Steveie Ray Vaughan

Rock and Blues Musician. Born in Dallas, Texas, he was part of a musical family. His elder brother Jimmie, guitarist in the group “The Fabulous Thunderbirds”, introduced his younger brother to rock and blues via his record collection. Stevie Ray Vaughan came to appreciate guitarists such as B.B. King, Albert King, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and many others, by listening to their recordings. He learned to play by borrowing his brother’s guitar and following him to his concerts. By 1975 he was a member of the “Cobras”, followed by “Triple Threat”, a band that evolved into “Double Trouble”. The band recorded "Texas Flood" for Epic records, an album that showed his widening interests. After it's release, he and the band were huge in the blues-rock scene, and the album won a string of awards internationally. A subsequent period of personal decline ended with Stevie Ray Vaughan collapsing on stage in 1986 due to alcohol and drugs overindulgence. Three years later, after an intensive rehabilitation, he returned with "In Step", an album evidencing maturity and musicianship. He then recorded "Family Style" with brother Jimmie. Before the album's release, in August 1990 Stevie Ray Vaughan was killed in a private helicopter crash, in a thick fog in Wisconsin, after leaving a concert at which he'd appeared with musicians Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, and Jimmie Vaughn. In 1994 a memorial statue of him was erected by the city of Austin, Texas at the intersection of Town Lake Hike and Bike Trail (South Bank at South 1st and Riverside Drive).