SRV 35 years...

[BULL'S-EYE]

Stevie Ray Vaughan died unexpectedly in a helicopter crash 35 years ago today.
I remember hearing the news on my radio while driving home from work...And it devastated me, as I had just saw him in concert for the 3rd time just a few weeks earlier.
RIP Stevie. You were a phenomenal guitarist and performer!

 

[bedfordboy]

I was also driving home from work when I heard the news, had to pull over and get myself under control before I could drive the rest of the way, felt like I had lost a family member. Delbert McClinton and SRV were the two musicians that really got me hooked on the blues… east Texas blues specifically. My wife and I are booked for our sixth Delbert Sandy Beaches Cruise SBC30 next January, can't wait. This one includes

• LITTLE FEAT
• LYLE LOVETT AND HIS ACOUSTIC GROUP
• MARCIA BALL
• THE CALIFORNIA HONEYDROPS
• THE BAND OF HEATHENS
• HAYES CARLL
• HAYES & THE HEATHENS
• ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL
• PAUL THORN
• MIKE ZITO
• LEE ROY PARNELL
• EDDIE 9V
• CAROLYN WONDERLAND
• JIMMY HALL
• SUE FOLEY
• WAYNE TOUPS
• TERESA JAMES & THE RHYTHM TRAMPS
• YATES MCKENDREE
• GARY NICHOLSON
• BIG JOE MAHER
• THE MCCRARY SISTERS
• ETTA BRITT
• SETH JAMES
• RED YOUNG
• AND MORE TO BE ADDED!

Stevie played on at least one of the earliest SBC cruises, unfortunately we were not on that one.

 

[s4s4u]

I lived in WI at the time of that crash. I wanted to go to that festival, but alas I missed it. Never to see his genius again.

 

[TestEngineer]

I don't have very many regrets in life. But missing SRV's last show in Denver is one of them. I had enough $$ to see him, or to purchase a gun related item that I needed - but not enough for both. I reasoned that he was still young and had been coming around every year. I would just catch him next year. OOPS! His copter crashed about 2 months later.

Still sad about my choice.

 

[Armybrat]

35 years? Time flies!
Our English friend paid homage to him while visiting us in Austin 10 years ago.

 

[protoolman]

Weird but I always liked SRV and somehow missed his death! This was news to me!

 

[Mike J]

I accidentally saw him when he was opening for Huey Lewis & the News in '84. He was phenomenal. It was a great show. I always liked him. I wasn't really deeply emotionally invested but just thought it was horrible when he died. He had hit the big time, realized he had a problem with addiction, made it into recovery & had one year & three months clean & sober when the accident happened. It is just sad.

 

[Cyrus]

I remember exactly where I was when my landscaping boss told me. He was listening to the radio in the truck while we cut lawns. I remember the street (coincidentally around the corner from my childhood home). I saw SRV at Montclair state college in a gym with 900 people. Never “saw” him that night because of the speaker stack on that side. Amazing show! Also “saw” him at the Intrepid in NYC even though again he was out of our sight. The best, never to be equaled.

 

[jimbo1096]

Sadder that he died just when he was getting better. I have a DVD from Austin City Limits that i play every time I go on the road. People passing by look over and probably think I’m crazed as i drive and sing along. Have a hard time with the air guitar as i drive.

 

[akbluz]

Stevie Ray Vaughan was an amazing guitar player who put his soul into every song he played - He was one of the best blues/rock musicians ever. He hit rock bottom but then beat his drug addiction. He died way too soon. RIP Stevie

 

[Johnny-Baseball]

I was born in Oak Cliff (a poor suburb of Dallas just south of the Trinity River) in 1948 and lived there until the early 1950s. One of my attorney friends grew up there, too. He told me that when he was a teenager, his dad came home from work one evening complaining about the noise. "It's those damn Vaughan boys again, making a racket on their guitars."

Over time, those damn Vaughn boys got better.

So while Austin brags about SRV, Oak Cliff rightly claims him as a native son.

 

[Star43]

Stevie Ray was to me, simply the best. He was a performer that I will never forget. His music and stage presence and that sound of his will never be replicated. To me there will never be another Stevie Ray...God Bless Him..

 

[blume357]

He was after my music days... but I still remember where I was in a car when I heard Jim Croce had died.

 

[ripley57]

35 years, wow. I was a big fan of SRV as well as Clapton and was supposed to be at Alpine Valley for the show but a ticket snafu prevented it. His death was a shock.

 

[Lt Choate]

It is hard for me to imagine that it has been 35 years since he was killed, but you are correct.... Still remember how jolting it was to learn of his death.
Like the OP, I had just seen him in concert a few months before. He was at the Opry House in Nashville. It was SRV, The Fabulous Thunderbirds and B. B. King. You talk about a concert.................................!!!