Over the past half-century, Eric Clapton has sold more than 130 million records in America alone, won 18 Grammys, and been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on three different occasions (with the Yardbirds, Cream and as a solo artist).

Imagine what he could have accomplished if his personal life hadn’t been such a mess. That thought will almost certainly cross the mind of anyone who reads Philip Norman’s biography “Slowhand: The Life and Music of Eric Clapton.”

Mr. Clapton’s life has been a relentless cycle of traumas and self-inflicted wounds, from maternal abandonment to drug and alcohol and sex addictions to the tragic death of his 4-year-old son, Conor. Mr. Norman, who also has written best-selling biographies of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, details it all in this well-researched profile of rock music’s first and most enduringly popular guitar hero.

“I have this death wish,’’ Mr. Clapton once said. “I don’t like life.’’ As Mr. Norman points out, Mr. Clapton really was down since he learned to crawl. The British guitarist was devastated to discover, at age 9, that his “parents’’ were really his grandparents and that his older “sister’’ was really his mother, Pat, who had abandoned him as a toddler after a fling with a Canadian soldier.

Thereafter, Mr. Clapton viewed himself as a “wounded child,’’ Mr. Norman writes. And while being christened rock music’s first guitar god begat him fame, money and power, he never really got over his childhood trauma. Mr. Clapton sometimes used music as an outlet for his pain. Songs like “Layla’’ and “Wonderful Tonight’’ chronicled his torrid love for Pattie Boyd, the wife of his best friend, George Harrison. “Tears in Heaven’’ was dedicated to Conor and “My Father’s Eyes’’ was a lament for the father he had never known — but more frequently he relied on drugs, booze and women for palliative care.

“Bad choices were my specialty,’’ Mr. Clapton said in his 2008 autobiography. “I thought I wasn’t worthy of anything decent, so I could only choose partners who would ultimately abandon me, as I was convinced my mother had done all those years ago.’’

“Slowhand,’’ according to Mr. Norman, was a nickname bestowed on Mr. Clapton during his early days with the Yardbirds. It was a derisive reference to his dilatory pace of changing busted strings on his Fender guitar. Mr. Clapton was only 20 years old in 1965 when a young graffiti artist spray-painted on a London subway wall: “EC is God.’’

Until Eric Clapton’s arrival, pop music was dominated by singers. Instrumentalists were seldom, if ever, featured in three-minute singles. Mr. Clapton changed that: He was pop music’s first guitar hero, paving the way for Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and all the other gunslingers who followed. With Cream, Mr. Clapton and his musical cohorts Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker shot to international fame, and created the musical template for Led Zeppelin and other hard-rock bands.

But Mr. Clapton’s musical influence waned following Cream’s breakup in 1968, as the guitarist sought to retreat from the spotlight and sunk into multiple addictions. Except for “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs’’ and “461 Ocean Boulevard,’’ his solo records rarely received rave reviews.

Robert Christgau, the esteemed rock critic, dismissed Mr. Clapton’s 1989 album “Journeyman’’ with a one-sentence put-down: “What did you expect him to call it — Hack?’’ Mr. Clapton spent most of the 1970s mired in addictions while in hot pursuit of Ms. Boyd, a London fashion model who was married to ex-Beatle Harrison. He eventually got the girl, marrying her in March 1979 — and began cheating on her two days after the wedding. They divorced in 1989.

He was still married to Ms. Boyd when he fathered Conor with Lory Del Santo, an Italian television actress, in 1986. Conor died in March 1991 when he fell out of the window on the 53rd floor of a Manhattan apartment building. Mr. Clapton is now 73. A neural disorder that causes tingling in his arms and legs limits his ability to play guitar. He passes the time raising money for his Crossroads addiction clinic and being the father that he never had to his daughters.

Mr. Clapton also seems to be focused on posterity. Last fall he released “Life in 12 Bars,’’ a two-hour documentary that examined his life and his historical role in pop culture. Now comes “Slowhand,’’ which is best appreciated as a complement to the film. It makes no attempt to analyze Mr. Clapton’s music or assess its cultural significance, but it does offer an intimate tour of his personal white room with black curtains.

Steve Halvonik is a former Post-Gazette reporter and editor who teaches journalism at Point Park University.

First Published: December 21, 2018, 5:00 p.m.