Remembering Stevie

Where were you 22 years ago today? Like others who remember where they were when they heard John Lennon had been murdered (I was watching Monday Night Football and Howard Cosell told me), I'll never forget where I was when I got the news that Stevie Ray Vaughan had died in a helicopter crash in Wisconsin.

I had first heard and seen Stevie while in college in the Twin Cities. It was my true introduction to the Blues. I had heard or BB King, Muddy Waters and the rest, but had never gravitated towards the genre until I was introduced to SRV.

What the man did with a guitar, his soulful vocals, the personal demons he battled, everything about Stevie Ray spoke to me like the first time I had heard Hendrix, Zeppelin, and Clapton. It was MY music.

I was fortunate enough to see Stevie twice. Once in the Twin Cities and I was in Alpine Valley in Wisconsin with friends at what turned out to be his final show. I was in broadcasting school in the Twin Cities when I got word that his helicopter had crashed into the side of a ski mountain in dense fog on his way home.

I never got a chance to meet the man that continues to influence me today and was a factor in helping me choose my profession. Stevie Ray Vaughan. October 3, 1954-August 27, 1990.