Eric Clapton repeatedly championed this reclusive, genre-blurring Oklahoma guitarist, who only cut his 1972 debut LP after Clapton covered his song “After Midnight”. The two became collaborators, and Clapton continued to reinterpret his friend's work (most memorably “Cocaine”) up to and after Cale's death in 2013. Cale always went his own way, often producing his own work and sometimes going almost a decade between albums. But his signature delivery—fluid licks and a couched drawl over easygoing grooves—has inspired everyone from Spiritualized to jam-band legends like Phish and Jerry Garcia.