This time, rocker Eric Clapton's "Tears In Heaven"
will be tears of joy.
Confidential can reveal exclusively that the legendary guitarist - who lost his 4-year-old son, Conor, a decade ago when the little tyke accidentally fell to his death from the 57th floor of a New York apartment building - is about to be a daddy again.
Clapton's pregnant galpal of two years, American Melia McEnery, who is of Irish and Korean heritage, is due in early June, according to her grandfather.
A baby shower is planned at her folks' home in Columbus, Ohio, in mid-May. And Clapton scheduled the Midwest leg of his upcoming tour in June so he can be there for the birth. No work on the kid's gender just yet.
It's the sort of pulse-quickening great news from ol' Slowhand, who often said he had no reason to live after his son died. The rock 'n' rock hall-of-famer - who has a daughter, Ruth, 16, by another girlfrien - translated the crushing heartbreak of his son's death into the classic ballad "Tears In Heaven".
Then Clapton, 56, met graphic artist Melia, who turned 25 last month. They met in 1999 in L.A. while he was working on an album with bluesman B.B. King.
She had just left Ohio with a high-school sweetheart to try her luck in Tinseltown. But it was Clapton who rocked her world, and she his. And the boyfriend was history.
"Melia and Eric met at a party" a family friend said.
"Eric was quite taken by the fact that she had never heard of him and didn't fawn over him like others."
Last summer, they broke up. Melia returned to Ohio, where she worked for her dad's contracting business.
By September, however, Melia and Eric were back together.
And within weeks Melia, the product of a strict Catholic upbringing, announced she was pregnant by Eric.
"Yes, Melia is expecting Eric's baby," said her grandpa, Walter McEnery, 74, of Bonita Springs, Fla. "That's just the way things are in this day and age."
"Are they going to get married? Who knows?"
Said a source close to the singer: "Although he'll never forget Conor, Eric is looking forward to bonding with another child, boy or girl. All he cares about it that it's a healthy baby."
