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 group Cream.
He recorded his most famous song, "Layla," with his band Derek and the Dominos, and followed that with a string of successful solo albums through the 1970s and 1980s.
