Who did Eric Clapton write the song "Layla" about?

Eric Clapton wrote "Layla" about Pattie Boyd.

Boyd was an English model who was married to George Harrison when Clapton became romantically interested in her. Clapton's feelings helped inspire the dramatic 1970 Derek and the Dominos song "Layla," whose title also drew on the Persian-Arabic love story Layla and Majnun. The song expresses the anguish of loving someone who seems unattainable.

The personal story became part of one of rock music's best-known romantic entanglements. Boyd and Harrison divorced in 1977, and Boyd married Clapton in 1979. Clapton also wrote other songs associated with Boyd, including "Bell Bottom Blues" and "Wonderful Tonight."

The song is sometimes treated as though it was written only as a straightforward love letter, but its musical structure is unusually layered. The recording combines a forceful guitar-driven first section with a contrasting piano-led coda, co-written and performed by Jim Gordon. That long coda became one of the track's most recognizable features.