Eric Clapton's most transformative late-career work will be itself transformed this spring. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer will reissue an "enhanced" edition of 1992's live album Unplugged, boasting a slightly reorganized and expanded 2CD or 2LP sequence, a brand-new mix and highlights from a never-before-heard audio interview with Clapton discussing the songs in his set shortly before playing them in that session. It'll be available May 9 through Surfdog Records, to which Clapton has been signed since 2013. A newly upgraded edition of the seminal MTV Unplugged performance, featuring the expanded program mixed in Dolby Atmos, will screen in theaters January 27 and 28 (that's today and tomorrow - check here to see if they're playing near you) before streaming on Paramount+ from February 12.

The British guitar icon - known for his work in The Yardbirds, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith, Derek & The Dominos and his own half-century-plus solo career - had little to prove when he stepped into Bray Studios at Windsor, England on January 16, 1992. Five years earlier, he'd completed a second, successful stint in rehab to overcome his alcohol addiction, releasing Clapton Crossroads in 1988 - one of the first major box sets of the CD era - and 1989's well-received Journeyman. The early '90s were beset by immense tragedies. In 1990, while touring with friend and fellow bluesman Stevie Ray Vaughan, the guitarist was killed in a helicopter crash that also claimed the lives of Clapton's agent, bodyguard and an assistant tour manager. Less than a year later, Clapton's four-year-old son died after falling from the window of a Manhattan high-rise. Clapton poured his grief into the song "Tears in Heaven," written with songwriter Will Jennings for the motion picture Rush.

"Tears in Heaven" was out for less than a month when Clapton booked the Bray gig for an episode of MTV's Unplugged. A fixture of the station's schedule since 1989, it featured various artists performing in stripped-back environments, soon devoting whole episodes to legends revisiting songs old and new. (In 1991, Paul McCartney released the audio of his set as Unplugged (The Official Bootleg), giving the show a bigger boost.) But Clapton - known for electric blues prowess that led devotees to deem him "God" in graffiti messages - was onto something else with his fun but dramatic set.

Sticking mostly to blues standards (Bo Diddley's "Before You Accuse Me," Son House's "Walkin' Blues," Robert Johnson's "Malted Milk"), Clapton led his crack session band (second guitarist Andy Fairweather Low, keyboardist Chuck Leavell, bassist Nathan East, drummer Steve Ferrone, percussionist Ray Cooper and backing vocalists Tessa Niles and Katie Kissoon) with a relaxed but steady command. Clapton would dip into his own catalogue of songs, taking on "Tears in Heaven," "Old Love" and a barely recognizable version of Derek & The Dominos' "Layla," as well as the newly-written "My Father's Eyes," addressing both the loss of his son and the father he never met. ("My Father's Eyes" did not make the original Unplugged album, and wasn't released in studio form until 1998, where it became a hit on U.S. adult contemporary radio.) Toward the end of the recording, Clapton surprised audiences and crew with an impromptu take on Muddy Waters' "Rollin' and Tumblin'," a staple of Cream's set lists. The technical team couldn't pick up the recording fast enough, but most of the breezy version closed the Unplugged album.

And about that album: Clapton's Unplugged became a staple of American CD collections. Released in August 1992, it would top the Billboard 200 for three weeks the following March, after it took home three Grammy Awards including Album of the Year, Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, and Best Rock Song for the album's version of "Layla," which peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. (Clapton also won three more trophies that year, when the studio version "Tears in Heaven," a No. 2 hit in 1992, was named Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.) When the dust settled, Unplugged sold some 26 million copies worldwide, far and away becoming Clapton's best seller as well as the biggest live album of all time. Alongside Mariah Carey's well-received EP from her 1992 performance on the series, MTV's Unplugged was assured as a generational rite of passage for pop music fans.

Clapton's Unplugged was remastered and expanded by Rhino in 2013 as a 2CD set that included six bonus tracks, including unused songs and alternate takes. This 2CD edition includes the standard set up to "Old Love," followed by the unused "Worried Life Blues," the Clapton original "Circus" and the first take of "My Father's Eyes," before closing with "Rollin' and Tumblin'." (Not included from the 2013 reissue are alternate first takes of "Runnin' on Faith" and "Walkin' Blues," as well as a second take of "My Father's Eyes.") All but three of the songs ("Lonely Stranger," "Worried Life Blues," "Rollin' and Tumblin'") are preceded by Clapton's unheard original commentary, recorded in an interview that took place shortly before the set itself.

Unplugged (Enhanced Edition) (Surfdog, 2025)

2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

Disc 1

1. Signe
2. Before You Accuse Me
3. Hey Hey
4. Tears in Heaven
5. Lonely Stranger
6. Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
7. Layla
8. Running on Faith
9. Walkin' Blues

Disc 2

1. Alberta
2. San Francisco Bay Blues
3. Malted Milk
4. Old Love
5. Worried Life Blues
6. Circus
7. My Father's Eyes (Take 1)
8. Rollin' and Tumblin'

Disc 1 and Disc 2, Tracks 1-4 and 8 released as Duck/Reprise 45024, 1992. Disc 2, Tracks 5-7 released on Duck/Reprise R2 536565, 2013