Stevie Ray Vaughan, blues musician and guitar legend, was born in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas on October 3, 1954, to Jim and Martha Vaughan. Stevie's exposure to music began in his childhood, as he watched his big brother, Jimmie, play guitar. Stevie's fascination with the blues drove him to teach himself to play the guitar before he was an adolescent. By the time Vaughan was in high school, he was staying up all night, playing guitar in clubs in Deep Ellum, a popular alternative nightspot in Dallas. In 1971, at the age of seventeen, Stevie dropped out of high school and moved to Austin, in an attempt to become involved in the music scene. Over the next few years he slept on pool tables and couches in the back of clubs and collected bottles to earn money for new guitar strings. He played in various local bands such as The Cobras and The Nightcrawlers but recognition outside of the Austin circuit eluded him. Finally in the late 1970s, Vaughan formed Triple Threat with Lou Ann Barton, Chris Layton, and Jackie Newhouse. This group evolved into Double Trouble, with Tommy Shannon and Reese Wynans replacing Newhouse and Barton. By the early 1980's, the group had built a solid following in Texas and was beginning to attract the attention of well-established musicians like Mick Jagger, who in 1982 invited Vaughan and the band to play at a private party in New York City. That same year Double Trouble received an invitation to play at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. They were the first band in the history of the festival to play without having a major record contract. The performance was seen by David Bowie and Jackson Brown, and Stevie gained even more acclaim as a talented and rising young musician. Jackson Brown invited Vaughan to his Los Angeles studio for a demo session at which Stevie recorded his 1983 debut album, Texas Flood. David Bowie had Vaughan play lead guitar on his album, Let's Dance, and join him on his 1983 tour. Vaughan's fame immediately soared. The band signed a record contract with CBS/Epic records and came to the attention of veteran blues and rock producer, John Hammond, Sr. Texas Flood received the North American Rock Radio Awards nomination for Favorite Debut Album, and Guitar Player Magazine Reader's Poll voted him Best New Talent and Best Electric Blues Guitarist for 1983. A track off the album also received a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Instrumental performance.
Vaughan's subsequent albums met with increased popularity and critical attention. Double Trouble followed Texas Flood with Couldn't Stand the Weather (1984), Live Alive (1985), and Soul to Soul (1986). All of the albums went gold and captured various Grammy nominations in either the Blues or Rock categories. Throughout the 1980's, Vaughan and his band also became consistent nominees and winners of the Austin Chronicle's Music Awards and Guitar Player Magazine Reader's Polls. In 1984, at the National Blues Foundation Awards, Vaughan became the first white man to win Entertainer of the Year and Blues Instrumentalist of the Year. At the Grammy's that year he shared in the Best Traditional Blues honors for his work on Blues Explosion, a compilation album of various artists. Although he rapidly gained prestige and success in the music world, Stevie also lived the excessive life of a rock and roll star, full of alcohol and drug abuse. On his 1986 European tour he collapsed and eventually checked into a rehabilitation center in Georgia. He left the hospital sober and committed to the Twelve Step Program of Alcoholics Anonymous. Following his recovery, he released his fifth album, In Step, in 1989. It won him a second Grammy; this time for Best Contemporary Blues Recording. In 1990, Vaughan collaborated with Jimmie Vaughan, his brother and founding member of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, on Family Style, which was released after his death. This last album would bring his career total of Grammys to four. Stevie Ray Vaughan died on August 27, 1990, in a helicopter crash on the way to Chicago from a concert in Alpine Valley in East Troy, Wisconsin. The location of the concert was difficult to reach, so many performers stayed in Chicago and flew in before the show. Dense fog contributed to the pilot flying the helicopter into the side of a man-made ski mountain. All on board were killed instantly. Over 1,500 people, including industry giants such as Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, and Stevie Wonder, attended his memorial service in Dallas. He is buried at Laurel Land Memorial Park in South Dallas. After his death Epic records went on to release two more albums of his work, The Sky is Crying (1991) and In the Beginning (1992). The city of Austin erected a memorial statue of Stevie Ray Vaughan on November 21, 1993. It is located on Town Lake, near the site of his last Austin concert.
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