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"Ma, I'm real sick. I need help. I got to come home": The trauma and triumph of Stevie Ray Vaughan

After almost dying at a London show, Stevie Ray Vaughan was given two weeks to live - it was the wake-up call he needed

Louder · Jun 29

“I lost everything – the only thing I held onto was my Fender Jazz Bass”: How Tommy Shannon broke a 7-year cycle of jail and halfway houses to record his most famous bassline with Stevie Ray Vaughan

Shannon played an Olympic White 1962 Jazz Bass tuned down a half-step to match Vaughan's Eb tuning

Guitar World · Aug 17, 2025

“I knew the record was good, but when you hear the way he plays, there's no question that Stevie was an all-time great guitar player”: How Stevie Ray Vaughan's biggest hit benefitted from one of the baddest rhythm sections in blues history

Also known as Double Trouble, Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton laid down an unfaltering groove for SRV’s 1983 debut

Guitar World · Jul 2, 2025

"He did the heroin, fell down, and stopped breathing": If you want wild and dangerous tales, Johnny Winter's story has them all

Deranged bandmates. Mysterious demises. Narrow escapes. Plus run-ins with scumbag managers and self-destructive associates

Louder · Jul 16, 2024

Told to get clean or he had two weeks to live, guitar great Stevie Ray Vaughan did, and recorded his greatest album

How Stevie Ray Vaughan put blues music back in business

Louder · May 23, 2024

“We had to come up with the songs pretty quickly – Stevie wasn’t a fluent songwriter”: Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton on the making of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Couldn’t Stand the Weather

In 1984, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble needed new tunes and needed them bad, and necessity became the mother of invention as they put together a bona fide blues classic

Guitar World · Apr 24, 2024

“That take was live from beginning to end, 7 minutes of pure guitar energy without a single miscue”: Stevie Ray Vaughan’s producer and bassist recall being in the room when SRV tackled his game-changing cover of Voodoo Chile

SRV’s other massive Hendrix cover proved a pivot point in his playing career – helping the Texas bluesman to find his way through his fraught second album sessions

Guitar World · Mar 21, 2024

What happened the night Stevie Ray Vaughan died - by those who were there

On August 27, 1990, Stevie Ray Vaughan played the gig of his life. Just hours later he was killed when his helicopter crashed in thick fog. This is the inside story of that tragic day

Louder · May 4, 2023