[Slowhand] EC Receives CBE

[Sandra K. Anderson]

Buckingham Palace honors 'grown-up' Clapton
November 4, 2004 (AP)

LONDON -- Rock guitarist Eric Clapton set aside his ''rebellious streak" to 
become a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, or CBE.  The 
59-year-old singer-songwriter described the honor -- conferred by Princess 
Anne, daughter of Queen Elizabeth II, during a ceremony Wednesday at 
Buckingham Palace -- as the ''icing on the cake" of his career.  But 
Clapton conceded that he would have found it hard to accept the honor, with 
all its establishment connections, earlier in his life.

''I had a rebellious streak in me,'' he told reporters after the ceremony. 
''As a kid I would not have been able to accept this. I was very immature 
about the way I looked at that. I was against the establishment.  ''Now I 
have grown up, I really think it is an important thing to be able to set an 
example of some kind.''

He was accompanied by his wife, Melia McEnery, who is expecting the 
couple's third child. They have two young daughters.
Clapton, who was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, or 
OBE, in 1994, first found fame in the 1960s as a member of the Yardbirds 
before going on to achieve even greater international acclaim with the 
power trio Cream.
He recorded his most famous song, ''Layla,'' in 1970 with his band Derek 
and the Dominos, and followed that with a string of successful solo albums.  AP