Where were you that fateful day…
To my recollection, August 28, 1990 was a Tuesday, and it was a very nice day for the most part. I was working a Summer job in College Station, TX at a great college hangout called La Taqueria. The staff consisted of the usual bandana wearing long-hair hippie-types who wanted nothing more in life than to earn a bit of cash to cover life’s basic needs. Beer, pot, food and if there was enough money left, rent.
It was around 10am and we were prepping all the tortilla chips, enchiladas pans, taco trimmings and having a good time. Nothing really moved to fast at the ole’ La Taqueria and that is the way we liked it. We had the radio on and couldn’t care much for the playlist due to the stupid banter going on between us. Until, all of sudden, the entire place fell silent. Did the the DJ just say Stevie Ray Vaughan is dead?
As people from the surrounding offices, restaurants and passers by poured into the tiny kitchen we knew it was true. For our generation, It was the day the music died…
From Dirk Johnson The New York Times (August 28th, 1990)
Stevie Ray Vaughan, one of the nation’s top blues guitarists, and four other people were killed in a helicopter crash here early today after a performance with Eric Clapton at an outdoor theater. Mr. Vaughan was 35 years old.
The other victims were the pilot and three members of Mr. Clapton’s entourage. There were no survivors. Those killed were Bobby Brooks, Mr. Clapton’s agent; Nigel Browne, his bodyguard; Colin Smythe, one of his tour managers; and the pilot, Jeffrey Brown.
To read the full NYT’s Obituary, click HERE.
“I don’t think anyone has commanded my respect more, to this day. The first time I heard Stevie Ray, I thought, “Whoever this is, he is going to shake the world.” I was in my car and I remember thinking, I have to find out, before the day is over, who that guitar player is. That doesn’t happen to me very often, that I get that way about listening to music. I mean, about three or four times in my life I’ve felt that way, in a car, listening to the radio, where I’ve stopped the car, pulled over, listened, and thought, I’ve got to find out before the end of the day, not, you know, sooner or later, but I have to know NOW who that is.” – Eric Clapton
To get SRV’s full story, music, tributes and everything else you need to know, click HERE.
R.I.P. Stevie Ray Vaughan (1954-1990)
