Stevie Ray Vaughan
October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990
Stevie Ray Vaughan was a Texas rock and blues artist who exploded on to the scene thanks, in part to a firey performance at the July 17, 1982 Montreux Jazz Festival whose audience included David Bowie and Jackson Browne. After meeting backstage, Bowie hired Vaughan to play guitar on Lets Dance which became his best selling album, and Browne offered his recording studio at no charge for him to record his demos. Not long after, a tape of Vaughan’s Montreux set found its way to legendary scout, John Hammond Sr. who got him a deal with Columbia Records. Quickly building a reputation as one of the greatest electric guitar slingers popular music has ever known, Vaughan’s albums became bestsellers and his concert performances became stuff of legend. Unfortunately, his long-time drug addictions were also catching up with him, both creatively and physically. In September of 1986, Vaughan collapsed while on tour in Germany. After checking himself into rehab, he was clean and sober by the end of the year. Over the next few years, Vaughan won a Grammy, headlined the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and performed and George Bush Sr.’s inauguration party. While on tour with Eric Clapton in August of 1990, Vaughan opted to take a helicopter in order to avoid local traffic after his Alpine Valley (Troy, WI) show. Due to multiple factors including heavy fog, the pilot crashed the helicopter into a nearby hillside shortly after takeoff, killing Vaughan, the pilot and three of Clapton’s associates on impact. Stevie Ray Vaughan was 35 at the time of his death.
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