SAN DIEGO — Eric Clapton and Encinitas-based Surfdog Records have announced the upcoming 20th anniversary release of “The Road to Escondido,” Clapton’s Grammy Award-winning 2006 album with esteemed troubadour JJ Cale. A longtime Clapton favorite, Cale died at a La Jolla hospital in 2013 at the age of 74. He had quietly lived for decades in Valley Center, the northern San Diego community that ...

JJ Cale, left, and Eric Clapton perform at the San Diego Sports Arena on March 15, 2007.

John Gastaldo/The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

SAN DIEGO — Eric Clapton and Encinitas-based Surfdog Records have announced the upcoming 20th anniversary release of “The Road to Escondido,” Clapton’s Grammy Award-winning 2006 album with esteemed troubadour JJ Cale.

A longtime Clapton favorite, Cale died at a La Jolla hospital in 2013 at the age of 74. He had quietly lived for decades in Valley Center, the northern San Diego community that borders Escondido.

Cale and Clapton did prerecording work for “The Road to Escondido” at the Valley Center home Cale shared with his wife and bandmate, Christine Lakeland. The album features former San Diego bass great Nathan East and veteran San Diego multi-instrumental wizard Dennis Caplinger, who died in 2021.

“The Road to Escondido: Enhanced Edition” will be released Nov. 20. It will include three previously unreleased songs from the album’s original recording sessions and three live tracks from Clapton and Cale’s “Live in San Diego,” which was released in 2016 and was recorded at Clapton’s 2007 concert with Cale at what was then the iPayOne Center and is now known as Pechanga Arena San Diego.

Clapton’s first hit as a solo artist was his 1970 version of Cale’s song, “After Midnight.” Clapton went on to record several other songs by Cale, including “Cocaine” and “I’ll Make Love To You Anytime.” in 2014, Clapton spearheaded the all-star Cale tribute album, “Eric Clapton & Friends: The Breeze, An Appreciation of JJ Cale.”

“I felt compelled to honor the memory of JJ because he had meant so much to me,” Clapton said in a 2014 San Diego Union-Tribune interview.

“It’s a personal mission, really. Sometimes I’ve thought JJ ought to be better, or more widely, appreciated, not just in America, but everywhere. So, I’ve always enjoyed playing his music and letting people know that he’s there. He doesn’t need me — he never needed me — to do that. But I was always compelled to. When he passed, I felt I needed to say, ‘Thank you.’ (This album) was a way for me to say thank you and to invite other people to thank him.”

“The Road to Escondido: Enhanced Edition” will be available on CD and on 180-gram rusty red and sky blue vinyl.

Clapton concludes his 2026 U.S. tour Thursday in Kansas City, Missouri. On Sept. 26 and 27, he will headline “Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival 2020” in Austin, Texas. The lineup features two dozen other guitar stars, including Buddy Guy, John McLaughlin, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Julian Lage and Gary Clark Jr.