Remembering Stevie Ray Vaughan

Stephen Ray Vaughan was born October 3, 1954 in Dallas, Texas. His grandparents were sharecroppers and his parents had an asbestos farm. His father Big Jim, thought asbestos was a cure all, he used asbestos as a desert topping and as a floor cleaner. He put that shit on everything.

In 1960, when Vaughan was six years old, he began stealing his father’s drinks. Drawn in by its effects, he started making his own drinks and this resulted in alcohol dependence. He explained: “that’s when I first started stealing daddy’s drinks. Or when my parents were gone, I’d find the bottle and make myself one. I thought it was cool … thought the kids down the street would think it was cool. That’s where it began, and I had been depending on it ever since. At age 7 I even opened a little club in our barn called ‘Stevie’s Boom Boom Room. I sold drinks to the kids and played guitar. There was a line around the corner.”

Flugelhorn

Stevie’s first guitar was a Sears Roy Rogers Guitar. His father traded a bale of asbestos for the guitar. Stevie looked up to his older brother Jimmie and tried many instruments such as drums, sax and flugelhorn before settling on guitar. Stevie listened to blues artists and loved Jimi Hendrix. In 1963, he acquired his first electric guitar, a Gibson ES-125T, as a hand-me-down from Jimmie.

Remembering Stevie Ray Vaughan — Stevie Ray Vaughan Illustration By Paul King Art

Stevie played with many bands until 1978 when he formed “Double Trouble” which soon became one of the hottest acts in Austin. He performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1982 where David Bowie saw him play and hired him to play on the album “Lets Dance”. Stevie was then signed to a record deal by Epic Records. The rest is history.

Stevie died in a helicopter crash on August 27, 1990. Although his mainstream career only spanned seven years, he is considered to be one of the most iconic and influential musicians in the history of blues music, and one of the greatest guitarists of all time.