Friday, March 29, 2024

Stevie Ray Vaughan Oct. 3, 1954 – Aug. 27, 1990

The Austin music community woke up on Aug. 27, 1990, with a chunk of its soul gone. At close to 1 a.m., blues guitar great Stevie Ray Vaughan perished in a helicopter crash in East Troy, Wis., after a concert.

It was a foggy night and the pilot took off from behind the stage at the Alpine Valley Music Theatre and flew into the side of a ski slope half a mile away. All five aboard the Chicago-bound helicopter — Vaughan, the pilot and three members of Eric Clapton’s entourage — were killed instantly.

Vaughan died about an hour after joining a superstar jam finale with brother Jimmie, Clapton, Robert Cray and Buddy Guy at the outdoor venue 40 miles southwest of Milwaukee .

Stevie Ray Vaughan was just 35 and on a spiritual high after giving up drugs and alcohol four years earlier.

Besides being an exciting guitar player, whose debut LP revitalized the blues in 1983, Vaughan was beloved in Austin because he’d come up the hard way, toiling in dive bars such as the One Knite and the Rome Inn for more than a dozen years before he broke out nationally.

Vaughan never forgot where he came from and never missed a chance to tout those who inspired him. If you knew the skinny guitar player back then, you called him Stevie Vaughan, even after the Ray was added when he signed to Columbia.

It was Vaughan’s humble personality that inspired the welcoming pose on the 8-foot-tall bronze statue erected in his memory on the hike-and-bike trail about 100 yards from the Auditorium Shores stage location where Vaughan performed so many times.

“Recordings do a really good job at preserving the musical legacy,” said Boston-based sculptor Ralph Helmick , whose design was chosen by Jimmie and mother Martha Vaughan over about 30 other applicants. “I wanted to show more of the kind of person Stevie Ray Vaughan was. And everyone I talked to who knew him said he was always friendly, always approachable.”

Unveiled on Nov. 21, 1993 , the SRV statue is the first stop in Austin for many visiting musicians, especially during the South by Southwest festivals, and it reinforces Austin’s reputation as a city that takes music seriously.

Almost immediately after Vaughan’s death a petition drive, supported by then-City Council Member Max Nofziger, was started to rename Auditorium Shores “Stevie Ray Vaughan Park.” But the Vaughan family thought that was too much too soon.

Promoter French Smith, then head of the Austin Music Commission, had an idea Jimmie and Martha preferred: a statue at Auditorium Shores. Smith had not only put on all those great T-Bird Riverfests, but promoted SRV’s final performance in Austin at the Rites of Spring concert at Auditorium Shores on May 4, 1990.

“Jimmie was very hands-on at every step of the way,” said Smith, who is now in a care facility with advanced-stage multiple sclerosis. “I stroked the politicians and Jimmie put up the bulk of the money to get it done. The city was clear that no public money be used.”

Helmick said his commission, which covered all costs including materials and foundry fees, was about $100,000. Smith said an account also was opened to pay for cleanup in the event of vandalism, which the statue experienced in December 2005 , when words disparaging Vaughan’s originality were written in red paint.

The vandalism saddened Helmick, who flew down to Austin to make sure the statue he spent an entire year on was restored.

As part of his research, Helmick visited Lubbock to check out the Buddy Holly statue.

“That gave me an idea of what I didn’t want to do,” said Helmick, whose earlier work includes a statue of Boston Pops conductor Arthur Fiedler in downtown Boston. The Holly statue shows Buddy in performance, wielding an electric guitar; Helmick said he decided to go for a more meditative pose with the Vaughan statue.

“I showed Jimmie pictures of two statues of David,” said Helmick. “In Bernini’s David, it shows the moment that he slings the stone that defeats Goliath. But in Michelangelo’s David, he’s shown in deep contemplation before the fight. One you look at and one you look with. Jimmie got it right away.”

Helmick said Jimmie Vaughan also understood when the sculptor asked that the statue be moved from its originally intended location — on a hill just north of Palmer Auditorium overlooking Auditorium Shores — to where it stands today. Because of the rotation of the sun, Helmick realized that SRV’s face in the original spot would have been in shadow almost all the time.

“There was some opposition from some of the joggers,” Smith said of the change, which had Vaughan facing south. “But they weren’t organized.” The City Council approved the site change in May 1993.

Although Helmick missed the target unveiling date — SRV’s 39th birthday on Oct. 3. 1993 — by about six weeks, he said it was worth the extra time to get it right. “Every detail had to be just right because you only get one chance.”


Photo by Jay Janner/ AAS

One thought on “Stevie Ray Vaughan Oct. 3, 1954 – Aug. 27, 1990

  1. Greetings Michael!

    You may remember me from years ago when I served as the Volunteer Coordinator for Farm Aid 2, and we met some months after when I was managing the “Willie Hilton” on Congress.

    There was an “infamous article” written in your A.C. “Don’t Get Me Talking” column regarding an impromptu make out session we engaged in after meeting one evening at the Hole In The Wall, during the height of the Aids Paranoia Era. You received a scathing tongue lashing and dire warning from the CDC and the W.H.O. regarding our conscious decision to engage in (what was then considered rather risky,) sex w/o a condom— LIONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS, OH MY!
    Hey, we were crazy Austin rock folk- who lived for the proverbial “Ah Ha” moment!

    What a way to send a howdy do after 25 years or so right?- at least I’m fairly certain it got your attention!
    Hey- I have nothing to hide or be ashamed of in my “almost golden years”- it was those memories and much, much more which shaped and molded the twisted, sick, individual whom I am today and would not change a single thing!

    Anyway- I STILL have that article and every now and then pull it out for a smile and a laugh- those were the days right?

    So…..the real reason for my message, it is saddening and peculiarly ironic that I happened upon your website today of all days, as this is the Anniversary of SRV’s unfortunate and untimely passing at Alpine Music Valley in Wisconsin.

    The reason this is so hauntingly ironic, I was still living in Austin at the time ( I have been living in Chicago now, happily married, for the past 15 yrs.,) and my then Roommate, Paul Swick,
    (Limelight Productions,) was Ronnie Lane’s Road Manager. I can recall with such clarity when I received a phone call early that morning around 6 or 7 a.m. from Ronnie, sobbing and repeating over and over that Stevie was dead, and I needed to wake Paul immediately! Ronnie was so overcome with distress- as I recall, Ronnie was supposed to be at the event, but was unable to attend.
    That day is burned in my memory and the numbing sadness I felt as I learned of the news from both Ronnie and with more details throughout the day, attending Town Lake that night for a candlelight vigil /memorial service, culminating with an evening getting thoroughly plowed at my then, dear friend Jalapeno Charlie’s house- may he also rest in peace.

    What is now even more ironic is to hear that sadly, French Smith is receiving care for the same malady that took Ronnie, Multiple Sclerosis.
    Wow, life can be cruelly strange at times, but life lived all the same- we take it as it comes and accept all challenges, both highs and lows.

    I could go on…. but, no need- all of us who knew Stevie whether personally or as a fan, fortunate enough to witness and experience the genius musical entity he was, so graciously, generously gifting the music world with his mesmerizing spirit and talent, we can only hope his legacy will be passed on to another life, longer in age, without such tragedy, but no less fully lived than he did in this one.

    Hey Michael- would love to chat with you and catch up on all that you are doing… I DO NOT do Facebook, MySpace or any other Social Network….Old Skool til the end, I only respond to personal e-mail or phone calls.

    I am unfortunately disabled, with health issues which recently ( as of 2008) and rudely interrupted my career as a Customs Broker/ Import Specialist, a profession of which I was truly passionate.

    Glad to see though that you are still writing about music and sports, the things you love most, as you were and are truly a gifted writer, wit, cynicism, sarcasm and all! Many folks may not appreciate that you may tell it like it is- but you always did and many of us appreciate that quality!

    I’ll leave you with this- I got very lucky this past Friday and was able to witness the rare spectacle and marvel of an intimate performance of Jello Biafra at Reggie’s Chicago, with his band the Guantanamo School of Medicine.
    Talk about someone who lays bare his soul for all to see and is reverently unafraid to speak his mind – one of my true idols!
    I am still on a high- and I don’t drink nor do drugs- he was truly fucking amazing!
    Thank god for the rebels, radicals and revolutionaries- past and present; we need all of them we can get right now!

    Take care- hope to hear from you sometime!

    Kind Regards-
    Robin Gols

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