"Tears in Heaven" is a ballad written by Eric Clapton and Will Jennings about the pain and loss Clapton felt following the death of his four-year-old son, Conor. Conor fell from a window of the 53rd-floor New York apartment of his mother's friend on March 20, 1991. Clapton, who arrived at the apartment shortly after the accident, was visibly distraught. This is one of Clapton's most successful songs, reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the U.S., featuring a classical guitar as the lead instrument. The song also stayed three weeks as #1 on the American adult contemporary chart in 1992.

Will Jennings, who worked with Clapton on the song, was reluctant at first to help him write a personal song. The song was initially featured on the soundtrack to the film Rush, followed by Unplugged, and it won three Grammy Awards for Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 1993 Grammy Awards. It also won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video in 1992.

Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, (born 30 March 1945) is an English guitarist and singer-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 second 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 departed from the Yardbirds to play blues with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. In his one-year stay with Mayall, Clapton gained the nickname "Slowhand". Immediately after leaving Mayall, Clapton formed Cream, a power trio with drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Jack Bruce 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 reggae reach a mass market. Two of his most popular recordings were "Layla", recorded by Derek and the Dominos, another band he formed 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.

Steven Tyler (born Steven Victor Tallaricco; March 26, 1948) is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the frontman and lead singer of the Boston-based rock band Aerosmith, in which he also plays the harmonica, and occasional piano and percussion. He is known as the "Demon of Screamin'" due to his high screams and his wide vocal range. He is also known for his on-stage acrobatics. During his high-energy performances, he usually dresses in bright, colorful outfits with his trademark scarves hanging from his microphone stand. In the 1970s, Tyler rose to prominence as the frontman of Aerosmith, which released such milestone hard rock albums as Toys in the Attic and Rocks. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Tyler had a heavy drug and alcohol addiction, and the band's popularity waned.

He completed drug rehabilitation in 1986 and subsequently maintained sobriety for years, but had a relapse with prescription painkillers in the late 2000s, for which he successfully received treatment in 2009. After Aerosmith launched a remarkable comeback in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the albums Permanent Vacation, Pump, and Get a Grip, Tyler became a household name and has remained a relevant rock icon. As a result, he has since embarked on several solo endeavors including guest appearances on other artists' music, film and TV roles (including as a judge on American Idol), authoring a bestselling book, and solo work (including a Top 40 hit single in 2011). However, he has continued to record music and perform with Aerosmith, after more than 41 years in the band. He is included among Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Singers. He was also ranked 3rd on Hit Parader's Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time. In 2001 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Aerosmith, and he was the presenter when AC/DC was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2003.