Would have become a bricklayer if not musician: Blues legend Eric Clapton

Cause I had the time of my life on that building site: Eric Clapton

Rock legend Eric Clapton said if not a musician, he would have become a bricklayer or plasterer.

The "Tears in Heaven" hitmaker said he got the chance to try his hand at the labouring job when he worked briefly with his grandfather as a youngster, reported Contactmusic.

"Bricklayer or plasterer. For a little while I worked for my grandfather. And he was very strict and very noble. He never took a raise. He worked for the same amount of money all his life.

"And he was a master craftsman. And that was very important for me to observe. That I could take that ethic anywhere. He worked me very hard. So, I always thought, Well, if music doesn't work... 'Cause I had the time of my life on that building site," Clapton said during the premiere of his documentary "Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars".

Directed by Lili Fini Zanuck, the movie documents the rocker's spiralling addiction to drugs and alcohol, finding out the woman he believed was his mother was actually his sister, being rejected by his real parent, and the tragic loss of his four-year-old son Connor, who died after falling out of a window in a New York City apartment.