Remembering Stevie Ray Vaughan 20 Years After His Death
After years of hard drinking and cocaine abuse, the great guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan got himself clean and sober in October 1986. He was 32.
Acknowledging that he’d hit rock bottom, the quiet bluesman once renounced the myth of the sainted rock ‘n’ roll casualty. “The lie is that it’s OK to go out in flames,” he said. “But that doesn’t do anybody much good. I may be wrong, but I think Hendrix was trying to come around.”
Vaughan, the closest thing to Jimi Hendrix we’re likely to see, did come around. Sadly, less than four years later, his life came to an abrupt end anyway, when the helicopter he was taking from an all-star blues jam in Alpine Valley, Wisc., crashed into a hill in heavy nighttime fog just after takeoff. Aug. 27 marks the 20-year anniversary of Vaughan’s death at age 35.
At the time of the accident, he was set to release ‘Family Style,’ a joint album project with his older brother Jimmie Vaughan, who’d recently left the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Despite his wayward years, Stevie Ray was essentially a family man, remaining close to his brother and loyal to Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton, the rhythm section that composed his backing band, Double Trouble.
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