How or why did Eric Clapton get the nickname "slow hand"?

Question

How or why did Eric Clapton get the nickname "slow hand"?

Answer 1

The Yardbirds’ manager, Giorgio Gomelsky, christened Eric “Slowhand” early in 1964.

Yardbirds rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja recalled that whenever Eric broke a guitar string during a concert, Eric would stay on stage and replace it. The English audiences would wait out the delay by doing what is called a “slow handclap”.

Eric told his official biographer, Ray Coleman, that “My nickname of Slowhand came from Giorgio Gomelsky. He coined it as a good pun. He kept saying I was a fast player, so he put together the slow handclap phrase into Slowhand as a play on words.”

In a June 1999 online chat, Eric gave a slightly different version of how his nickname came about: “I think it might have been a play on words from the “Clap” part of my name. In England, in sport, if the crowd is getting anxious, we have a slow handclap, which indicates boredom or frustration. But it wasn’t my idea it was someone else’s comment.”

Answer 2

Dancing is right, and some have noticed that Clapton was never a "speedy" guitarist as well.