How Eric Clapton Came to Join the Yardbirds

Eric Clapton is one of the most famous guitarists in history. The guitarist has played in groups including the Yardbirds, Cream, and Blind Faith. In addition to performing music in groups, Clapton has also had a successful career as a soloist. Here’s how Clapton ended up joining the Yardbirds.

How the Yardbirds were formed

Keith Relf, Paul Samwell-Smith, Top Topham, Jim McCarty, and Chris Dreja are the original members of the Yardbirds.

Relf and Samwell-Smith played together in a band called Metropolitan Blues Quartet. Topham, McCarty, and Dreja ended up joining the other musicians to form an early version of the Yardbirds.

McCarty was the band’s drummer, Relf was the lead vocalist and also played harmonica, Dreja played rhythm guitar and bass, Samwell-Smith played bass, and Topham played guitar.

At the beginning of sorting out the band’s sound and lineup, the group opened for Cyril Davies All-Stars at Eel Pie Island.

According to Led Zeppelin: The Biography, the group announced their name on stage at that first performance, saying, “We’re the Yardbirds!”

“In a matter of weeks, we went from being a warm-up band to being the main attraction,” Dreja said in the biography.

Eric Clapton joined the Yardbirds in 1963

While the Yardbirds began finding success, Topham as the group’s guitarist did not fit the vibe of the band.

“A nice kid, he really wasn’t up to it,” McCarty said in Led Zeppelin: The Biography.

However, the Yardbirds did not have to kick Topham out of the group. Instead, Topham’s parents decided he was too young to be in a band full-time and forced him to leave the Yardbirds.

When it came time to find a new guitarist, Clapton ended up being the answer.

“I asked Eric Clapton to join,” Giorgio Gomelsky, the band’s manager, said in Led Zeppelin: The Biography.

Eric Clapton did not stay in the Yardbirds for long

While Clapton joined the Yardbirds in 1963, he only stayed in the band until 1965 because he was not a fan of the band’s sound.

In an interview with azcentral.com, McCarty discussed what it was like working with Clapton while they were in the Yardbirds together.

“He was a very dedicated player, always very enthusiastic about playing blues. He was very keen about how he looked, very fashion conscious. When I first met him I thought he was a bit — you know, he was quite keen on himself, so to speak,” McCarty said.

He continued, “But I got to like him and we had a good relationship — a jokey, fun relationship, in a way. But he’s the sort of person that would be very intense as a friend for a while and then he’d move on and you wouldn’t see him.”