension between the three members, and conflicts between Bruce and Baker eventually led to Cream's demise. A strongly critical ''Rolling Stone'' review of a concert of the group's second headlining U.S. tour was another significant factor in the trio's demise, and it affected Clapton profoundly.

Cream's farewell album, ''Goodbye'', featuring live performances recorded at The Forum, Los Angeles, 1968, was released shortly after Cream disbanded; it also featured the studio single "Badge", co-written by Clapton and George Harrison. Clapton met Harrison and became friends with him after the Beatles shared a bill with the Clapton-era Yardbirds at the London Palladium. The close friendship between Clapton and Harrison resulted in Clapton's playing on Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" from the Beatles' ''White Album'' (1968). Harrison also released his solo debut album, ''Wonderwall Music'', in 1968. It became the first of many Harrison solo records to feature Clapton on guitar. Clapton would go largely uncredited for his contributions to Harrison's albums due to contractual restraints. The pair would often play live together as each other's guest. A year after Harrison's death in 2001, Clapton helped organise a tribute concert, for which he was musical director.

Cream briefly reunited in 1993 to perform at the ceremony inducting them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; a full reunion took place in May 2005, with Clapton, Bruce, and Baker playing four sold-out concerts at London's Royal Albert Hall, and three shows at New York's Madison Square Garden that October. Recordings from the London shows, ''Royal Albert Hall London May 2-3-5-6, 2005'', were released on CD, LP, and DVD in September/December 2005.

Blind Faith & Delaney and Bonnie and Friends

Clapton's next group, Blind Faith (1969), was composed of Cream drummer Ginger Baker, Steve Winwood of Traffic, and Ric Grech of Family, and yielded one LP and one arena-circuit tour. The supergroup debuted before 100,000 fans in London's Hyde Park on 1969. They performed several dates in Scandinavia and began a sold-out American tour in July before their only album was released. The LP ''Blind Faith'' consisted of just six songs, one of them a 15-minute jam entitled "Do What You Like". The album's jacket image of a topless pubescent girl was deemed controversial in the United States and was replaced by a photograph of the band. Blind Faith dissolved after less than seven months.

Clapton subsequently toured as a sideman for an act that had opened for Blind Faith, Delaney and Bonnie and Friends. He also played two dates as a member of The Plastic Ono Band that fall, including a recorded performance at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival in September 1969 released as the album ''Live Peace in Toronto 1969''. On 15 December 1969 Clapton performed with John Lennon, George Harrison, and others as the Plastic Ono Band at a fundraiser for UNICEF in London.

Delaney Bramlett encouraged Clapton in his singing and writing. During the summer of 1969, Clapton and Bramlett contributed to the ''Music From Free Creek'' "supersession" project. Clapton, appearing as "King Cool" for contractual reasons, played with Dr. John on three songs, joined by Bramlett on two tracks.

Using the Bramletts' backing group and an all-star cast of session players (including Leon Russell and Stephen Stills), Clapton recorded his first solo album during two brief tour hiatuses, fittingly named ''Eric Clapton''. Delaney Bramlett co-wrote six of the songs with Clapton, and Bonnie Bramlett co-wrote "Let It Rain". The album yielded the unexpected U.S. #18 hit, J. J. Cale's "After Midnight". Clapton went with Delaney and Bonnie from the stage to the studio with the Dominos to record George Harrison's ''All Things Must Pass'' in spring 1970. During this busy period, Clapton also recorded with other artists including Dr. John, Leon Russell, Plastic Ono Band, Billy Preston, and Ringo Starr.

1970s

Derek and the Dominos

With the intention to counteract the "star" cult faction that had begun to form around him, Clapton assembled a new band composed of Delaney and Bonnie's former rhythm section, Bobby Whitlock as keyboardist and vocalist, Carl Radle as the bassist, and drummer Jim Gordon, with Clapton playing guitar. It was his intention to show that he need not fill a starring role, and functioned well as a member of an ensemble. Naming the band, "Eric Clapton and Friends" at first, the name "Derek and the Dominos" was a fluke. It occurred when the band's provisional name of "Del and the Dynamos" was misread as Derek and the Dominos. Clapton's biography states that Ashton told Clapton to call the band "Del and the Dominos", since "Del" was his nickname for Eric Clapton. Del and Eric were combined and the final name became "Derek and the Dominos".

Clapton's close friendship with George Harrison brought him into contact with Harrison's wife, Pattie Boyd, with whom he became deeply infatuated. When she spurned his advances, Clapton's unrequited affections prompted most of the material for the Dominos' album, ''Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs'' (1970). Heavily blues-influenced, the album features the twin lead guitars of Allman and Clapton, with Allman's slide guitar as a key ingredient of the sound. Working at Criteria Studios in Miami with Atlantic Records producer Tom Dowd, who had worked with Clapton on Cream's ''Disraeli Gears'', the band recorded a double album.

The album features the hit love song "Layla", inspired by the classical poet of Persian literature, Nizami Ganjavi's ''The Story of Layla and Majnun'', a copy of which Ian Dallas had given to Clapton. The book moved Clapton profoundly, as it was the tale of a young man who fell hopelessly in love with a beautiful, unavailable woman and who went crazy because he could not marry her. The two parts of "Layla" were recorded in separate sessions: the opening guitar section was recorded first, and for the second section, laid down several months later, drummer Jim Gordon composed and played the piano part.

The ''Layla'' LP was actually recorded by a five-piece version of the group, thanks to the unforeseen inclusion of guitarist Duane Allman of The Allman Brothers Band. A few days into the Layla sessions, Dowd—who was also producing the Allmans—invited Clapton to an Allman Brothers outdoor concert in Miami. The two guitarists met first on stage, then played all night in the studio, and became friends. Duane first added his slide guitar to "Tell the Truth" and "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out". In four days, the five-piece Dominos recorded "Key to the Highway", "Have You Ever Loved a Woman" (a blues standard popularised by Freddie King and others), and "Why Does Love Got to be So Sad". In September, Duane briefly left the sessions for gigs with his own band, and the four-piece Dominos recorded "I Looked Away", "Bell Bottom Blues", and "Keep on Growing". Duane returned to record "I am Yours", "Anyday", and "It's Too Late". On September 9, they recorded Hendrix's "Little Wing" and the title track. The following day, the final track, "It's Too Late", was recorded.

Tragedy dogged the group throughout its brief career. During the sessions, Clapton was devastated by news of the death of Jimi Hendrix; eight days previously the band had cut a cover of "Little Wing" as a tribute to Hendrix. On 1970, one day before Hendrix's death, Clapton had purchased a left-handed Fender Stratocaster that he had planned to give to Hendrix as a birthday gift. Adding to Clapton's woes, the ''Layla'' album received only lukewarm reviews upon release. The shaken group undertook a U.S. tour without Allman, who had returned to the Allman Brothers Band. Despite Clapton's later admission that the tour took place amidst a veritable blizzard of drugs and alcohol, it resulted in the live double album ''In Concert''. The band had recorded several tracks for a second album in London during the spring of 1971 (five of which were released on the Eric Clapton box-set ''Crossroads''), but the results were mediocre.

A second record was in the works when a clashing of egos took place and Clapton walked, thus disbanding the group. Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident on 1971. Although Radle would remain Clapton's bass player until the summer of 1979 (Radle died in May 1980 from the effects of alcohol and narcotics), it would be 2003 before Clapton and Whitlock appeared together again (Clapton guested on Whitlock's appearance on the ''Later with Jools Holland'' show). Another tragic footnote to the Dominos story was the fate of drummer Jim Gordon, who was an undiagnosed schizophrenic and years later murdered his mother during a psychotic episode. Gordon was confined to 16-years-to-life imprisonment, later being moved to a mental institution, where he remains today.

Solo career

Clapton's career successes in the 1970s were in stark contrast to his personal life, which was troubled by romantic longings and drug and alcohol addiction. While suffering his (temporarily) unrequited and intense attraction to Pattie Boyd, he withdrew from recording and touring to isolation in his Surrey, England, residence. There he nursed his heroin addiction, which resulted in a career hiatus interrupted only by the Concert for Bangladesh in August 1971 (where he passed out on stage, was revived, and continued his performance). In January 1973, The Who's Pete Townshend organised a comeback concert for Clapton at London's Rainbow Theatre, aptly titled the "Rainbow Concert", to help Clapton kick his addiction. Clapton would return the favour by playing 'The Preacher' in Ken Russell's film version of The Who's ''Tommy'' in 1975; his appearance in the film (performing "Eyesight to the Blind") is notable as he is clearly wearing a fake beard in some shots, the result of deciding to shave off his real beard after the initial takes in an attempt to force the director to remove his earlier scene from the movie and leave the set.

In 1974, now partnered with Pattie (they would not actually marry until 1979) and no longer using heroin (although starting to drink heavily), Clapton put together a more low-key touring band that included Radle, Miami guitarist George Terry, keyboardist Dick Sims, drummer Jamie Oldaker, and vocalists Yvonne Elliman and Marcy Levy (also known as Marcella Detroit). With this band Clapton recorded ''461 Ocean Boulevard'' (1974), an album with an emphasis on more compact songs and fewer guitar solos; the cover version of "I Shot The Sheriff" was Clapton's first #1 hit and was important in bringing reggae and the music of Bob Marley to a wider audience. The 1975 album ''There's One in Every Crowd'' continued this trend. The album's original title, ''The World's Greatest Guitar Player (There's One In Every Crowd)'', was changed before pressing, as it was felt its ironic intention would be misunderstood. The band toured the world and subsequently released the 1975 live LP, ''E.C. Was Here''. Clapton continued to release albums and toured regularly. Highlights of the period include ''No Reason to Cry'' (a collaboration with Bob Dylan and The Band); ''Slowhand'', which featured "Wonderful Tonight" (another song inspired by Boyd); and a second J.J. Cale cover, "Cocaine". In 1976 he performed, alongside a string of notable guests, to pay tribute to the farewell performance of The Band, filmed in a Martin Scorsese documentary called ''the Last Waltz''.

1980s

In 1981 Clapton was invited by producer Martin Lewis to appear at the Amnesty International benefit ''The Secret Policeman's Other Ball''. Clapton accepted the invitation and teamed up with Jeff Beck to perform a series of duets—reportedly their first-ever billed stage collaboration. Three of the performances were released on the album of the show, and one of the songs was featured in the film. The performances heralded a return to form and prominence for Clapton in the new decade. Many factors had influenced Clapton's comeback, including his "deepening commitment to Christianity", to which he had converted prior to his heroin addiction.

After an embarrassing fishing incident, Clapton finally called his manager and admitted he was an alcoholic. In January 1982 Roger and Clapton flew to Minneapolis – St. Paul; Clapton would be checked in at Hazelden Treatment Center, located in Center City, Minnesota. On the flight over, Clapton indulged in a large number of drinks, for fear he would never be able to drink again. Clapton is quoted as saying from his autobiography, "In the lowest moments of my life, the only reason I didn't commit suicide was that I knew I wouldn't be able to drink anymore if I was dead. It was the only thing I thought was worth living for, and the idea that people were about to try and remove me from alcohol was so terrible that I drank and drank and drank, and they had to practically carry me into the clinic."

After being discharged, it was recommended by doctors of Hazelden that Clapton not partake in any activities that would act as triggers for his alcoholism or stress, until he was fully situated back at Hurtwood. A few months after his discharge, Clapton began working on his next album, against the Hazelden doctors' orders. Working with Tom Dowd, Clapton produced what he thought as his "most forced" album to date, ''Money and Cigarettes''.

In 1984 he performed on Pink Floyd member Roger Waters' solo album, ''The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking'', and went on tour with Waters following the release of the album. Since then Waters and Clapton have had a close relationship. In 2005 they performed together for the Tsunami Relief Fund. In 2006 they performed at the Highclere Castle, in aid of the Countryside Alliance, playing two set pieces of "Wish You Were Here" and "Comfortably Numb". Clapton, now a seasoned charity performer, played at the Live Aid concert on 13 July 1985. When offered a slot close to peak viewing hours, he was apparently flattered. As Clapton recovered from his addictions, his album output continued in the 1980s, including two produced with Phil Collins, 1985's ''Behind the Sun'', which produced the hits "Forever Man" and "She's Waiting", and 1986's ''August''.

''August'' was suffused with Collins's trademark drum and horn sound, and became Clapton's biggest seller in the UK to date, matching his highest chart position, number 3. The album's first track, the hit "It's In The Way That You Use It", was featured in the Tom Cruise – Paul Newman movie ''The Color of Money.'' The horn-peppered "Run" echoed Collins' "Sussudio" and rest of the producer's Genesis/solo output, while "Tearing Us Apart" (with Tina Turner) and the bitter "Miss You" echoed Clapton's angry sound. This rebound kicked off Clapton's two-year period of touring with Collins and their ''August'' collaborates, bassist Nathan East and keyboard player/songwriter Greg Phillinganes. While on tour for ''August'', two concert videos were recorded of the four-man band, ''Eric Clapton Live from Montreux'' and ''Eric Clapton and Friends''. Clapton later remade "After Midnight" as a single and a promotional track for the Michelob beer brand, which had also marketed earlier songs by Collins and Steve Winwood. Clapton won a British Academy Television Award for his collaboration with Michael Kamen on the score for the 1985 BBC Television thriller serial ''Edge of Darkness''. In 1989, Clapton released ''Journeyman'', an album which covered a wide range of styles including blues, jazz, soul and pop. Collaborators included George Harrison, Phil Collins, Daryl Hall, Chaka Khan, Mick Jones, David Sanborn and Robert Cray.

In 1984, while still married to Pattie Boyd, Clapton began a year-long relationship with Yvonne Kelly. The two had a daughter, Ruth, who was born in January 1985, but her existence was kept a secret by her parents. She was not publicly revealed as his child until 1991. Boyd criticised Clapton because he had not revealed the child's existence.

Hurricane Hugo hit Montserrat in 1989, and this resulted in the closure of Sir George Martin and John Burgess's recording studio AIR Montserrat, where Kelly was Managing Director. Kelly and Ruth moved back to England, and stories about Eric's secret daughter began as a result of newspaper articles published at the time. Clapton and Boyd divorced in 1988 following his affair with Italian model Lory Del Santo, who gave birth to their son, Conor, on 1986. Boyd was never able to conceive children, despite attempts at in vitro fertilisation. Their divorce was granted on grounds of "infidelity and unreasonable behaviour."

Clapton was known to date a host of beautiful women, including Krissy Wood (ex-wife of Ron Wood), actress Charlotte Martin, socialite Alice Ormsby-Gore, Paula Boyd (the younger sister of his future wife Pattie), singer Janis Joplin, singer Marianne Faithfull, rock muses Catherine James, Cyrinda Fox, and Geraldine Edwards, the inspiration for Penny Lane in ''Almost Famous'', singer Rosanne Cash, the First Lady of France and former model Carla Bruni, and actresses Patsy Kensit, Sharon Stone, and Alicia Witt.

1990s

The 1990s brought a series of 32 concerts to the Royal Albert Hall, such as the 24 Nights series of concerts that took place around January through February 1990, and February through March 1991. On 1990, fellow blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, who was touring with Clapton, and three members of their road crew were killed in a helicopter crash between concerts. Then, on 1991, Clapton's four-year-old son, Conor, died on impact after a fall from the 53rd-story window of his mother's friend's New York City apartment. He landed on the roof of an adjacent four-story building. Clapton's grief was expressed in the song "Tears in Heaven", which was co-written by Will Jennings. At the 35th Grammy Awards, Clapton received six Grammy Awards for the single "Tears in Heaven" and his ''Unplugged'' album. The album reached number one on the ''Billboard'' 200, and has since been certified Diamond by the RIAA for selling over 10 million copies in the United States.

In October 1992 Clapton was among the dozens of artists performing at Bob Dylan's 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration. Recorded at Madison Square Garden in New York City, the live two-disk CD/DVD captured a show full of celebrities performing classic Dylan songs, before ending with a few performances from Dylan himself. Despite the presence of 10 other guitarists on stage, including George Harrison, Neil Young, Roger McGuinn, Steve Cropper, Tom Petty, and Dylan, Clapton played the lead on a nearly 7-minute version of Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" as part of the finale.

While ''Unplugged'' featured Clapton playing acoustic guitar, his 1994 album ''From the Cradle'' contained new versions of old blues standards, highlighted by his electric guitar playing. Clapton's 1996 recording of the Wayne Kirkpatrick/Gordon Kennedy/Tommy Sims tune "Change the World" (featured in the soundtrack of the movie ''Phenomenon'') won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1997, the same year he recorded ''Retail Therapy'' (an album of electronic music with Simon Climie under the pseudonym TDF). The following year, Clapton released the album ''Pilgrim'', the first record featuring new material for almost a decade. Clapton finished the twentieth century with collaborations with Carlos Santana and B. B. King.

In 1996 Clapton had a relationship with singer/songwriter Sheryl Crow. They remain friends, and Clapton appeared as a guest on Crow's Central Park Concert. The duo performed a Cream hit single, "White Room". Later, Clapton and Crow performed an alternate version of "Tulsa Time" with other guitar legends at the Crossroads Guitar Festival in June 2007.

In 1998 Clapton, then 53, met 22-year-old administrative assistant Melia McEnery in Columbus, Ohio, at a party given for him after a performance. He quietly dated her for a year, and went public with the relationship in 1999. They married on 2002 at St Mary Magdalene church in Clapton's birthplace, Ripley. As of 2005 they have three daughters, Julie Rose ( 2001), Ella May ( 2003), and Sophie Belle (||j|1 February}} 2005).

2000s

Following the release of the 2001 record ''Reptile'', Eric performed "Layla" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" at the Party at the Palace in 2002. On 29 November of that year the Concert for George was held at the Royal Albert Hall, a tribute to George Harrison, who had died a year earlier of cancer. Clapton was a performer and the musical director. The concert featured Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Ravi Shankar, Gary Brooker, Billy Preston, Joe Brown and Dhani Harrison. In 2004 Clapton released two albums of covers of songs by legendary bluesman Robert Johnson, ''Me and Mr. Johnson'' and ''Sessions for Robert J''. The same year, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked Clapton #53 on their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".

On 22 January 2005, Clapton performed in the Tsunami Relief Concert held at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, in aid of the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. In May 2005 Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker reunited as Cream for a series of concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Concert recordings were released on CD and DVD. Later, Cream performed in New York at Madison Square Garden. ''Back Home'', Clapton's first album of new original material in nearly five years, was released on Reprise Records on . In 2006 he invited Derek Trucks and Doyle Bramhall II to join his band for his 2006–2007 world tour. Trucks is the third member of the Allman Brothers Band to tour supportng Clapton, the second being pianist/keyboardist Chuck Leavell, who appeared on the ''MTV Unplugged'' album and the ''24 Nights'' performances at the Royal Albert Hall theatre of London in 1990 and 1991, as well as Clapton's 1992 U.S. tour.

On 20 May 2006, Clapton performed with Queen drummer Roger Taylor and former Pink Floyd bassist/songwriter Roger Waters at the Highclere Castle, in support of the Countryside Alliance. On 2006, Clapton made a guest appearance at the Bob Dylan concert in Columbus, Ohio, playing guitar on three songs in Jimmie Vaughan's opening act. A collaboration with guitarist J. J. Cale, titled ''The Road to Escondido'', was released on 2006, featuring Derek Trucks and Billy Preston. The 14-track CD was produced and recorded by the duo in August 2005 in California. The chemistry between Trucks and Clapton convinced him to invite The Derek Trucks Band to open for Clapton's set at his 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival. Trucks remained on set afterward, performed with Clapton's band throughout his performances, and later embarked on a world tour with him.

The rights to Clapton's official memoirs, written by Christopher Simon Sykes and published in 2007, were sold at the 2005 Frankfurt Book Fair for .

On 26 February 2008, it was reported that North Korean officials had invited Clapton to play a concert in the communist state. Clapton's management received the invitation and passed it on to the singer, who agreed in principle and suggested it take place sometime in 2009. Kristen Foster, a spokesperson, said, "Eric Clapton receives numerous offers to play in countries around the world," and "[t]here is no agreement whatsoever for him to play in North Korea."

In 2007 Clapton learned more about his father, a Canadian soldier who left the UK after the war. Although Clapton's grandparents eventually told him the truth about his parentage, he only knew that his father's name was Edward Fryer. This was a source of disquiet for Clapton, as witnessed by his 1998 song "My Father's Eyes". A Montreal journalist named Michael Woloschuk researched Canadian Armed Forces service records and tracked down members of Fryer's family, and finally pieced together the story. He learned that Clapton's father was Edward Walter Fryer, born 1920, in Montreal and died in Newmarket, Ontario. Fryer was a musician (piano and saxophone) and a lifelong drifter who was married several times, had several children, and apparently never knew that he was the father of Eric Clapton. Clapton thanked Woloschuk in an encounter at Macdonald Cartier Airport, in Ottawa, Canada.

In February 2008 Clapton performed with his long-time friend Steve Winwood at Madison Square Garden and guested on his recorded single, "Dirty City", on Winwood's album ''Nine Lives''. The two former Blind Faith bandmates met again for a series of 14 concerts throughout the United States in June 2009.

Clapton's 2008 Summer Tour began on at the Ford Amphitheatre, Tampa Bay, Florida, and then moved to Canada, Ireland, England, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Poland, Germany, and Monaco. On 2008, he headlined Saturday night for Hard Rock Calling 2008 in London's Hyde Park (previously Hyde Park Calling) with support from Sheryl Crow and John Mayer. In September 2008 Clapton performed at a private charity fundraiser for The Countryside Alliance at Floridita in Soho, London, that included such guests as the London Mayor Boris Johnson.

In March 2009, the Allman Brothers Band (amongst many notable guests) celebrated their 40th year, dedicating their string of concerts to the late Duane Allman on their annual run at the Beacon Theatre. Eric Clapton was one of the performers, with drummer Butch Trucks remarking that the performance was not the typical Allman Brothers experience, given the number and musical styles of the guests who were invited to perform. Songs like "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" were punctuated with others, including "The Weight", with Levon Helm; Johnny Winter sitting in on Hendrix's "Red House"; and "Layla". On 2009 Clapton appeared as a featured guest at the Royal Albert Hall, playing "Further on Up the Road" with Joe Bonamassa.

Clapton was scheduled to be one of the performers at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 25th anniversary concert in Madison Square Garden on 2009, but cancelled due to gallstone surgery. Van Morrison (who also cancelled) said in an interview that he and Clapton were to do a "couple of songs", but that they would do something else together at "some other stage of the game".

2010

Clapton performed a two-night show with Jeff Beck at London's O2 Arena on 2010. The two former Yardbirds extended their 2010 tour with stops at Madison Square Garden, the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, and the Bell Centre in Montreal. Clapton performed a series of concerts in 11 cities throughout the United States from to 2010. His third European tour with Steve Winwood began on and ended . He then began a short North American tour lasting from to , starting with his third Crossroads Guitar Festival on } in Bridgeview, Illinois. Clapton released a new studio album, ''Clapton'', on 2010 in the United Kingdom and 28 September 2010 in the United States. On 2010, Clapton performed as guest on the Prince's Trust rock gala held at the Royal Albert Hall, supported by the house band for the evening, which included Jools Holland, Midge Ure and Mark King.

On 24 June 2011 Clapton was in concert in with Pino Daniele in Cava de' Tirreni stadium, Italy, with an audience of 15,000 people.

Influences

Clapton cites Freddie King, B.B. King, Albert King, Buddy Guy, and Hubert Sumlin as guitar playing influences. Robert Johnson has influenced Clapton the most profoundly. In 2004 Clapton released CDs and DVDs entitled ''Sessions for Robert Johnson'', featuring Clapton covering Robert Johnson songs using electric and acoustic guitars live and in rehearsal.

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."

Legacy

Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time. Clapton 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 Cream. He ranked fourth in ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and fourth in ''Gibson's'' ''Top 50 Guitarists of All Time.''

Guitarists influenced by Clapton include Richie Sambora, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Gary Moore, Duane Allman, Derek Trucks, Eddie Van Halen, Brian May, Orianthi, Brad Paisley, Jonny Buckland, Joe Don Rooney, Alex Lifeson, Jonny Lang, John Mayer, Joe Satriani, Joe Bonamassa, Davy Knowles, and George Harrison.

Guitars

Clapton's choice of electric guitars has been as notable as the man himself; alongside Hank Marvin, The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, Clapton exerted a crucial and widespread influence in popularising particular models of electric guitar. With the Yardbirds, Clapton played a Fender Telecaster, a Fender Jazzmaster, a double-cutaway Gretsch 6120, and a 1964 Cherry-Red Gibson ES-335. He became exclusively a Gibson player for a period beginning in mid-1965, when he purchased a used Gibson Les Paul Sunburst Standard guitar from a guitar store in London. Clapton commented on the slim profile of the neck, which would indicate it was a 1960 model.

Early during his stint in Cream, Clapton's first Les Paul Standard was stolen. He continued to play Les Pauls exclusively with Cream (one bought from Andy Summers was almost identical to the stolen guitar) until 1967, when he acquired his most famous guitar in this period, a 1964 Gibson SG. Just before Cream's first U.S. appearance in 1967, Clapton's SG, Bruce's Fender VI, and Baker's drum head were all repainted in psychedelic designs created by the visual art collective known as The Fool. In 1968 Clapton bought a Gibson Firebird and started using the 1964 Cherry-Red Gibson ES-335 again. The aforementioned 1964 ES-335 had a storied career. Clapton used it at the last Cream show in November 1968 as well as with Blind Faith, played it sparingly for slide pieces in the 1970s, used it on "Hard Times" from ''Journeyman'', the Hyde Park live concert of 1996, and the ''From the Cradle'' sessions and tour of 1994–95. It was sold for $847,500 at a 2004 auction. Gibson produced a limited run of 250 "Crossroads 335" replicas. The 335 was only the second electric guitar Clapton bought.

In July 1968 Clapton gave George Harrison a red refinished Les Paul. The following September, Clapton played the guitar on the Beatles' studio recording of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". His SG found its way into the hands of George Harrison's friend Jackie Lomax, who subsequently sold it to musician Todd Rundgren for US$500 in 1972. Rundgren restored the guitar and nicknamed it "Sunny", after "Sunshine of Your Love". He retained it until 2000, when he sold it at an auction for US$150,000. At the 1969 Blind Faith concert in Hyde Park, London Clapton played a Fender Custom Telecaster, which was fitted with "Brownie"s neck.

In late 1969 Clapton made the switch to the Fender Stratocaster. "I had a lot of influences when I took up the Strat. First there was Buddy Holly, and Buddy Guy. Hank Marvin was the first well known person over here in England who was using one, but that wasn't really my kind of music. Steve Winwood had so much credibility, and when he started playing one, I thought, oh, if he can do it, I can do it." The first—used during the recording of ''Eric Clapton''—was "Brownie", which in 1974 became the backup to the most famous of all Clapton's guitars, "Blackie". In November 1970 Eric bought six Fender Stratocasters from the Sho-bud guitar shop in Nashville, Tennessee while on tour with the Dominos. He gave one each to George Harrison, Steve Winwood, and Pete Townshend.

Clapton assembled the best components of the remaining three to create "Blackie", which was his favourite stage guitar until its retirement in 1985. It was first played live 1973 at the Rainbow Concert. Clapton called the 1956/57 Strat a "mongrel". On 2004, Clapton sold "Blackie" at Christie's Auction House, New York, for $959,500 to raise funds for his Crossroads Centre for drug and alcohol addictions. "Brownie" is now on display at the Experience Music Project. The Fender Custom Shop has since produced a limited run of 275 'Blackie' replicas, correct in every detail right down to the 'Duck Brothers' flight case, and artificially aged using Fender's 'Relic' process to simulate years of hard wear. One was presented to Eric upon the model's release and was used for three numbers during a concert at the Royal Albert Hall on 2006.

In 1981 Clapton gave his signed Fender Lead II guitar to the Hard Rock Cafe to designate his. favourite bar stool. Pete Townshend also donated his own Gibson Les Paul guitar, with a note attached: "Mine's as good as his! Love, Pete."

In 1988 Fender honoured Clapton with the introduction of his signature Eric Clapton Stratocaster. These were the first two artist models in the Stratocaster range. Since then, the artist series has grown to include models inspired by Clapton's contemporaries such as Rory Gallagher, Mark Knopfler, Jeff Beck, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and by those who have influenced him, such as Buddy Guy. Clapton uses Ernie Ball Slinky and Super Slinky strings. Clapton has been honoured with several signature-model 000-sized acoustic guitars made by the American firm of C.F. Martin & Company. The first, of these, introduced in 1995, was a limited edition 000-42EC Eric Clapton signature model with a production run of 461. As of December 2007, Martin had produced seven EC signature models. His 1939 000-42 Martin that he played on the ''Unplugged'' album sold for $791,500 at auction. Clapton plays a custom 000-ECHF Martin these days.

In 1999, Clapton auctioned off some of his guitar collection to raise more than for continuing support of the Crossroads Centre in Antigua, which he founded in 1997. The Crossroads Centre is a treatment base for addictive disorders such as drugs and alcohol. In 2004 Clapton organised and participated in the Crossroads Guitar Festival to benefit the Centre. A second guitar auction, including the "Cream" of Clapton's collection – as well as guitars donated by famous friends – was held on 2004. His Lowden acoustic guitar sold for $41,825. The revenue garnered by this auction at Christie's was US $7,438,624.

In 2010 Eric Clapton announced that he would be auctioning off over 150 items at a New York auction in 2011. Proceeds will benefit his Crossroads Centre in Antigua. Items include Clapton's guitar from the Cream reunion tour in 2005, speaker cabinets used in the early 1970s from his days with Derek and the Dominoes, and some guitars from Jeff Beck, J.J. Cale, and Joe Bonamassa. In March 2011 Clapton raised more than $2.15 million dollars when he auctioned off key items, including a 1984 Gibson hollow body guitar, a Gianni Versace suit from his 1990 concert at the Royal Albert Hall, and a replica of the famous Fender Stratocaster known as "Blackie", which fetched more than $30,000. All proceeds from the auction were donated to Clapton's Crossroads drug and rehabilitation centre in Antigua.

The "woman tone" is the informal term used by Clapton to refer to his distinctive mid- to late-1960s electric guitar sound, created using his Gibson SG solid body guitar (with Humbucker pick-ups) and a Marshall tube amplifier. It is an overdriven sound that is articulate yet thick. It is characterised by being quite distorted (or even achieved with a fuzz) but muted, in contrast to the bright and twangy distortion that most guitarists were using at the time. Many players have tried to duplicate it, usually without success, in part because Clapton's playing technique had a lot to do with the tone.

Among the techniques used to replicate Clapton's sound is a technique by which the amplifier's volume is turned up to full, while the guitar's tone knob is turned down to zero or one.

Perhaps the best examples of the "woman tone" are Clapton's famous riff and solo from Cream's 1967 hit "Sunshine of Your Love". Clapton has explained that he obtained the tone with his Gibson's tone control rolled all the way down, switching to the neck pick-up (closest to the fretboard) and the volume all the way up, with his distortion turned all the way up. The treble, mids and bass controls on the amplifier were also maxed out. Some versions of the "woman tone" may also have involved strategic positioning of Clapton's wah-wah pedal.

Other media appearances

Clapton frequently appears as a guest on the albums of other musicians. For example, he is credited on Dire Straitss ''Brothers in Arms'' album, as he lent Mark Knopfler one of his guitars. He played lead guitar and synthesiser on ''The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking'', Roger Waters' debut solo album. Other media appearances include the Toots & the Maytals album ''True Love'', where he played guitar on the track "Pressure Drop". He can also be heard at the beginning of Frank Zappa's album, ''We're Only in It for the Money'', repeating the phrase, "Are you hung up?" over and over again. In 1985, Clapton appeared on the charity concert Live Aid in Philadelphia with Phil Collins, Tim Renwick, Chris Stainton, Jamie Oldaker, Marcy Levy, Shaun Murphy, and Donald 'Duck' Dunn. In 1988 he played with Dire Straits and Elton John at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute at Wembley Stadium and the Prince's Trust rock gala at the Royal Albert Hall. On 1990, Dire Straits, Clapton, and Elton John made a guest appearance in the Nordoff-Robbins charity show held at Knebworth. In 1991 Clapton was featured on Richie Sambora's album, ''Stranger In This Town'', in a song dedicated to him, called "Mr. Bluesman". He contributed guitar and vocals to "Runaway Train", a duet with Elton John on the latter's ''The One'' album the following year.

On 12 September 1996 Clapton played a party for Armani at New York City's Lexington Armory with Greg Phillinganes, Nathan East, and Steve Gadd. Sheryl Crow appeared on one number, performing "Tearing Us Apart", a track from ''August'', which was first performed by Tina Turner during the Prince's Trust All-Star Rock show in 1986. It was Clapton's sole US appearance that year, following the open-air concert held at Hyde Park with Dave Bronze, Andy Fairweather-Low, The Kick Horns, Jerry Portnoy, Chris Stainton, and backing vocalists Katie Kissoon and Tessa Niles. The concert was taped and the footage was released both on VHS video cassette and later, on DVD.

Clapton was featured in the movie version of ''Tommy'', the first full length rock opera, written by The Who. The movie version gave Clapton a cameo appearance as The Preacher, performing Sonny Boy Williamson's song, "Eyesight to the Blind". He appeared in ''Blues Brothers 2000'' as one of the Louisiana Gator Boys. In addition to being in the band, he had a small speaking role. Clapton has appeared in an advertisement for the Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen. In March 2007 Clapton appeared in an advertisement for RealNetwork's Rhapsody online music service. In 2010 Clapton started appearing as a spokesman for T-Mobile, advertising their MyTouch Fender cell phone.

Eric Clapton was compared to God's image in the episode "Holy Crap!" of season two of ''That '70s Show'' when Eric Forman and Steven Hyde are asked by their minister to draw a picture of God.

Political views and advocacy

Clapton is a supporter of the Countryside Alliance, and has played in concerts to raise funds for the organisation and publicly opposed the Labour Party’s ban on fox hunting. A spokesperson for Clapton said, "Eric supports the Countryside Alliance. He doesn't hunt himself, but does enjoy rural pursuits such as fishing and shooting. He supports the Alliance's pursuit to scrap the ban on the basis that he doesn't agree with the state's interference with people's private pursuits."

Controversy over remarks on immigration

On 5 August 1976 Clapton provoked an uproar and lingering controversy when he spoke out against increasing immigration during a concert in Birmingham. Visibly intoxicated, Clapton voiced his support of controversial political candidate Enoch Powell, and announced on stage that Britain was in danger of becoming a "black colony". Clapton was quoted as saying, "I think Enoch's right ... we should send them all back. Throw the wogs out! Keep Britain white!" The latter phrase was at the time a British National Front slogan. Clapton continued:

"I used to be into dope, now I’m into racism. It’s much heavier, man. Fucking wogs, man. Fucking Saudis taking over London. Bastard wogs. Britain is becoming overcrowded and Enoch will stop it and send them all back. The black wogs and coons and Arabs and fucking Jamaicans and fucking (indecipherable) don’t belong here, we don’t want them here. This is England, this is a white country, we don’t want any black wogs and coons living here. We need to make clear to them they are not welcome. England is for white people, man. We are a white country. I don’t want fucking wogs living next to me with their standards. This is Great Britain, a white country, what is happening to us, for fuck's sake? We need to vote for Enoch Powell, he’s a great man, speaking truth. Vote for Enoch, he’s our man, he’s on our side, he’ll look after us. I want all of you here to vote for Enoch, support him, he’s on our side. Enoch for Prime Minister! Throw the wogs out! Keep Britain white!"

This incident, along with some explicitly pro-fascism remarks made around the same time by David Bowie as well as uses of Nazi-related imagery by Sid Vicious and Siouxsie Sioux, were the main catalysts for the creation of Rock Against Racism, which occurred on 1978.

In response to the comments, rock photographer Red Saunders and others published an open letter in ''NME'', ''Melody Maker'', ''Sounds'', and the ''Socialist Worker''. It read "Come on Eric... Own up. Half your music is black. You're rock music's biggest colonist". It concluded, "P.S. Who shot the Sheriff, Eric? It sure as hell wasn't you!"

In an interview from October 1976 with ''Sounds'' magazine, Clapton remarked, "I thought it was quite funny actually. I don't know much about politics. I don't even know if it would be good or bad for him to get in. I don't even know who the Prime Minister is now. I just don't know what came over me that night. It must have been something that happened in the day but it came out in this garbled thing... I thought the whole thing was like Monty Python. There's this rock group playing on-stage and the singer starts talking about politics. It's so stupid. Those people who paid their money sittin' listening to this madman dribbling on and the band meanwhile getting fidgety thinking 'oh dear'."

In a 2004 interview with ''Uncut'', Clapton referred to Powell as "outrageously brave", and stated that his "feeling about this has not changed", because the UK is still "... inviting people in as cheap labour and then putting them in ghettos." In 2004 Clapton told an interviewer for ''Scotland on Sunday'', "There's no way I could be a racist. It would make no sense". In his 2007 autobiography, Clapton called himself "deliberately oblivious to it all" and wrote, "I had never really understood or been directly affected by racial conflict ... when I listened to music, I was disinterested in where the players came from or what colour their skin was. Interesting, then, that 10 years later, I would be labelled a racist ... Since then, I have learnt to keep my opinions to myself. Of course, it might also have had something to do with the fact that Pattie had just been leered at by a member of the Saudi royal family." In a December 2007 interview with Melvin Bragg on ''The South Bank Show'', Clapton reiterated his support for Enoch Powell and again denied that Powell's views were "racist".

Wealth and assets

In 2009 ''Surrey Life Magazine'' ranked Eric Clapton as number 17 in their Sunday Times Rich List, estimating Clapton's fortune at £120 million in assets. This was a compilation of property and income which include a £9 million yacht, "Va Bene" (previously owned by ''F1 Racing'' magazine's Bernie Ecclestone), his back music catalog, his touring income, and his Marshbrook holding company, which had earned him £110 million since 1989, making him one of the 20 richest residents of Surrey, England.

Awards and honours

Year	! Award / Recognition
		*Presented the Silver Clef Award from Princess Michael of Kent for outstanding contribution to British music.
		*Presented with BAFTA for Best Original Television Music for Score of ''Edge of Darkness'' with Michael Kamen.
		*"Tears In Heaven" won three Grammy awards for Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Male Pop Vocal Performance. Clapton also won Album of the Year and Best Rock Vocal Performance for ''Unplugged'' and Best Rock Song for "Layla".
		*Awarded the Order of the British Empire for services to music.
		*Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the third time, this time as a solo artist. He was earlier inducted as a member of the bands Cream and The Yardbirds.
		CBE, receiving the award from the Anne, Princess Royal>Princess Royal at Buckingham Palace as part of the New Year's Honours list.
		*Awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (as a member of Cream)

Football

In 1982 he performed a concert before West Bromwich Albion player John Wile's testimonial game at the Hawthorns, and it is often reported by various sources that Clapton (despite being from London more than 100 miles away) is an Albion supporter. Credence for this notion can be taken from the cover pictures to the "Backless" solo album, where he is seen on the front cover to be wearing a football scarf; the rear cover photograph reveals the slogan "ALBION" on the scarf. It has been reported that the club rejected his offer to invest cash in the club around this time, and that he has since expressed more of an interest in Chelsea.

Clapton's music in film and TV

''Mean Streets'' (1973) – "I Looked Away"

''Purple Haze ''(1983) – "I Feel Free"

''The Hit'' (1984) – Score

''Miami Vice'' (1984–1989) – Four songs over the course of the show's five seasons: "Wonderful Tonight", "Knock On Wood", "She's Waiting", and "Layla"

''Back to the Future'' (1985) – "Heaven Is One Step Away"

''Edge of Darkness'' (1985) – Soundtrack

''The Color of Money'' (1986) – "It's In The Way That You Use It"

''SpaceCamp'' (1986 film) – "Forever Man" plays when Tate Donovan's character arrives at the Space Camp

The German car manufacturer Opel and Vauxhall in the UK used the guitar riff of Clapton's "Layla" in its advertising campaign throughout in 1987–95.

''Lethal Weapon'' (1987) – Soundtrack with Michael Kamen

''Lethal Weapon 2'' (1989) – "Knockin' On Heaven's Door"

''Goodfellas'' (1990) – "Layla" and "Sunshine of Your Love"

''Rush'' (1991) – Clapton wrote the score

''Wayne's World'' (1992) – "Loving your Loving"

''Peter's Friends'' (1992) – "Give Me Strength"

''Lethal Weapon 3'' (1992) – Clapton contributed to the score and co-wrote and co-performed the song "It's Probably Me" with Sting and "Runaway Train" with Elton John.

''True Lies'' (1994) – "Sunshine of Your Love"

''The Simpsons'' episode "Mother Simpson" (1995) – "Sunshine of Your Love"

''Twister'' (1996) – "Motherless Child"

''Phenomenon'' (1996) – "Change the World"

''The Van'' (1996) – Soundtrack

''Happy Gilmore'' (1996) – "Wonderful Tonight"

''Patch Adams'' (1998) – "Let It Rain"

''Lethal Weapon 4'' (1998) – "Pilgrim"

''City of Angels'' (1998) – "Further On Up The Road"

''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' episodes "Band Candy" and "Forever" (1998) – "Tales of Brave Ulysses"

''Runaway Bride'' (1999) – "Blue Eyes Blue"

''The Story of Us'' (1999) – "(I) Get Lost" (featured multiple times)

''Friends'' episode "The One with the Proposal, Part 2" (2000) – "Wonderful Tonight"

''Dancing At The Blue Iguana'' (2000) – "River of Tears"

''A Knight's Tale'' (2001) – "Further On Up The Road"

''Blow'' (2001) – "Strange Brew"

''Friends'' episode "The One Where Rachel Has a Baby, Part Two" (2002) – "River of Tears"

''Futurama'' episode "The 30% Iron Chef" (2002) – "Sunshine of Your Love"

''The Sopranos'' episode "Whitecaps" (2002) – Tony Soprano is seen listening to "Layla" in his Suburban.

''School Of Rock'' (2003) – "Sunshine of Your Love"

''Starsky & Hutch'' (2004) – "Cocaine"

''Anger Management'' (2004) – "Strange Brew"

''Fahrenheit 9/11'' (2004) – "Cocaine"

''Bad News Bears'' (2005) – "Cocaine"

''Lords of Dogtown'' (2005) – "Strange Brew"

''Lord of War'' (2005) – "Cocaine"

''United States of Tara'' episode – "Cocaine"

''The Good Guys'' Episode Silvio's Way – "Layla"

''Due Date'' (2010) – "White Room"

Discography

References

Further reading

On Eric Clapton's career:

* Robin Bextor, ''Eric Clapton: Now & Then'', Carlton Books, 2006, 144 pp.

* Eric Clapton, ''Clapton, The Autobiography'', 2007 and 2008, Broadway Books, 352 pp. / Arrow, 400 pages / Century, 384 pp.

* Eric Clapton, Derek Taylor and Peter Blake, ''24 Nights'', Genesis Publications, 2 volumes, 1992, 198 and 64 pp. Eric Clapton's signed limited edition books, in a Solander box with 2 live CD

* Ray Coleman, ''Clapton!: The Authorized Biography'', Warner Books, 368 pp, or Futura, 336 pages, 1986; originally publ. as "Survivor: The Authorized Biography", Sidgwick & Jackson, 1985, 300 pp.

* Geoffrey Giuliano, Brenda Giuliano and Deborah Lynn Black, ''The Illustrated Eric Clapton'', Sunburst Books, 1994, 96 pp.

* George Harrison, Eric Clapton & al, ''Live in Japan: A celebration of George Harrison’s ‘Rock Legends’ Tour with Eric Clapton Band'', Genesis Publications, 1993, 274 pp. George Harrison's signed limited black leather edition book, in a box with 2 live CD.

* Christopher Hjort w/ a foreword by John Mayall, ''Strange brew: Eric Clapton and the British Blues Boom, 1965–1970'', Jawbone, 2007, 352 pp.

* John Pidgeon, ''Eric Clapton: A Biography'', Panther, 1976, ... pages; rev. & upd. Vermilion, 1985 or 1987, 123 pp.

* Marc Roberty, ''Eric Clapton: The Complete Recording Sessions 1963–1992'', Blandford or St. Martin’s Press, 1993, 192 pp.

* Marc Roberty, ''Slowhand: The Life & Music of Eric Clapton'', Octopus or Harmony, 1991, 176 pp; upd. ed. Crown, 1993, 192 pp.

* Marc Roberty, ''Eric Clapton in His Own Words'', Omnibus Press, 1993, 96 pp.

* Marc Roberty, ''Eric Clapton: The New Visual Documentary'', Omnibus Press, 1990, 128 pp.; rev. ed., 1994, ...pp.; originally publ. as ''Eric Clapton: A Visual Documentary, 1986, ... pp.

* Marc Roberty, ''Clapton: The Complete Chronicle'', Pyramid, 1991, 176 pp. / Mitchell Beazley 1993, 192 pp.

* Marc Roberty, ''Eric Clapton: The Man, the Music and the Memorabilia'', Paper Tiger-Dragon’s World, 1994, 226 pp.

* Marc Roberty, ''The Complete Guide to the Music of Eric Clapton'', Omnibus Press, 1995, 152 pp. CD format; rev. ed., 2005, 128 pp.

* Marc Roberty, ''Eric Clapton'', CD Books, Orion, 1994, ...pp or MBS (Miami), 1996, 120 pp. CD format

* Marc Roberty and Chris Welch, ''Eric Clapton: The Illustrated Disco/Biography'', Omnibus Press, 1984, 80 pp. or Beekman (New York), 1990, ...pp.

* Christopher Sandford, ''Clapton: Edge of Darkness'', Victor Gollancz, 1994, 322 pp.

* Michael Schumacher, ''Crossroads: The Life and Music of Eric Clapton'', Hyperion, 1995, 388 pp.; rev. ed, Time Warner p'backs, 1998, 411 pp.; new ed. titled ''Eric Clapton'', Sphere, 2008, 432 pp.

* Harry Shapiro, ''Eric Clapton: Lost in The Blues'', Guinness Books or Muze, 1992, 256 pp.; rev. ed. Da Capo press, 1193, 225 pp.; originally publ. as ''Slowhand: The Story of Eric Clapton'', Proteus Books, 1985, 160 pp.

* Dave Thompson, ''Cream: The World's First Supergroup'', Virgin Books, 2005, 256 pp.; rev., upd. & illustr. ed. titled ''Cream: How Eric Clapton Took the World By Storm'', 2006, 320 pp.

* Steve Turner, ''Conversations with Eric Clapton'', London: Abacus, 1976, 116 pp.

* Fred Weiler, ''Eric Clapton'', Smithmark-Penguin or Bison Books, 1992, ... pp.

* Chris Welch, ''Cream: Stange Brew'', Castle Communications or Sanctuary or Penguin, 1994, 176 pp.; Backbeat Books, 2000, 192 pp.

''About Clapton's playing and sound'':

External links

Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood at Bucharest (review)

An Interview with Eric Clapton guitar technician Lee Dickson

Article on Bluesbreakers Les Paul

Gibson article on obtaining the "Woman Tone"

Review: Eric Clapton at Floridita

Eric Clapton FAQ

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#REDIRECTBruno Mars

name	Adam Levine
birth name	Adam Noah Levine
landscape	Yes
background	solo_singer
birth date	March 18, 1979
birth place	Los Angeles, California, United States
instrument	Vocals, guitar, drums, bass, piano
genre	Alternative rock, funk rock, pop rock, soul, rhythm & blues
occupation	Musician, songwriter
years active	1994–present
label	A&M; Octone
associated acts	Maroon 5, Kara's Flowers, Kanye West, Natasha Bedingfield, Ying Yang Twins, Alicia Keys, K'naan, Rihanna, Slash, Gym Class Heroes, Christina Aguilera
website
notable instruments	First Act Signature Beginner model }}

Adam Noah Levine (born March 18, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and musician, best known as the front man and guitarist for the pop rock band Maroon 5. He is also a coach on the American talent show ''The Voice''.

Early life

Levine was born in Los Angeles, the son of Patsy Noah and Fred Levine. His uncle is ''Slate'' writer and editor Timothy Noah. He has a brother, Michael, and a sister, Julia Milne. When he was six, he made the winning shot of his local YMCA championship basketball game (on a team his father coached) with no time left on the clock. He has said that the incident changed his life and gave him the confidence to be successful.

Levine attended French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts Camp (Hancock, NY) with best friend Jesse Carmichael, guitar player of the band known at that time as Kara's Flowers. He graduated from Brentwood School in 1997.

Levine is Jewish (like his father and maternal grandfather).

Original band Kara's Flowers

Having met at Brentwood School in Los Angeles, CA, the band released their first album entitled ''The Fourth World'' in 1997 as high school seniors. That same year the band appeared on an episode of ''Beverly Hills, 90210''. The album had little success, and its only single, "Soap Disco", failed commercially. Disappointed with the results of their album, the band went on hiatus and went their separate ways.

Levine and Carmichael left Los Angeles to study at Five Towns College, a small music and performing arts school in Dix Hills, Long Island, New York. This was the first time the two Los Angeles natives were exposed to a completely different music scene, a cultural awakening for the young men. On ''MTV News'', in 2002, Levine said, "That's when I started waking up to the whole hip hop, R&B; thing. We had friends named Chaos and shit. It was ''not'' Brentwood High."

Maroon 5 and mainstream success

During this time, Levine worked a two-week stint as a waiter at Johnny Rockets. After dropping out of Five Towns College, Levine and Jesse reunited with Mickey and Ryan, but added former Square guitarist, James Valentine in 2001. Renaming the band Maroon 5, Levine and his friends began to compile all of their new found musical influences into their music. While Levine was working as a writer's assistant on the television show "Judging Amy," he spent time writing the lyrics about his ex-girlfriend, Jane. Those lyrics became the album "Songs About Jane."

Other work

Levine has collaborated with various musical acts. In 2005, Levine was featured on the Ying Yang Twins song "Live Again". He appeared on Kanye West's ''Late Registration'' album, on the third single, "Heard 'Em Say". He is also featured in the song "Wild Horses" on Alicia Keys' third album ''Alicia Keys: MTV Unplugged''. Over the next year, he co-wrote the track "Say It Again" on Natasha Bedingfield's album ''N.B.''. He also performed the background vocals on this song. Most recently, Levine offered his vocals on Gym Class Heroes' newest album in the song "Stereo Hearts."

Levine has made several notable comic appearances on television. During 2007, he appeared on the 33rd season premiere of Saturday Night Live in an SNL Digital Short called ''Iran So Far'' with Andy Samberg, Fred Armisen and Jake Gyllenhaal. Levine played himself while singing a humorous bridge to a "love song" for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In 2008, he appeared on Comedy Central's "Night Of Too Many Stars". Levine also had a cameo on Jimmy Kimmel Live for the night of stars and endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential Election.

In October 2008, Levine collaborated with First Act to create the First Act 222 Guitar, fashioned to Levine's specifications. The guitar was made available for purchase at Target retail stores.

Levine has stated in various interviews that he does not plan on continuing in Maroon 5 forever, and may stop after the tour for Maroon 5's third album.

Levine made a guest appearance as himself on the season three finale of 30 Rock in the episode Kidney Now!.

In 2009, Levine recorded "Gotten", a song for Slash's first solo album ''Slash'' released in April 2010. "Gotten" was premiered at amazon.com on March 29, 2010.

Levine is also featured as a singer for his band's song "She Will be Loved" in the music rhythm game ''Band Hero''.

In February 2010, he was among approximately 80 musicians who sang on the charity-single remake of "We Are the World" called "We Are the World 25 for Haiti".

Levine is one of the contestant judges and coach mentors on the singing TV show, The Voice. The winner, Javier Colon, was on Levine's team.

Personal life

{{externalvideo | align =right | width =175px | video1 =Levine with his sister at a 2008 concert }} Levine's ex-girlfriend Jane is the muse behind the name of the band's debut album ''Songs About Jane''. In a 2004 interview, he claimed that she had not contacted him despite the success of the album. They have since made up, and by 2007, Levine referred to them as being "close friends".

Levine is a "car junkie", his favorite car being his 1971 Mercedes 280 SE 3.5 Cabriolet.

In 2006, Levine broke his sternum while lifting weights, what he called "one of the most painful things I’ve ever experienced." He began using spotters while lifting weights before giving up weightlifting completely when he began yoga in 2007.

In September 2010, Levine said on the ''Howard Stern Show'' he had been dating Russian ''Sports Illustrated'' swimsuit and Victoria's Secret model Anne Vyalitsyna seriously for about eight months. The couple met when Maroon 5 performed at the 2010 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue release party in Las Vegas.

Levine stripped naked for testicular cancer awareness for a centerfold in ''Cosmopolitan'' UK's February 2011 issue.

Further reading

Kimpel, Dan (2006), ''How They Made It: True Stories of How Music's Biggest Stars Went from Start to Stardom!''. Location unknown:Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 0-634-07642-6

References

External links

Category:1979 births Category:American Jews Category:American male singers Category:American pop singers Category:American rhythm and blues singers Category:American rock guitarists Category:American rock singers Category:American singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:American tenors Category:Blue-eyed soul singers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Jewish American musicians Category:Living people Category:Maroon 5 members Category:Musicians from California Category:People from Los Angeles, California Category:Songwriters from California Category:The Voice judges

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