WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.040 Seven years. I just, I keep looking at the timeline 00:00:04.040 --> 00:00:06.040 we have laid out here and that number just jumps 00:00:06.040 --> 00:00:08.839 out. Seven. It doesn't seem possible, does it? 00:00:08.859 --> 00:00:10.980 It feels like a typo in the history books. It 00:00:10.980 --> 00:00:12.919 really does. We're talking about Stevie Ray Vaughan. 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:15.500 He is, for all intents and purposes, a Mount 00:00:15.500 --> 00:00:17.620 Rushmore figure for the electric guitar. Absolutely. 00:00:17.660 --> 00:00:19.980 You can walk into any guitar store anywhere in 00:00:19.980 --> 00:00:22.679 the world right now and I guarantee someone is 00:00:22.679 --> 00:00:25.449 trying to play Pride and Joy. Oh, for sure. Badly, 00:00:25.449 --> 00:00:28.010 maybe. But they're trying. Exactly. Yeah. But 00:00:28.010 --> 00:00:30.670 his actual mainstream career, the time between 00:00:30.670 --> 00:00:34.049 his first major album coming out and the day 00:00:34.049 --> 00:00:39.439 he died, it was 1983 to 1990. That's it. It's 00:00:39.439 --> 00:00:41.780 just a blink. And it's so strange because his 00:00:41.780 --> 00:00:44.600 impact feels like it spans decades. In the grand 00:00:44.600 --> 00:00:46.899 scheme of things, it's this incredibly condensed, 00:00:47.200 --> 00:00:49.619 explosive period of time. Right. But in that 00:00:49.619 --> 00:00:52.000 little glip, Stevie Ray Vaughan didn't just, 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:55.840 you know, play the blues. And that's really what 00:00:55.840 --> 00:00:58.039 we want to dig into today. We're doing a deep 00:00:58.039 --> 00:01:00.600 dive based mostly on the extensive Wikipedia 00:01:00.600 --> 00:01:03.119 article and some well -regarded biographical 00:01:03.119 --> 00:01:06.439 notes on Stevie Ray Vaughan. But here's the thing. 00:01:07.340 --> 00:01:09.379 i don't want this to just be a list of his albums 00:01:09.379 --> 00:01:12.019 and tour dates no that's the boring version i 00:01:12.019 --> 00:01:16.040 want to get at the how yeah how does a um a shy 00:01:16.040 --> 00:01:18.280 kid from a working class part of dallas become 00:01:18.280 --> 00:01:20.980 yeah well that yeah how does he become an icon 00:01:20.980 --> 00:01:22.859 that's the real question isn't it because you 00:01:22.859 --> 00:01:25.120 can look at the lists you know Rolling Stone 00:01:25.120 --> 00:01:26.900 ranked him number seven all time back in 03. 00:01:27.120 --> 00:01:29.159 Then they moved him down to 20th in a later list. 00:01:29.299 --> 00:01:31.099 But who cares about the number? Right. The point 00:01:31.099 --> 00:01:33.500 is he's in the stratosphere. He's up there with 00:01:33.500 --> 00:01:36.500 the gods. He is. So you have to ask, what was 00:01:36.500 --> 00:01:39.060 the actual machinery behind that sound? How did 00:01:39.060 --> 00:01:41.379 he build it piece by piece? And what was going 00:01:41.379 --> 00:01:45.230 on inside his head while he was doing it? Maybe 00:01:45.230 --> 00:01:47.269 just as importantly, what was going on with his 00:01:47.269 --> 00:01:48.849 body? Because I was reading through this source 00:01:48.849 --> 00:01:51.930 material, I realized his story is incredibly 00:01:51.930 --> 00:01:55.030 physical. It's a story about calluses and heavy 00:01:55.030 --> 00:01:58.069 gauge strings and even super glue. It's about 00:01:58.069 --> 00:02:01.959 physical endurance and later. about near -fatal 00:02:01.959 --> 00:02:04.579 collapse. It's a story of extreme duality. You 00:02:04.579 --> 00:02:07.379 have this meteoric rise, right, the glamour of 00:02:07.379 --> 00:02:10.099 playing with David Bowie, of selling out Carnegie 00:02:10.099 --> 00:02:13.439 Hall, but simmering just beneath that surface, 00:02:13.500 --> 00:02:16.800 you have this... brutal, almost blue -collar 00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:19.280 grind. And this tragic irony that hangs over 00:02:19.280 --> 00:02:21.819 everything. The timing. The timing is just cruel. 00:02:22.139 --> 00:02:24.759 It really is. He didn't die at his lowest point, 00:02:24.819 --> 00:02:27.400 drowning in addiction. He died after he'd already 00:02:27.400 --> 00:02:29.919 won that war. Exactly. He had conquered it. He'd 00:02:29.919 --> 00:02:31.840 rebuilt his entire life. He was playing with 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:33.900 a kind of clarity and purpose he'd never had 00:02:33.900 --> 00:02:36.810 before. And then the fog rolled in and the helicopter 00:02:36.810 --> 00:02:39.129 went down. So to really understand that ending 00:02:39.129 --> 00:02:40.990 and that redemption, we have to go all the way 00:02:40.990 --> 00:02:43.050 back to the beginning. We have to go to Oak Cliff, 00:02:43.229 --> 00:02:47.129 Texas. Back to 1954. October 3rd, 1954. Stevie 00:02:47.129 --> 00:02:49.409 Ray Vaughan is born in Dallas. And Oak Cliff, 00:02:49.550 --> 00:02:52.500 it's not... it's not the ritzy part of town. 00:02:52.639 --> 00:02:54.599 No, not at all. It's working class through and 00:02:54.599 --> 00:02:57.219 through and the home he was born into. Let's 00:02:57.219 --> 00:02:59.180 just say it was a complicated and often frightening 00:02:59.180 --> 00:03:01.479 place. Yeah, the notes we have on his father, 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:05.659 Jimmy Levon, who everyone called Big Jim, they're 00:03:05.659 --> 00:03:09.099 pretty stark. He was an asbestos worker, a World 00:03:09.099 --> 00:03:11.099 War II veteran. And you have to assume he was 00:03:11.099 --> 00:03:13.879 carrying a ton of trauma from all of that. The 00:03:13.879 --> 00:03:16.719 sources are very clear about Big Jim. He had 00:03:16.719 --> 00:03:19.819 a severe problem with alcohol, and he had a temper 00:03:19.819 --> 00:03:22.180 that is described in the material with one specific 00:03:22.180 --> 00:03:27.300 word, terrorized. Terrorized. That's a powerful 00:03:27.300 --> 00:03:30.259 word. It's not... disciplined. It's not strict. 00:03:30.500 --> 00:03:33.539 It's terrorized. It is. You know, we sometimes 00:03:33.539 --> 00:03:36.080 romanticize these blues origin stories, right? 00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:37.819 This idea that you need to have hard times to 00:03:37.819 --> 00:03:39.800 create great music. Of course, the paying your 00:03:39.800 --> 00:03:41.979 dues narrative. But when you actually read about 00:03:41.979 --> 00:03:44.139 the day -to -day reality of a small, sensitive 00:03:44.139 --> 00:03:46.560 kid living in a household like that, it's not 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:49.360 romantic. It's just scary. And Stevie himself 00:03:49.360 --> 00:03:52.259 later recalled being a direct victim of his father's 00:03:52.259 --> 00:03:54.139 violence. So you have to picture this little 00:03:54.139 --> 00:03:57.500 boy, shy, insecure, living in a house that feels 00:03:57.500 --> 00:03:59.469 like a could explode at any second. You're just 00:03:59.469 --> 00:04:01.469 walking on eggshells constantly. And in that 00:04:01.469 --> 00:04:03.569 environment, you look for an escape. You look 00:04:03.569 --> 00:04:07.310 for a protector. And his mom, Martha Jean, she 00:04:07.310 --> 00:04:09.169 was the one trying to hold it all together. She 00:04:09.169 --> 00:04:11.710 was the anchor. She was the one trying to maintain 00:04:11.710 --> 00:04:15.590 some semblance of normalcy. But for Stevie, his 00:04:15.590 --> 00:04:19.889 real hero, his North Star, it was his big brother. 00:04:20.170 --> 00:04:23.350 Jimmy Vaughn. Jimmy. Born in 1951, so he's three 00:04:23.350 --> 00:04:26.769 years older. And you absolutely cannot understand 00:04:26.769 --> 00:04:28.689 Stevie Ray Vaughan without understanding that 00:04:28.689 --> 00:04:31.629 his entire musical journey started as him trying 00:04:31.629 --> 00:04:34.089 to catch up to Jimmy. It was pure hero worship. 00:04:34.730 --> 00:04:38.550 100%. Jimmy was the cool one. Jimmy was the one 00:04:38.550 --> 00:04:40.670 who discovered the music first. Jimmy was the 00:04:40.670 --> 00:04:42.970 pathfinder. Stevie didn't just want to play guitar. 00:04:43.269 --> 00:04:45.370 He wanted to be his brother. But the guitar wasn't 00:04:45.370 --> 00:04:48.129 his first stop, was it? I saw a note about him 00:04:48.129 --> 00:04:51.819 starting with pots and pans. Ah. Yeah. Okay, 00:04:51.879 --> 00:04:53.959 is that real or is that just one of those, you 00:04:53.959 --> 00:04:55.620 know, legends they print on the back of an album 00:04:55.620 --> 00:04:58.660 cover? He was so musical from birth. No, it seems 00:04:58.660 --> 00:05:01.240 to be legit. He just wanted to make noise to 00:05:01.240 --> 00:05:03.379 be part of the sound he heard his brother making. 00:05:03.600 --> 00:05:05.779 So he starts banging on his mom's cookware trying 00:05:05.779 --> 00:05:07.980 to be a drummer. And after the pots and pans. 00:05:08.100 --> 00:05:10.560 He tried the saxophone. And how'd that go for 00:05:10.560 --> 00:05:13.339 him? Horribly. He said in an interview later, 00:05:13.500 --> 00:05:16.660 all I could get were a few squeaks. He just didn't 00:05:16.660 --> 00:05:19.519 connect with it. So drums are out. The sax is 00:05:19.519 --> 00:05:24.189 out. Then comes his seventh birthday, 1961. This 00:05:24.189 --> 00:05:27.310 is the moment, the turning point. He gets a toy 00:05:27.310 --> 00:05:30.149 guitar from a Sears catalog. And I really want 00:05:30.149 --> 00:05:32.029 to emphasize the word toy here. This wasn't a 00:05:32.029 --> 00:05:34.490 real instrument. It had like a cowboy painted 00:05:34.490 --> 00:05:36.449 on it or something. Exactly. A Western motif. 00:05:36.649 --> 00:05:39.350 It was probably plastic and cheap wood, but to 00:05:39.350 --> 00:05:41.170 a seven -year -old Stevie, it might as well have 00:05:41.170 --> 00:05:44.050 been a 59 Les Paul. It was his Excalibur. And 00:05:44.050 --> 00:05:46.740 here's the part that always blows my mind. He 00:05:46.740 --> 00:05:48.819 didn't take lessons. None. He didn't learn scales. 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:50.860 He didn't learn theory. He didn't go to a music 00:05:50.860 --> 00:05:53.319 school. His ear was his teacher. He just listened. 00:05:53.519 --> 00:05:56.199 He just listened. Yeah. Intently. He would sit 00:05:56.199 --> 00:05:58.079 with that little toy guitar and try to mimic 00:05:58.079 --> 00:06:00.259 the records he heard, the songs on the radio. 00:06:00.560 --> 00:06:03.079 He got completely obsessed with a local Dallas 00:06:03.079 --> 00:06:05.420 band called the Nightcaps. I have to admit, I 00:06:05.420 --> 00:06:07.540 don't know them. Not many people do outside of 00:06:07.540 --> 00:06:10.180 Texas, but they were local legends. And he committed 00:06:10.180 --> 00:06:12.319 himself to learning their songs note for note. 00:06:12.860 --> 00:06:16.689 Specifically two songs, Wine, Wine. wine and 00:06:16.689 --> 00:06:19.689 thunderbird wait wine wine wine and thunderbird 00:06:19.689 --> 00:06:22.889 that's little on the nose isn't it given what 00:06:22.889 --> 00:06:25.470 we know happens later in this story it's chillingly 00:06:25.470 --> 00:06:27.949 prophetic in a way just total foreshadowing but 00:06:27.949 --> 00:06:29.610 at the time it was just the music that moved 00:06:29.610 --> 00:06:33.790 him and he kept at it then in 1963 he finally 00:06:33.790 --> 00:06:36.230 gets the big upgrade jimmy gives him a hand me 00:06:36.230 --> 00:06:40.500 down A real electric guitar. The Gibson ES -125T. 00:06:40.680 --> 00:06:42.699 And once he has that in his hands, it's pretty 00:06:42.699 --> 00:06:44.839 much game over for a normal life. The obsession 00:06:44.839 --> 00:06:47.839 takes root. It becomes his entire world. And 00:06:47.839 --> 00:06:49.319 you have to remember the family context here. 00:06:49.660 --> 00:06:52.860 Jimmy, his hero, leaves home when he's 16 to 00:06:52.860 --> 00:06:54.660 go play music full time. Which must have been 00:06:54.660 --> 00:06:57.720 a huge blow to Stevie. It was. But it also made 00:06:57.720 --> 00:07:00.040 things harder for him at home. Because once Jimmy 00:07:00.040 --> 00:07:03.199 left, his parents, especially Big Jim, they look 00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:05.850 at Stevie and basically say, You are not going 00:07:05.850 --> 00:07:07.930 down that path. So they didn't support his music 00:07:07.930 --> 00:07:10.889 at all. Not even a little bit. They saw the life 00:07:10.889 --> 00:07:14.790 of a musician as unstable, dirty, a dead end. 00:07:14.889 --> 00:07:17.649 So you have Stevie, stuck at home, still terrified 00:07:17.649 --> 00:07:19.709 of his dad, desperately missing his brother, 00:07:19.870 --> 00:07:23.910 and the only refuge he has is this guitar. Which 00:07:23.910 --> 00:07:26.189 brings us to a story that, if you wrote it in 00:07:26.189 --> 00:07:27.949 a movie, the producer would tell you to make 00:07:27.949 --> 00:07:30.279 it more believable. I call it the grease barrel 00:07:30.279 --> 00:07:32.560 moment. It's so good. It's the perfect I quit 00:07:32.560 --> 00:07:36.259 story. So Stevie is a teenager now. To make some 00:07:36.259 --> 00:07:38.420 money, he's working at a local hamburger stand. 00:07:38.600 --> 00:07:40.379 Doing the glamour stuff, I assume. Oh, yeah. 00:07:40.519 --> 00:07:43.060 Washing dishes, taking out the trash. He's making 00:07:43.060 --> 00:07:46.519 70 cents an hour. 70 cents. Even for back then, 00:07:46.600 --> 00:07:50.259 that is just grim. It's nothing. So one day, 00:07:50.300 --> 00:07:52.240 he's carrying the trash out to the dumpster, 00:07:52.279 --> 00:07:55.379 and he slips. And he falls headfirst into a 55 00:07:55.379 --> 00:07:59.000 -gallon drum of used cold cooking grease. Just 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:01.139 completely submerged in it. Oh, that's disgusting. 00:08:01.379 --> 00:08:03.639 He climbs out of this barrel covered in this 00:08:03.639 --> 00:08:06.639 congealed nasty burger grease. And right there 00:08:06.639 --> 00:08:09.759 in that moment, something inside him just snaps. 00:08:10.019 --> 00:08:12.019 That's it. I'm done. That's it. He walks back 00:08:12.019 --> 00:08:14.720 inside, quits on the spot, and tells himself, 00:08:14.959 --> 00:08:17.639 I am never, ever working a normal job again. 00:08:17.860 --> 00:08:21.459 From this day forward, my life is music. You 00:08:21.459 --> 00:08:24.519 know, we laugh because... The image is so absurd. 00:08:24.899 --> 00:08:27.259 But think about the courage that takes. He's 00:08:27.259 --> 00:08:30.300 a teenager. He has zero support from his parents. 00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:33.440 He knows that if he quits this 70 cent an hour 00:08:33.440 --> 00:08:36.759 job to play guitar, he is truly on his own. He's 00:08:36.759 --> 00:08:39.299 burning the boats. He really is. He's choosing 00:08:39.299 --> 00:08:42.100 a life of total uncertainty over a life of quiet 00:08:42.100 --> 00:08:44.960 misery. And he hits the circuit. I mean, immediately. 00:08:45.080 --> 00:08:46.759 We're not talking about big theaters yet. We're 00:08:46.759 --> 00:08:49.419 talking about the Texas club circuit. The band 00:08:49.419 --> 00:08:51.639 names from this period are just fantastic. The 00:08:51.639 --> 00:08:54.620 Shantones. Brooklyn Underground. My favorite 00:08:54.620 --> 00:08:56.500 is the Southern Distributor. It sounds like a 00:08:56.500 --> 00:08:58.399 company that sells plumbing supplies. It does. 00:08:58.539 --> 00:09:00.559 And ironically, that's the band that fired him. 00:09:00.659 --> 00:09:03.320 He got fired? How do you fire Stevie Ray Vaughan? 00:09:03.480 --> 00:09:05.559 Well, you fire him for being Stevie Ray Vaughan. 00:09:05.620 --> 00:09:07.840 They were basically a pop rock cover band. They 00:09:07.840 --> 00:09:09.559 wanted to play whatever was in the top quarter. 00:09:10.019 --> 00:09:12.940 Stevie, even back then, only wanted to play the 00:09:12.940 --> 00:09:15.720 blues. He wouldn't compromise. He wouldn't. They 00:09:15.720 --> 00:09:18.330 literally told him and... this quote is amazing, 00:09:18.509 --> 00:09:21.289 that he would never earn a living playing blues 00:09:21.289 --> 00:09:23.429 music. I think that prediction might go down 00:09:23.429 --> 00:09:25.330 as one of the worst in music history. Right up 00:09:25.330 --> 00:09:27.549 there with Decca passing on the Beatles. But 00:09:27.549 --> 00:09:29.570 it just shows his conviction. He knew what his 00:09:29.570 --> 00:09:31.830 sound was even then. And he was getting scary 00:09:31.830 --> 00:09:33.929 good. I mean, even while he was still in high 00:09:33.929 --> 00:09:36.389 school. This is the ZZ Top story. The legendary 00:09:36.389 --> 00:09:39.690 ZZ Top story. So Stevie's high school band, a 00:09:39.690 --> 00:09:41.870 group called Liberation, is playing a gig at 00:09:41.870 --> 00:09:45.049 the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas. And just by chance. 00:09:45.669 --> 00:09:48.950 ZZ Top, who are already becoming Texas rock royalty, 00:09:49.210 --> 00:09:51.929 are in the building. Okay. They hear the band, 00:09:52.090 --> 00:09:54.529 and during a break, Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top 00:09:54.529 --> 00:09:57.029 gets up and starts jamming. And then this skinny 00:09:57.029 --> 00:09:59.909 high school kid, Stevie, plugs in and starts 00:09:59.909 --> 00:10:02.169 trading licks with him. That takes some serious 00:10:02.169 --> 00:10:04.809 confidence. Or just blissful ignorance. And according 00:10:04.809 --> 00:10:06.970 to his bandmates who were there, he didn't just 00:10:06.970 --> 00:10:09.610 hang with them. He tore the house down. They 00:10:09.610 --> 00:10:12.669 said he fit in with ZZ Top like a glove. Imagine 00:10:12.669 --> 00:10:14.840 what that does for your self -belief. Yeah, if 00:10:14.840 --> 00:10:16.700 you can go toe -to -toe with Billy Gibbons before 00:10:16.700 --> 00:10:18.700 you can legally vote, you're probably on the 00:10:18.700 --> 00:10:21.200 right track. Exactly. But while he's tearing 00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:23.000 the house down at night, what's happening during 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:25.100 the day at Kimball High School? Total disaster. 00:10:25.440 --> 00:10:27.679 An absolute train wreck. He's failing all his 00:10:27.679 --> 00:10:29.940 classes because he's up all night playing music, 00:10:29.940 --> 00:10:32.220 so he's sleeping at his desk. The principal is 00:10:32.220 --> 00:10:34.559 constantly on his case about his long hair, his 00:10:34.559 --> 00:10:36.960 clothes. It's the classic rock and roll dilemma. 00:10:37.159 --> 00:10:40.049 It is. And he realizes he has to make a choice. 00:10:40.230 --> 00:10:42.690 It's either the diploma or the guitar. So he 00:10:42.690 --> 00:10:44.830 drops out and makes a run for it. He heads to 00:10:44.830 --> 00:10:46.950 Austin. He heads to the promised land. Let's 00:10:46.950 --> 00:10:49.389 talk about that for a second. Why Austin? What 00:10:49.389 --> 00:10:51.769 was the difference between Dallas and Austin 00:10:51.769 --> 00:10:55.009 in the early 1970s? It was night and day. Dallas 00:10:55.009 --> 00:10:57.669 even then was about business. It was oil money. 00:10:57.789 --> 00:11:01.250 It was conservative, buttoned up. Austin in the 00:11:01.250 --> 00:11:04.309 early 70s was the epicenter of the whole cosmic 00:11:04.309 --> 00:11:08.220 cowboy scene. Willie Nelson, hippies. Exactly. 00:11:08.759 --> 00:11:12.679 It was hippies and rednecks and university students 00:11:12.679 --> 00:11:16.440 and bluesmen all living in the same place, sharing 00:11:16.440 --> 00:11:19.659 the same clubs. It was tolerant. You could be 00:11:19.659 --> 00:11:22.200 a freak in Austin and people would not only accept 00:11:22.200 --> 00:11:24.629 it, they'd celebrate it. So it was the perfect 00:11:24.629 --> 00:11:27.210 incubator for him. It was the only place he could 00:11:27.210 --> 00:11:30.169 have become who he became. So he moves there. 00:11:30.289 --> 00:11:32.950 He's sleeping on couches in the back rooms of 00:11:32.950 --> 00:11:35.289 clubs. He lived at a place called the Rolling 00:11:35.289 --> 00:11:37.750 Hills Club for a while. It's a real grind. A 00:11:37.750 --> 00:11:40.629 total grind. He's in and out of bands. Blackbird, 00:11:40.710 --> 00:11:43.409 Cracker Jack, the Nightcrawlers with Doyle Bramhall. 00:11:43.789 --> 00:11:47.090 But the real turning point, his graduate school 00:11:47.090 --> 00:11:50.509 was a club called Antones. Antones. That name's 00:11:50.509 --> 00:11:52.870 legendary. The home of the blues. It really was. 00:11:53.200 --> 00:11:56.000 The owner, Clifford Antone, was this incredible 00:11:56.000 --> 00:11:59.340 blues fanatic. And he had the respect and the 00:11:59.340 --> 00:12:01.700 connections to bring the original masters to 00:12:01.700 --> 00:12:03.879 his little club in Austin. We're talking Muddy 00:12:03.879 --> 00:12:06.600 Waters, Buddy Guy, Albert King. These are the 00:12:06.600 --> 00:12:08.440 guys who invented the language he was speaking. 00:12:08.559 --> 00:12:10.460 They were the primary sources. And Stevie wasn't 00:12:10.460 --> 00:12:12.000 just sitting in the audience taking notes like 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:13.779 everyone else. He was getting on stage with them. 00:12:14.059 --> 00:12:15.879 He was getting on stage and jamming with them, 00:12:15.980 --> 00:12:18.120 which, when you think about it, is just incredibly 00:12:18.120 --> 00:12:20.820 audacious. Hey, Mr. Albert King, mind if I plug 00:12:20.820 --> 00:12:22.480 in? You better be able to back that up. And he 00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:26.340 could. There's a famous story from Clifford Antone, 00:12:26.539 --> 00:12:30.139 the owner. He was watching Stevie Jam with Albert 00:12:30.139 --> 00:12:32.200 King one night, and Clifford said watching it 00:12:32.200 --> 00:12:34.659 almost scared him to death. Scared him. Why? 00:12:34.919 --> 00:12:36.940 Because it was so good, it was unnatural. He 00:12:36.940 --> 00:12:39.539 said, here's the skinny white kid from Dallas 00:12:39.539 --> 00:12:42.580 standing next to the master, Albert King, and 00:12:42.580 --> 00:12:44.789 he's not just copying the licks. He's answering 00:12:44.789 --> 00:12:47.190 them. He's matching the fire, the intensity, 00:12:47.309 --> 00:12:49.929 the soul. Clifford said it was the best he'd 00:12:49.929 --> 00:12:53.190 ever seen anyone play. Wow. So he has the respect 00:12:53.190 --> 00:12:55.570 of the founding fathers of the genre. He has 00:12:55.570 --> 00:12:58.610 the chops. But he still needs his own band, his 00:12:58.610 --> 00:13:01.250 own vehicle. He needs the right engine. He forms 00:13:01.250 --> 00:13:02.990 a group called the Triple Threat Review with 00:13:02.990 --> 00:13:05.690 a singer named Luann Barton that eventually morphs 00:13:05.690 --> 00:13:08.490 into Double Trouble in 1978. Named after an Otis 00:13:08.490 --> 00:13:10.539 Rush song. A perfect choice. And this is where 00:13:10.539 --> 00:13:13.100 the alchemy really happens. Because Stevie Ray 00:13:13.100 --> 00:13:16.440 Vaughan is a phenomenon on his own, but double 00:13:16.440 --> 00:13:19.379 trouble with Chris Layton on drums and eventually 00:13:19.379 --> 00:13:22.360 Tommy Shannon on bass. They weren't just a backup 00:13:22.360 --> 00:13:24.480 band. They were essential. Absolutely crucial. 00:13:24.700 --> 00:13:27.720 A guitar trio is a very naked format. There's 00:13:27.720 --> 00:13:30.100 nowhere to hide. There's no rhythm guitar player 00:13:30.100 --> 00:13:33.399 to cover up mistakes. If the bass and drums aren't 00:13:33.399 --> 00:13:35.580 completely locked in, the whole thing just collapses. 00:13:35.899 --> 00:13:37.740 And he found the right guys. He found the perfect 00:13:37.740 --> 00:13:40.220 guys. He recruited Chris Layton and literally 00:13:40.220 --> 00:13:43.659 sat down and taught him the specific Texas shuffle 00:13:43.659 --> 00:13:46.620 beat that he wanted. And Tommy Shannon. Tommy 00:13:46.620 --> 00:13:48.279 was a veteran. He played with Johnny Winter, 00:13:48.419 --> 00:13:51.039 right? At Woodstock, even. Yeah, he was the real 00:13:51.039 --> 00:13:53.110 deal. He was playing in another... band when 00:13:53.110 --> 00:13:55.389 he saw Stevie play at a club in Houston called 00:13:55.389 --> 00:13:58.350 Rockefellers. And he described seeing Stevie 00:13:58.350 --> 00:14:01.549 that night as a revelation. He said he just knew 00:14:01.549 --> 00:14:04.509 that's where I belong. So he quits his band and 00:14:04.509 --> 00:14:06.289 joins up. Immediately. And once Tommy Shannon 00:14:06.289 --> 00:14:08.929 was on board, that was it. The lineup was set. 00:14:09.009 --> 00:14:11.809 The classic double trouble was born. So now they 00:14:11.809 --> 00:14:13.830 are the undisputed kings of the Austin music 00:14:13.830 --> 00:14:15.750 scene. They're selling out clubs every night. 00:14:15.830 --> 00:14:18.149 They're local legends. But they cannot get a 00:14:18.149 --> 00:14:20.529 record deal to save their lives. Nobody wanted 00:14:20.529 --> 00:14:23.970 them. Not a single label. Why? I mean, they're 00:14:23.970 --> 00:14:25.970 obviously incredible. You have to think about 00:14:25.970 --> 00:14:29.850 the year. We're talking 1980, 1981, 82. Turn 00:14:29.850 --> 00:14:32.870 on the radio. What are you hearing? Synths, drum 00:14:32.870 --> 00:14:35.549 machines, new wave. Exactly. You're hearing the 00:14:35.549 --> 00:14:38.169 Human League and a flock of seagulls. It was 00:14:38.169 --> 00:14:41.490 the era of polished, synthesized. almost robotic 00:14:41.490 --> 00:14:45.070 pop music. And here comes this loud, sweaty, 00:14:45.289 --> 00:14:48.950 raw power trio from Texas playing blues. The 00:14:48.950 --> 00:14:50.870 record labels looked at them like they were dinosaurs. 00:14:51.210 --> 00:14:53.409 It was old music. So how do they finally break 00:14:53.409 --> 00:14:55.909 out of Texas? It takes a giant, a man named Jerry 00:14:55.909 --> 00:14:58.350 Wexler. The legendary producer, Aretha Franklin, 00:14:58.529 --> 00:15:01.009 Ray Charles. The man who basically invented the 00:15:01.009 --> 00:15:03.600 term rhythm and blues. He saw them play at a 00:15:03.600 --> 00:15:05.820 club in Austin and was just floored. He made 00:15:05.820 --> 00:15:07.679 a phone call and convinced the organizers of 00:15:07.679 --> 00:15:09.659 the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland to 00:15:09.659 --> 00:15:12.200 book them for the summer of 1982. This is it. 00:15:12.259 --> 00:15:14.620 This is the big break. Their first time playing 00:15:14.620 --> 00:15:17.179 in Europe in front of a sophisticated international 00:15:17.179 --> 00:15:19.740 audience. It was supposed to be the big break. 00:15:19.860 --> 00:15:22.659 It turned into an absolute catastrophe. OK, set 00:15:22.659 --> 00:15:24.720 the scene for us. What happened? All right. So 00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:26.320 you have to understand the Montreux Jazz Festival 00:15:26.320 --> 00:15:29.200 is a jazz festival. It's prestigious. It's often 00:15:29.200 --> 00:15:32.419 acoustic. The audience is very polite, very reserved. 00:15:32.480 --> 00:15:34.179 They're sitting there in their seats expecting 00:15:34.179 --> 00:15:39.279 to hear, you know. nuanced, quiet, cerebral music. 00:15:39.539 --> 00:15:42.179 And instead, out walks this force of nature from 00:15:42.179 --> 00:15:44.700 Texas. Out comes Stevie. He's wearing this wild 00:15:44.700 --> 00:15:47.519 kimono -style outfit. He's got his battered 1959 00:15:47.519 --> 00:15:50.940 Stratocaster. And behind him, he has not one, 00:15:50.980 --> 00:15:54.080 but two Fender Super Reverb amps and two Dumble 00:15:54.080 --> 00:15:57.919 Steel String Singer amps. A wall of sound. And 00:15:57.919 --> 00:16:00.039 let's talk about the volume. Because this connects 00:16:00.039 --> 00:16:01.860 back to his whole philosophy of sound, doesn't 00:16:01.860 --> 00:16:03.779 it? He was not a turn -it -down kind of player. 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:07.740 Not even close. His default setting was 10. He 00:16:07.740 --> 00:16:11.039 played loud, incredibly loud. Now, for this show, 00:16:11.279 --> 00:16:13.559 he was trying to be respectful. He knew it was 00:16:13.559 --> 00:16:16.299 a jazz crowd, so he actually folded four heavy 00:16:16.299 --> 00:16:18.759 army blankets and draped them over his speakers 00:16:18.759 --> 00:16:21.620 to try and muffle the sound. He claimed his amps 00:16:21.620 --> 00:16:25.440 volume was only on 2. But Stevie's 2 is a normal 00:16:25.440 --> 00:16:28.500 person's 11. It's a jet engine. So they launch 00:16:28.500 --> 00:16:30.919 into their set, and it's just this ferocious, 00:16:30.919 --> 00:16:33.799 high -volume, aggressive assault of Texas blues, 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:37.399 and the audience just hated it. They actually 00:16:37.399 --> 00:16:39.799 booed them. Oh, yeah. They booed not everyone, 00:16:39.840 --> 00:16:42.340 but a very vocal part of the crowd. You can hear 00:16:42.340 --> 00:16:44.000 it on the live recording of the show. It's this 00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:47.080 low rumble of disapproval that grows louder and 00:16:47.080 --> 00:16:48.899 louder. People were literally covering their 00:16:48.899 --> 00:16:51.080 ears. That is just crushing. I can't imagine. 00:16:51.159 --> 00:16:52.700 You fly all the way across the Atlantic. You 00:16:52.700 --> 00:16:54.159 think, this is my moment. I finally made it. 00:16:54.200 --> 00:16:56.620 And you get booed off the stage. Stevie was completely 00:16:56.620 --> 00:16:59.519 devastated. He walked off stage, went back to 00:16:59.519 --> 00:17:01.159 the dressing room, and just sat there with his 00:17:01.159 --> 00:17:03.580 head in his hands. He was convinced he had just 00:17:03.580 --> 00:17:06.160 blown the single biggest opportunity of his entire 00:17:06.160 --> 00:17:09.039 life. He wanted to pack up and go home. But what 00:17:09.039 --> 00:17:11.660 he didn't know was who was sitting in that audience. 00:17:12.220 --> 00:17:14.599 He had no idea because sitting in that crowd 00:17:14.599 --> 00:17:18.200 of angry, booing jazz purists were two people 00:17:18.200 --> 00:17:20.660 who were about to change his life forever. David 00:17:20.660 --> 00:17:22.819 Bowie and Jackson Browne. That's like something 00:17:22.819 --> 00:17:24.759 out of a movie. It's the perfect plot twist. 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:27.519 It's unbelievable. So David Bowie was at a creative 00:17:27.519 --> 00:17:29.700 crossroads himself. He was looking for a new 00:17:29.700 --> 00:17:32.480 sound for his next record. And he hears Stevie 00:17:32.480 --> 00:17:36.000 playing this raw, visceral, authentic blues guitar 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:38.480 and a light bulb goes off. He thinks, that's 00:17:38.480 --> 00:17:41.059 it. That's the sound I need. And what about Jackson 00:17:41.059 --> 00:17:43.700 Browne? Jackson Browne saw how dejected the band 00:17:43.700 --> 00:17:46.160 was. He found them in the artist's lounge after 00:17:46.160 --> 00:17:48.480 the show and he just sat down and started jamming 00:17:48.480 --> 00:17:50.599 with them until the sun came up. And then he 00:17:50.599 --> 00:17:52.619 made them an incredible offer. He said, listen, 00:17:52.779 --> 00:17:54.640 you guys can have my personal recording studio 00:17:54.640 --> 00:17:58.240 in Los Angeles for three days, free of charge. 00:17:58.460 --> 00:18:01.279 Go make a demo. Wow. Just out of the blue. Total 00:18:01.279 --> 00:18:03.819 act of generosity. So in the span of about 24 00:18:03.819 --> 00:18:06.279 hours, they go from the lowest low of being booed 00:18:06.279 --> 00:18:08.819 off the stage to the highest high of being offered 00:18:08.819 --> 00:18:10.900 a free studio and a potential gig with David 00:18:10.900 --> 00:18:13.549 Bowie. Okay, let's follow the Bowie thread first. 00:18:14.490 --> 00:18:17.089 Steedy flies to Switzerland to record on the 00:18:17.089 --> 00:18:19.390 album that would become Let's Dance. Which, of 00:18:19.390 --> 00:18:21.349 course, becomes one of the biggest, most successful 00:18:21.349 --> 00:18:24.049 albums of the entire decade. Absolutely. The 00:18:24.049 --> 00:18:27.309 title track, Let's Dance China Girl. If you go 00:18:27.309 --> 00:18:29.529 back and listen to the solo on Let's Dance Now, 00:18:29.710 --> 00:18:33.500 knowing it's him, it's... So obviously Stevie. 00:18:33.779 --> 00:18:37.000 It's unmistakable. And it was such a genius move 00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:40.079 by Bowie. You have this incredibly slick, funky 00:18:40.079 --> 00:18:44.420 Nile Rodgers disco pop production. And then slicing 00:18:44.420 --> 00:18:47.140 right through the middle of it is this raw Albert 00:18:47.140 --> 00:18:49.599 King style blues lick. It was a sound no one 00:18:49.599 --> 00:18:51.660 had ever heard before. And it introduced Stevie 00:18:51.660 --> 00:18:54.160 to millions and millions of people. who would 00:18:54.160 --> 00:18:56.200 never have listened to a blues record. It put 00:18:56.200 --> 00:18:58.880 him on the global map overnight. And Bowie, seeing 00:18:58.880 --> 00:19:00.940 what a talent he had, immediately asked him to 00:19:00.940 --> 00:19:02.819 be the lead guitarist for the upcoming world 00:19:02.819 --> 00:19:04.740 tour, the Sirius Moonlight tour. This was the 00:19:04.740 --> 00:19:06.539 golden ticket. This was everything they had been 00:19:06.539 --> 00:19:10.279 working for. Stadiums, private jets, life -changing 00:19:10.279 --> 00:19:12.900 money. It was the big time. And Stevie said yes 00:19:12.900 --> 00:19:16.099 at first, but then the reality of the situation 00:19:16.099 --> 00:19:18.579 started to set in. What went wrong? A couple 00:19:18.579 --> 00:19:20.720 of things. There was a dispute over pay, which 00:19:20.720 --> 00:19:23.710 was part of it. But the real deal breaker was 00:19:23.710 --> 00:19:26.690 that Bowie's management told Stevie, during this 00:19:26.690 --> 00:19:28.930 tour, you are not allowed to give interviews 00:19:28.930 --> 00:19:31.490 about your own band or your own album. So he 00:19:31.490 --> 00:19:34.069 would just be a sideman, a hired gun. A very 00:19:34.069 --> 00:19:36.509 well -paid hired gun, but a hired gun nonetheless. 00:19:36.849 --> 00:19:39.210 And you have to remember, while all this is happening, 00:19:39.490 --> 00:19:42.589 Stevie had just taken Jackson Brown up on his 00:19:42.589 --> 00:19:45.230 offer. He'd gone to L .A. and recorded the demos 00:19:45.230 --> 00:19:48.630 that would become Texas Flood. And he knew he 00:19:48.630 --> 00:19:50.750 had something special. He knew it was the best 00:19:50.750 --> 00:19:52.950 thing he'd ever done. He wasn't willing to put 00:19:52.950 --> 00:19:55.009 his own dream on the back burner, not even for 00:19:55.009 --> 00:19:57.730 David Bowie. So he quits. He quits literally 00:19:57.730 --> 00:20:00.789 days before the tour is set to launch. The tour 00:20:00.789 --> 00:20:03.130 buses are practically waiting for him, and he 00:20:03.130 --> 00:20:05.170 just walks away. Everyone in the music industry 00:20:05.170 --> 00:20:07.210 must have told him he was insane. You just don't 00:20:07.210 --> 00:20:09.950 say no to David Bowie in 1983. Everyone thought 00:20:09.950 --> 00:20:12.750 it was career suicide. But in a strange way, 00:20:12.910 --> 00:20:14.950 it turned out to be a brilliant strategic move. 00:20:15.589 --> 00:20:18.210 The story, who is this unknown guitarist who 00:20:18.210 --> 00:20:20.970 turned down David Bowie, generated a massive 00:20:20.970 --> 00:20:23.849 amount of press. It created a myth around him 00:20:23.849 --> 00:20:26.410 before his first album was even out. Precisely. 00:20:26.430 --> 00:20:29.210 And it freed him up to focus on his own career 00:20:29.210 --> 00:20:32.269 and release Texas Flood. Let's talk about that 00:20:32.269 --> 00:20:35.609 album, Texas Flood, released in June of 1983. 00:20:35.970 --> 00:20:40.430 This is the one. Pride and joy. Lenny, Love Struck 00:20:40.430 --> 00:20:43.269 Baby. It landed like a meteor. In the middle 00:20:43.269 --> 00:20:45.730 of all that synth pop, this record comes out 00:20:45.730 --> 00:20:48.789 and it's just raw and real and powerful. And 00:20:48.789 --> 00:20:50.569 this is where I want to pause and really do that 00:20:50.569 --> 00:20:52.930 deep dive on his gear. Because when you listen 00:20:52.930 --> 00:20:55.250 to Texas Flood, the first thing that hits you 00:20:55.250 --> 00:20:58.099 is the sound of the guitar. It's so thick. It's 00:20:58.099 --> 00:21:00.539 heavy. Why did it sound so different from everything 00:21:00.539 --> 00:21:02.559 else? Well, it's a combination of things, but 00:21:02.559 --> 00:21:04.259 it all starts with the strings, the physics of 00:21:04.259 --> 00:21:06.819 the strings. Okay. So most rock guitarists at 00:21:06.819 --> 00:21:08.940 that time, especially the 80s hair metal guys, 00:21:09.220 --> 00:21:11.079 they were all using incredibly light strings. 00:21:11.180 --> 00:21:13.259 We call them nines or even eights. They feel 00:21:13.259 --> 00:21:15.019 like spider webs on the guitar neck. And that 00:21:15.019 --> 00:21:17.019 makes it easier to play fast, right? Exactly. 00:21:17.539 --> 00:21:20.579 Less tension, easy to bend, perfect for all that 00:21:20.579 --> 00:21:23.220 flashy shredding. Stevie went in the complete 00:21:23.220 --> 00:21:25.819 opposite direction. He used what we call 13s. 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:30.480 His lightest string was a .013 gauge. His heaviest 00:21:30.480 --> 00:21:33.599 was a .058. Okay, for the non -guitar players 00:21:33.599 --> 00:21:36.220 listening, translate that for us. What does it 00:21:36.220 --> 00:21:38.680 actually feel like to play on strings that heavy? 00:21:38.880 --> 00:21:41.519 Okay, here's an analogy. A normal electric guitar 00:21:41.519 --> 00:21:43.940 string is like a thick rubber band. You can bend 00:21:43.940 --> 00:21:46.500 it pretty easily with one finger. A set of Stevie 00:21:46.500 --> 00:21:49.789 strings. It's like trying to bend a wire coat 00:21:49.789 --> 00:21:51.450 hanger with your fingertips. You're kidding. 00:21:51.710 --> 00:21:53.890 I'm not. The amount of tension on the neck is 00:21:53.890 --> 00:21:56.390 immense. Just to bend a note, a full step requires 00:21:56.390 --> 00:21:59.190 incredible hand and finger strength. But the 00:21:59.190 --> 00:22:01.250 tradeoff, the reason he did it, was for the tone. 00:22:01.529 --> 00:22:03.839 How does that work? The thicker string has more 00:22:03.839 --> 00:22:06.500 mass. When it vibrates over the magnetic pickups, 00:22:06.500 --> 00:22:08.759 it creates a bigger, fatter electrical signal. 00:22:08.880 --> 00:22:11.700 It has more fundamental, more low end. That's 00:22:11.700 --> 00:22:13.640 why his guitar never sounded thin or tinny. It 00:22:13.640 --> 00:22:16.259 sounded like a grand piano. It had this huge 00:22:16.259 --> 00:22:19.359 percussive thump to every note. But playing like 00:22:19.359 --> 00:22:22.099 that, so aggressively on strings that heavy. 00:22:22.859 --> 00:22:25.460 There had to be a physical price to pay for that 00:22:25.460 --> 00:22:28.599 sound. Oh, a brutal price. And this brings us 00:22:28.599 --> 00:22:31.160 to the most infamous part of his gear legend, 00:22:31.480 --> 00:22:33.920 the superglue. This is the part that just makes 00:22:33.920 --> 00:22:36.539 me physically cringe every time I read it. As 00:22:36.539 --> 00:22:39.180 it should. Because the strings were so thick 00:22:39.180 --> 00:22:41.339 and he attacked them with so much force, he would 00:22:41.339 --> 00:22:43.259 literally tear his calluses off his fingertips. 00:22:43.539 --> 00:22:45.880 The strings would get under his fingernail and 00:22:45.880 --> 00:22:48.480 separate the nail from the nail bed, from the 00:22:48.480 --> 00:22:52.140 quick. Oh, my God. That's just body horror. It's 00:22:52.140 --> 00:22:54.759 gruesome. Now, a normal person's solution would 00:22:54.759 --> 00:22:57.500 be to, you know, use lighter strings. Right. 00:22:57.579 --> 00:23:00.740 Or take a night off. Not Stevie. His solution 00:23:00.740 --> 00:23:03.319 was to take a bottle of industrial superglue 00:23:03.319 --> 00:23:06.680 cyanoacrylate and squeeze it onto the raw, bleeding 00:23:06.680 --> 00:23:08.980 flesh of his fingertip. Then he would press his 00:23:08.980 --> 00:23:11.500 fingernail back down onto it, hold it until the 00:23:11.500 --> 00:23:13.980 glue set, and go back out on stage to play the 00:23:13.980 --> 00:23:16.660 next set. That reframes everything for me. It's 00:23:16.660 --> 00:23:19.329 not just talent or feel. It's a commitment to 00:23:19.329 --> 00:23:21.890 suffering for the sound. He's literally using 00:23:21.890 --> 00:23:24.069 glue to hold his body together so he can keep 00:23:24.069 --> 00:23:26.730 playing. It was a combat sport for him. He was 00:23:26.730 --> 00:23:28.849 at war with the instrument every single night. 00:23:29.029 --> 00:23:31.490 And that struggle, that tension, that's what 00:23:31.490 --> 00:23:33.509 you're hearing on the grooves of Texas Flood. 00:23:33.740 --> 00:23:35.880 And the way they recorded that album was just 00:23:35.880 --> 00:23:38.799 as raw, right? It wasn't some polished month 00:23:38.799 --> 00:23:41.180 -long studio session. Not at all. It was basically 00:23:41.180 --> 00:23:44.599 a live album recorded in a studio. They went 00:23:44.599 --> 00:23:46.359 into Jackson Browne's place, set up their gear 00:23:46.359 --> 00:23:48.440 like they would for a gig, and just played. They 00:23:48.440 --> 00:23:51.039 knocked the whole thing out in three days. And 00:23:51.039 --> 00:23:54.079 that frantic, we have to get this right now energy 00:23:54.079 --> 00:23:57.480 is baked into the tape. And it worked. The album 00:23:57.480 --> 00:23:59.779 was a huge success. It was a game changer. It 00:23:59.779 --> 00:24:02.119 almost single -handedly revived the blues for 00:24:02.119 --> 00:24:04.460 a mainstream audience. Suddenly, kids who were 00:24:04.460 --> 00:24:06.700 listening to Duran Duran were going out and buying 00:24:06.700 --> 00:24:09.000 Fender Stratocasters. Which leads them to the 00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:11.039 follow -up, Couldn't Stand the Weather in 1984. 00:24:11.420 --> 00:24:14.380 And on that album, there's a track that has become 00:24:14.380 --> 00:24:18.269 legendary among audiophiles, Tin Pan Alley. Yes, 00:24:18.269 --> 00:24:21.309 the story behind that track is just, it's magical. 00:24:21.490 --> 00:24:23.150 It's one of those lightning in a bottle moments. 00:24:23.329 --> 00:24:25.789 What happened? So the band is in the studio in 00:24:25.789 --> 00:24:27.630 New York. The engineer is getting everything 00:24:27.630 --> 00:24:30.190 set up. He gets on the intercom and says, hey 00:24:30.190 --> 00:24:32.210 guys, just play something for a minute so I can 00:24:32.210 --> 00:24:34.269 get the microphone levels. So this isn't an official 00:24:34.269 --> 00:24:36.329 take. They're just warming up. They're just noodling. 00:24:36.529 --> 00:24:41.279 Yeah. And they launch into this slow, dark, atmospheric 00:24:41.279 --> 00:24:44.140 version of Tin Pan Alley. They play it all the 00:24:44.140 --> 00:24:46.500 way through for nine minutes. When they finish, 00:24:46.740 --> 00:24:49.079 the legendary producer John Hammond gets on the 00:24:49.079 --> 00:24:51.759 talkback and says one thing. That's the best 00:24:51.759 --> 00:24:54.240 that song will ever sound. We're done. Did they 00:24:54.240 --> 00:24:56.619 try to record it again? They did. They tried 00:24:56.619 --> 00:24:59.880 multiple times later to do a proper take. But 00:24:59.880 --> 00:25:02.880 they could never recapture the spontaneous, moody 00:25:02.880 --> 00:25:05.640 magic of that first soundcheck. So the version 00:25:05.640 --> 00:25:07.839 you hear on the phone. final album, that's the 00:25:07.839 --> 00:25:10.980 warm -up. One take. That's incredible. It just 00:25:10.980 --> 00:25:12.779 goes to show that when he was really locked in, 00:25:12.819 --> 00:25:14.819 he was just channeling something. He was a conduit 00:25:14.819 --> 00:25:17.660 for it. So 1984 is a massive year for him. The 00:25:17.660 --> 00:25:19.839 album is a huge hit. And then he gets the call 00:25:19.839 --> 00:25:23.539 to play Carnegie Hall. October 4th, 1984. The 00:25:23.539 --> 00:25:26.640 day after his 30th birthday. Talk about a birthday 00:25:26.640 --> 00:25:28.640 present. I mean, Carnegie Hall is not a rock 00:25:28.640 --> 00:25:31.099 club. It's hallowed ground. You're supposed to 00:25:31.099 --> 00:25:33.579 wear a tuxedo to Carnegie Hall. And Stevie did. 00:25:34.190 --> 00:25:37.490 In his own way. He had a custom Mexican tuxedo 00:25:37.490 --> 00:25:40.490 made. It was this incredible mariachi style suit, 00:25:40.609 --> 00:25:43.650 black with elaborate silver embroidery. Only 00:25:43.650 --> 00:25:46.430 Stevie Ray Vaughan. He was, by all accounts, 00:25:46.609 --> 00:25:49.309 incredibly nervous that night. He understood 00:25:49.309 --> 00:25:51.349 the history of that room. He felt the weight 00:25:51.349 --> 00:25:53.640 of it. To make it even bigger, he brought in 00:25:53.640 --> 00:25:56.599 a full horn section, the great Dr. John on piano 00:25:56.599 --> 00:25:58.839 and his brother Jimmy on guitar. It was a huge 00:25:58.839 --> 00:26:01.740 production. It was. And he was so amped up, so 00:26:01.740 --> 00:26:04.059 overexcited that for the first two or three songs, 00:26:04.279 --> 00:26:06.619 he was actually rushing the tempo. He was playing 00:26:06.619 --> 00:26:08.759 too fast. He just couldn't calm down. But he 00:26:08.759 --> 00:26:11.140 eventually found his groove. He did. He settled 00:26:11.140 --> 00:26:14.319 in. And by the end of the night, that very proper, 00:26:14.420 --> 00:26:17.059 polite New York City audience had turned Carnegie 00:26:17.059 --> 00:26:20.240 Hall into a stomping, cheering Texas roadhouse. 00:26:20.319 --> 00:26:25.430 People were dancing. So here we are. It's late 00:26:25.430 --> 00:26:29.369 1984, early 85. He has gold records. He's conquered 00:26:29.369 --> 00:26:31.549 the most prestigious venue in America. He's the 00:26:31.549 --> 00:26:35.410 undisputed guitar hero of the decade. But there's 00:26:35.410 --> 00:26:38.190 a shadow growing. A very dark one. The dissent. 00:26:38.789 --> 00:26:41.890 We talked about his dad's drinking earlier. But 00:26:41.890 --> 00:26:45.210 Stevie's own battle with substances. It started 00:26:45.210 --> 00:26:48.630 much earlier than his fame, didn't it? Frighteningly 00:26:48.630 --> 00:26:51.099 early. He admitted in interviews after he got 00:26:51.099 --> 00:26:53.180 sober that he started stealing his father's drinks 00:26:53.180 --> 00:26:55.759 when he was just six years old. He was basically 00:26:55.759 --> 00:26:58.380 self -medicating the anxiety and the fear from 00:26:58.380 --> 00:27:00.019 his childhood. So by the time he becomes a full 00:27:00.019 --> 00:27:02.440 blown rock star in the mid 80s, with all the 00:27:02.440 --> 00:27:05.000 access and money that comes with it, his tolerance 00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:08.150 for drugs and alcohol was almost. superhuman. 00:27:08.250 --> 00:27:10.829 I read the reported numbers of his daily consumption 00:27:10.829 --> 00:27:13.029 from that period, and I honestly don't understand 00:27:13.029 --> 00:27:14.869 the biology. I don't know how a human being can 00:27:14.869 --> 00:27:17.089 function. It's medically astounding that he was 00:27:17.089 --> 00:27:20.990 alive, let alone performing. By 1985, 1986, he 00:27:20.990 --> 00:27:23.130 was reportedly drinking an entire quart of Crown 00:27:23.130 --> 00:27:25.769 Royal whiskey every single day. A full quart. 00:27:25.950 --> 00:27:28.230 And of course, the whiskey would make him drowsy. 00:27:28.230 --> 00:27:30.829 So to counteract that, he was using a tremendous 00:27:30.829 --> 00:27:34.359 amount of cocaine. But not just snorting it. 00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:36.500 He had a ritual where he would drop the cocaine 00:27:36.500 --> 00:27:39.680 into his glass of whiskey and stir it up. A cocaine 00:27:39.680 --> 00:27:43.660 -laced cocktail. He was consuming, by some estimates, 00:27:43.779 --> 00:27:47.000 up to a quarter ounce of cocaine every day. That's 00:27:47.000 --> 00:27:48.980 a dosage that would be lethal for most people. 00:27:49.220 --> 00:27:52.740 He was redlining his body's engine 24 -7. And 00:27:52.740 --> 00:27:55.160 people around him saw what was happening. The 00:27:55.160 --> 00:27:57.920 great muddy water saw it. That is maybe the most 00:27:57.920 --> 00:28:00.960 haunting quote in this entire story. Muddy Waters, 00:28:01.140 --> 00:28:03.640 one of his idols, watched him play and said to 00:28:03.640 --> 00:28:06.000 someone, Stevie could perhaps be the greatest 00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:08.660 guitar player that ever lived, but he won't live 00:28:08.660 --> 00:28:10.880 to get 40 years old if he doesn't leave that 00:28:10.880 --> 00:28:13.339 white powder alone. And he was right. He called 00:28:13.339 --> 00:28:15.619 it. He saw the writing on the wall. He knew exactly 00:28:15.619 --> 00:28:18.160 where that train was headed. And the train finally 00:28:18.160 --> 00:28:21.420 derailed in 1986. This is during the tour for 00:28:21.420 --> 00:28:23.759 the Live Alive album. An album that Stevie himself 00:28:23.759 --> 00:28:26.289 later said he couldn't even listen to. that it 00:28:26.289 --> 00:28:29.170 sounded like the work of half -dead people. The 00:28:29.170 --> 00:28:31.509 whole band was in chaos. And then they go to 00:28:31.509 --> 00:28:35.450 Europe, to Germany. September 1986, a town called 00:28:35.450 --> 00:28:38.529 Ludwigshof in Germany, they finish a show, and 00:28:38.529 --> 00:28:43.509 Stevie collapses. On stage. Backstage, after 00:28:43.509 --> 00:28:45.730 the show. He fell down and he couldn't get back 00:28:45.730 --> 00:28:48.569 up. He was rushed to a local hospital. The diagnosis 00:28:48.569 --> 00:28:52.210 was severe near -death dehydration. His stomach 00:28:52.210 --> 00:28:54.470 lining was basically shredded from all the alcohol. 00:28:54.730 --> 00:28:57.609 He was flown to London to see a specialist, a 00:28:57.609 --> 00:29:00.509 Dr. Victor Bloom. And the doctor gave him the 00:29:00.509 --> 00:29:03.220 ultimatum. He looked at Stevie's charts at the 00:29:03.220 --> 00:29:05.319 state of his body and told him, point blank, 00:29:05.519 --> 00:29:07.579 you are not just sick. You are about a month 00:29:07.579 --> 00:29:09.599 away from death. That's the rock bottom moment. 00:29:09.680 --> 00:29:12.019 The wake up call. That was the sound of the alarm 00:29:12.019 --> 00:29:14.160 bell he couldn't ignore anymore. The denial was 00:29:14.160 --> 00:29:16.880 finally broken. He realized that the music, the 00:29:16.880 --> 00:29:19.500 one thing he loved, couldn't save him if he was 00:29:19.500 --> 00:29:21.740 in a coffin. So he cancels the rest of the tour 00:29:21.740 --> 00:29:23.660 and goes to rehab. He checks into Peach Court 00:29:23.660 --> 00:29:26.579 Hospital in Atlanta and then a rehab center back 00:29:26.579 --> 00:29:29.019 in Austin. And this is where he faced the biggest 00:29:29.019 --> 00:29:31.970 fear for. Any artist who is also an addict. The 00:29:31.970 --> 00:29:34.369 fear that the creativity is tied to the substance? 00:29:34.690 --> 00:29:38.069 Can I still play if I'm sober? Exactly. Is the 00:29:38.069 --> 00:29:41.069 magic in the whiskey bottle? Is the fire fueled 00:29:41.069 --> 00:29:45.009 by the cocaine? He was genuinely terrified that 00:29:45.009 --> 00:29:47.369 if he got clean, he'd lose his gift. That the 00:29:47.369 --> 00:29:49.509 mojo would disappear. And what did he do to recover? 00:29:49.670 --> 00:29:52.750 He moved back home. Back into his mother's house 00:29:52.750 --> 00:29:55.599 in Dallas. the very same house he grew up in. 00:29:56.000 --> 00:29:58.539 He had to completely tear his life down to the 00:29:58.539 --> 00:30:00.759 studs and rebuild it from scratch. But he did 00:30:00.759 --> 00:30:04.039 it. He did it. He got sober. Through 1987 and 00:30:04.039 --> 00:30:07.299 1988, he worked the program, he toured cautiously, 00:30:07.500 --> 00:30:10.400 and he discovered something incredible. He could 00:30:10.400 --> 00:30:12.779 still play. Could still play. And not just that. 00:30:12.940 --> 00:30:15.619 He could play better, he was more focused, he 00:30:15.619 --> 00:30:17.660 was more present. For the first time in years, 00:30:17.759 --> 00:30:19.920 he wasn't just surviving the gig, he was actually 00:30:19.920 --> 00:30:22.420 experiencing it. Which all culminates in his 00:30:22.420 --> 00:30:25.599 final studio album. in step released in 1989 00:30:25.599 --> 00:30:28.160 and the title says it all doesn't it finally 00:30:28.160 --> 00:30:30.920 in step with life in step with myself yeah it's 00:30:30.920 --> 00:30:34.420 not subtle no it's a declaration this alum is 00:30:34.420 --> 00:30:36.799 his victory lap he won a grammy it was his most 00:30:36.799 --> 00:30:39.640 commercially successful record But more than 00:30:39.640 --> 00:30:41.279 that, you have to look at the lyrics. They're 00:30:41.279 --> 00:30:43.319 different. Completely different. He's not just 00:30:43.319 --> 00:30:45.680 singing the standard blues tropes about his baby 00:30:45.680 --> 00:30:47.859 leaving him anymore. He's writing songs like 00:30:47.859 --> 00:30:50.519 Crossfire and Wall of Denial. He's singing about 00:30:50.519 --> 00:30:53.059 addiction, about recovery, about the struggle 00:30:53.059 --> 00:30:55.319 to be a better human being. And there's that 00:30:55.319 --> 00:30:57.539 line he wrote in the album's liner notes that 00:30:57.539 --> 00:30:59.859 always gets me. Thank God the elevator's broken. 00:31:00.160 --> 00:31:02.180 It's a direct reference to Alcoholics Anonymous, 00:31:02.240 --> 00:31:05.180 isn't it? It is. It's about the 12 steps. You 00:31:05.180 --> 00:31:06.980 have to take the steps one at a time. You can't 00:31:06.980 --> 00:31:08.579 just take the elevator to the top. There are 00:31:08.579 --> 00:31:10.980 no shortcuts in recovery. It was him telling 00:31:10.980 --> 00:31:15.400 the world, I did the work. So we're in 1990 now. 00:31:15.579 --> 00:31:18.380 This is the peak of the redemption arc. He's 00:31:18.380 --> 00:31:21.119 sober. He's healthy. He's playing with more power 00:31:21.119 --> 00:31:24.119 and clarity than ever before. He finally records 00:31:24.119 --> 00:31:26.380 an album with his brother Jimmy, family style. 00:31:26.599 --> 00:31:28.859 Which was a lifelong dream for him. He finally 00:31:28.859 --> 00:31:30.940 felt like he wasn't just Jimmy's little brother 00:31:30.940 --> 00:31:33.430 anymore. He was his peer. And then comes the 00:31:33.430 --> 00:31:37.130 night of August 26, 1990, a place called Alpine 00:31:37.130 --> 00:31:40.109 Valley Music Theater in Wisconsin. It was a huge 00:31:40.109 --> 00:31:43.170 outdoor amphitheater show, a massive crowd, 30 00:31:43.170 --> 00:31:46.569 ,000, 40 ,000 people. And the lineup was just 00:31:46.569 --> 00:31:50.230 a blues fan's fantasy. It was Eric Clapton, Buddy 00:31:50.230 --> 00:31:54.329 Guy, Robert Cray, Jimmy Vaughn, and Stevie. And 00:31:54.329 --> 00:31:56.130 at the end of the night, they all came out on 00:31:56.130 --> 00:31:58.690 stage together for the encore. The encore was 00:31:58.690 --> 00:32:01.130 Sweet Home Chicago. Can you just picture that? 00:32:01.250 --> 00:32:04.410 All those legends on one stage, trading solos, 00:32:04.410 --> 00:32:06.450 laughing, smiling. It was a celebration of the 00:32:06.450 --> 00:32:09.690 music they all loved. It was just pure, unadulterated 00:32:09.690 --> 00:32:12.829 joy. The show ends. It's late. It's a long drive 00:32:12.829 --> 00:32:14.980 back to Chicago where they're all staying. And 00:32:14.980 --> 00:32:17.819 a thick, dense fog had rolled into the valley. 00:32:18.220 --> 00:32:21.099 Visibility was terrible. To avoid the long traffic 00:32:21.099 --> 00:32:23.259 jams getting out of the venue, there were helicopters 00:32:23.259 --> 00:32:25.319 waiting to shuttle the main artists and their 00:32:25.319 --> 00:32:27.799 crews back to the city. And Stevie wasn't even 00:32:27.799 --> 00:32:29.420 scheduled to be on that particular helicopter, 00:32:29.700 --> 00:32:31.920 was he? That's the most tragic part of it. The 00:32:31.920 --> 00:32:34.160 accounts say there was one open seat left on 00:32:34.160 --> 00:32:37.440 one of the helicopters, a Bell 206B. Stevie, 00:32:37.599 --> 00:32:39.559 wanting to get back a little earlier, asked if 00:32:39.559 --> 00:32:41.720 he could take that seat. It's around 12 .50 in 00:32:41.720 --> 00:32:43.759 the morning. The helicopter lifts off into the 00:32:43.759 --> 00:32:46.700 foggy night. On board are Stevie, the pilot, 00:32:46.759 --> 00:32:49.640 and three members of Eric Clapton's crew, his 00:32:49.640 --> 00:32:52.700 agent, his tour manager, and one of his bodyguards. 00:32:52.819 --> 00:32:55.099 And almost immediately after takeoff? It happened 00:32:55.099 --> 00:32:58.519 within a minute. The pilot, Jeff Brown, was not 00:32:58.519 --> 00:33:01.019 instrument rated for flying a helicopter in those 00:33:01.019 --> 00:33:04.900 specific low visibility conditions. He got disoriented 00:33:04.900 --> 00:33:07.319 in the fog. He was trying to fly by sight, but 00:33:07.319 --> 00:33:09.579 there was nothing to see. He made a banking turn. 00:33:09.779 --> 00:33:11.980 And flew straight into the side of the ski hill 00:33:11.980 --> 00:33:14.049 that was right next to the venue. He never even 00:33:14.049 --> 00:33:16.829 knew it was there. They slammed into the terrain 00:33:16.829 --> 00:33:19.630 at over 100 miles per hour. God. The crash was 00:33:19.630 --> 00:33:22.390 unsurvivable. Everyone on board was killed instantly. 00:33:22.950 --> 00:33:25.250 It's just the sheer brutal suddenness of it. 00:33:25.730 --> 00:33:28.450 One minute, he is on top of the world, sober, 00:33:28.589 --> 00:33:31.150 happy, playing Sweet Home Chicago with Eric Clapton. 00:33:31.309 --> 00:33:34.140 And the next minute... It's just silence and 00:33:34.140 --> 00:33:36.700 wreckage on a dark hillside. The wreckage wasn't 00:33:36.700 --> 00:33:38.920 even found until the next morning. No one knew 00:33:38.920 --> 00:33:41.279 what had happened. Jimmy Vaughn had taken a different 00:33:41.279 --> 00:33:43.700 helicopter. He was the one who had to go and 00:33:43.700 --> 00:33:46.299 identify his brother's body. I can't even imagine. 00:33:46.720 --> 00:33:49.400 He was so devastated by it, he said he quit playing 00:33:49.400 --> 00:33:51.319 guitar for almost two years. He couldn't even 00:33:51.319 --> 00:33:53.500 look at the instrument. The funeral in Dallas 00:33:53.500 --> 00:33:57.259 was huge. Over 3 ,000 people came. Stevie Wonder, 00:33:57.440 --> 00:33:59.740 Bonnie Raitt, ZZ Top, Jackson Browne, they were 00:33:59.740 --> 00:34:02.509 all there. The gravestone they chose for him 00:34:02.509 --> 00:34:04.789 has a very simple inscription. It just says, 00:34:04.910 --> 00:34:07.630 thank you for all the love you passed our way. 00:34:07.970 --> 00:34:10.550 That feels right. For all the fire and aggression 00:34:10.550 --> 00:34:13.349 in his playing, it was ultimately joyful music. 00:34:13.389 --> 00:34:15.730 It felt generous. He held nothing back. He gave 00:34:15.730 --> 00:34:18.190 you everything he had every single night. So 00:34:18.190 --> 00:34:21.789 we look at the legacy now. Over 15 million albums 00:34:21.789 --> 00:34:24.809 sold in the U .S. alone. Rock and Roll Hall of 00:34:24.809 --> 00:34:28.190 Fame induction in 2015. But I want to end on 00:34:28.190 --> 00:34:30.829 the question that I think every fan has. The 00:34:30.829 --> 00:34:33.389 what if? This is a question that just haunts 00:34:33.389 --> 00:34:35.510 you, isn't it? Where was he going next? Because 00:34:35.510 --> 00:34:37.929 he was only 35 years old. He was a baby. He had 00:34:37.929 --> 00:34:40.690 just gotten clean. And if you want a clue as 00:34:40.690 --> 00:34:42.489 to where his music was heading, you just have 00:34:42.489 --> 00:34:44.909 to listen to the last track on the In Step album, 00:34:45.110 --> 00:34:48.150 Riviera Paradise. It's so different. It's incredibly 00:34:48.150 --> 00:34:50.730 sophisticated. It's melodic. It's got complex 00:34:50.730 --> 00:34:53.369 chord changes. It sounds like Wes Montgomery 00:34:53.369 --> 00:34:56.469 jamming with Jimi Hendrix. He was already starting 00:34:56.469 --> 00:34:59.030 to move beyond the traditional 12 -bar blues 00:34:59.030 --> 00:35:02.090 shuffle. He was exploring new textures. The 90s, 00:35:02.090 --> 00:35:05.630 of course, saw this huge blues revival. Eric 00:35:05.630 --> 00:35:07.989 Clapton's Unplugged was massive. You have guys 00:35:07.989 --> 00:35:10.090 like Kenny Wayne Shepard coming up later on, 00:35:10.110 --> 00:35:12.679 John Mayer. If Stevie had lived, he wouldn't 00:35:12.679 --> 00:35:14.179 have just been a part of that revival. He would 00:35:14.179 --> 00:35:16.280 have been the king of it. But I honestly think 00:35:16.280 --> 00:35:18.400 he might have transcended the blues genre entirely. 00:35:18.760 --> 00:35:22.000 He might have become a true fusion icon, blending 00:35:22.000 --> 00:35:25.280 blues, rock, and jazz in a way no one had before. 00:35:25.420 --> 00:35:27.760 We'll just never know. It brings up one final 00:35:27.760 --> 00:35:30.360 provocative thought for me. We have this really 00:35:30.360 --> 00:35:32.559 damaging myth in our culture, especially in music, 00:35:32.659 --> 00:35:35.559 about the tortured artist. This idea that you 00:35:35.559 --> 00:35:38.840 need to be... broken or drunk or high to have 00:35:38.840 --> 00:35:41.619 soul. That the pain is what makes the art authentic. 00:35:41.679 --> 00:35:44.539 It's a dangerous lie. And Stevie Ray Vaughan 00:35:44.539 --> 00:35:48.679 is the ultimate proof that it is a lie. Because 00:35:48.679 --> 00:35:51.940 his best work, his clearest, most technically 00:35:51.940 --> 00:35:54.539 brilliant and most emotionally powerful work 00:35:54.539 --> 00:35:58.170 came after he got sober. It came when he was 00:35:58.170 --> 00:36:00.610 finally in step with his life. He didn't lose 00:36:00.610 --> 00:36:02.730 the blues when he lost the booze. If anything, 00:36:02.929 --> 00:36:05.070 he deepened his connection to them. He proved 00:36:05.070 --> 00:36:07.030 that you can play the blues from a place of strength 00:36:07.030 --> 00:36:09.630 and gratitude, not just from a place of weakness 00:36:09.630 --> 00:36:12.110 and pain. He proved that the feeling doesn't 00:36:12.110 --> 00:36:15.309 require the poison. And that, maybe more than 00:36:15.309 --> 00:36:18.769 any guitar lick or any album, is his most profound 00:36:18.769 --> 00:36:22.230 legacy. I agree completely. Wow. Well, this has 00:36:22.230 --> 00:36:23.889 been a heavy one, but a really important one. 00:36:23.949 --> 00:36:26.429 We've gone from the grease barrel in Dallas to 00:36:26.429 --> 00:36:28.730 a foggy hillside in Wisconsin. It's a hell of 00:36:28.730 --> 00:36:30.630 a lot of life to pack into seven short years. 00:36:30.750 --> 00:36:33.130 Seven years. It's still hard to believe. Thanks 00:36:33.130 --> 00:36:34.889 for joining us for this deep dive. We'll see 00:36:34.889 --> 00:36:35.449 you on the next one.