AUGUST 27, 1990 – Singer/songwriter/guitarist STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN (b. October 3, 1954 in Dallas, Texas) one of the founders of blues rock band Double Trouble, died when the helicopter in which he was traveling crashed on the side of a ski hill at Alpine Valley Resort near near Elkhorn and East Troy, Wisconsin. All five people on board the helicopter were killed. Vaughan had just performed the second of two consecutive nights at the resort’s amphitheater with his band Double Trouble. The Headliner was Eric Clapton, with other featured artists including Buddy Guy and Robert Cray & His Memphis Horns.
The day before his death, Vaughan told his band and crew members about a horrible nightmare he had, in which he was at his own funeral and saw thousands of mourners. He felt “terrified, yet almost peaceful.” Before the last song of the show at Alpine Valley Music Theatre, Clapton stepped up to the microphone. “I’d like to bring out to join me, in truth, the best guitar players in the entire world: Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robert Cray… Jimmie Vaughan.” The group lit into an extended jam of the classic “Sweet Home Chicago,” with 40,000 people soaking up blistering guitar licks as the performers traded vocals.
Backstage after the show that evening, the musicians talked about playing together again, particularly with Eric Clapton for a series of dates at London’s Royal Albert Hall in February and March 1991, as a tribute to Jimi Hendrix. Moments later, Peter Jackson, Clapton’s tour manager, said that the weather was getting worse and they had to leave soon. According to Double Trouble drummer Chris Layton, Vaughan’s last words to him were, “I love ya.”
Tour manager Skip Rickert had reserved helicopters from Omni Flights to bypass congested highway traffic after the concert. The helicopters chosen were Bell 260B Jet Rangers, which were enough for five people to be seated, including the pilot. Dew was settling on the windshields of the four helicopters waiting to transport the performers back to Chicago. Greg Rzab, a member of the Buddy Guy blues band who was on one of the four helicopters, said that the fog, and condensation sticking to the craft’s exterior, were thick on takeoff. “We kept wiping the glass bubble on the copter … and after we got up 10 feet, it fogged up again and we couldn’t see,” Rzab said. “I turned to Buddy and said, ‘This is really bad,’ and Buddy just looked at me and said, ‘I hope they know where they’re going.’ ” Just past the lift-off zone was a 300-foot hill.
Stevie Ray, his elder brother Jimmie Vaughan, and his wife Connie made their way to their reserved helicopter, a Bell 206B Jet Ranger, registration N16933, booked by Omniflight Helicopters and piloted by Jeff Brown, a 42-year-old veteran pilot. Peter Jackson, one of Clapton’s tour managers, let Vaughan know that three seats were reserved for himself, Jimmie, and Connie. Upon arrival, they discovered that their seats had been taken by members of Clapton’s crew, agent Bobby Brooks, bodyguard Nigel Browne, and assistant tour manager Colin Smythe. Vaughan, wanting to get back to Chicago, asked Jimmie and Connie if he could take the last seat, saying “I really need to get back.” They obliged and caught the next flight in Lake Geneva with Layton and Jimmie’s manager, Mark Proct.
At 1 a.m., four helicopters departed in dense fog at two-minute intervals. Three made it, but the last one flew barely a half-mile before crashing into a ski slope. Stevie Ray Vaughan’s pilot was Jeff W. Brown, who was experienced with more than 5,000 hours of flight time, including 4,327 in a helicopter. Records from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) showed that he had been involved in two previous minor crashes, including an “uncontrolled collision with the ground” in 1977 and a crash in September 1989 blamed on engine malfunction. The commercial pilot has also had his certificate suspended for four days in 1973 for improper marking of an aircraft, according to FAA spokesman Roland Helwig, at the agency’s center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
When Brown ascended, he was occupying the right seat in the cockpit, and guided the helicopter off the golf course, remaining at a high speed and slightly lower altitude than the others. It banked sharply to the left and crashed into the side of a 300-foot-high ski slope, about 0.6 miles (0.97 km) from takeoff. All on board were killed instantly. With no fire or explosion, the bodies and debris were scattered over an area of 200 square feet (19 m2). Nobody was aware of the crash until the helicopter failed to arrive at its destination the next morning. It wasn’t until about 4:30 a.m., after the other choppers made it to Chicago, that it appeared something was amiss, prompting a two-hour search.
At 7 a.m., a Wisconsin Civil Air Patrol search helicopter, carrying sheriff’s deputies, found the wreckage, which was 50 feet (15 m) scattered along a gravel service road near the top of the hill below the summit. Vaughan was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident, where it was stated that all of the victims were killed instantly. Shortly after, Clapton and Jimmie Vaughan were called to the morgue to identify the bodies. According to an autopsy report, Vaughan had suffered many unsurvivable injuries, such as transection and dissection of the aorta and multiple depressed skull fractures, along with ruptured spleen and liver, and fractures of the right thigh bone and ribs. An investigation found that no drugs or alcohol were involved, and all victims had worn seatbelts. No mechanical failures or malfunctions were found with the helicopter Pilot Jeff Brown was instrument rated and had many hours of experience operating the Bell 206B at night. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the cause of the accident was deemed to be controlled flight into terrain; Brown simply could not see the hill due to low visibility.
Shortly after local news stations reported Vaughan’s death, crowds gathered at Zilker Park in Austin, Texas for a candlelight vigil. Back in Vaughan’s hometown of Austin, and throughout the nation, his loss was sorely felt. “His death is particularly sad, given that he’d cleaned up and was playing the best music of his life,” said Jeff Peterson of the “Austin City Limits” TV program on which Vaughan had appeared.
“Stevie Ray Vaughan was like one of my children. ” said B.B. King. “The loss is a great loss for blues music and all fans of music around the world. He was just beginning to be appreciated and develop his potential.”
“Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bobby Brooks, Nigel Browne and Colin Smythe were my companions, my associates and my friends,” Eric Clapton said in a written statement for the crash. “This is a tragic loss of some very special people. I will miss all of them very much. I want to extend my deepest sympathies to their families.”
Vaughan’s death triggered an outpouring of grief and shock around the world. Private funeral services were held, with over 1,500 people attending and 3,000 more outside the chapel with public graveside committal at noon on August 31, 1990, at Laurel Land Funeral Home in Dallas, where Stevie was buried next to his father who has died four years prior. Vaughan’s fiancée, Janna Lapidus and Jimmie and Martha Vaughan were in attendance. Among the other mourners were Stevie Wonder, Buddy Guy, Dr. John, ZZ Top, Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and Nile Rodgers.
The family asked that donations go to the Stevie Ray Vaughan charitable fund of the Communities Foundation of Texas in Dallas. The fund, set up after his death, was to be used for drug abuse programs. Now, there are many drug rehab program options available to any person who wants to get rid of his drug habit.
Omniflight, the company that owned and operated the helicopter, was sued for negligence by Martha and Jimmie Vaughan. They claimed that Pilot Jeff Brown operated the helicopter recklessly under visual flight rules while in instrument meteorological conditions. The lawsuit ended in a settlement. The widows of Clapton’s bodyguard, Nigel Browne, and assistant tour manager, Colin Smythe, received more than $2 million in settlements.
The album “Family Style” was the only collaboration recorded with his brother Jimmie, was released in September 1990 and became Stevie Ray Vaughan’s best-selling non-Double Trouble album. Jimmie Vaughan later co-wrote and recorded a song in tribute to his brother and other deceased blues guitarists titled “Six Strings Down”. Bonnie Raitt’s 1991 album “Luck of the Draw” was dedicated to him. Many other artists recorded songs in remembrance of Vaughan, including Eric Johnson, Tommy Emmanuel, Buddy Guy, Steve Vai, Ezra Charles and Wayne Perkins. Stevie Wonder, whose “Superstition” Vaughan covered, honored him with “Stevie Ray Blues” on his 1995 live album “Natural Wonder.” Musicians such as Joe Bonamassa, John Mayer, Robert Randolph, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Mark Tremonti, Chris Duarte, Colin James, Los Lonely Boys, Mike McCready, Eric Johnson, Orianthi, John Petrucci, and Doyle Bramhall II have cited Vaughan as an influence.
In November of 1993, a statue memorializing the blues guitarist was dedicated in Town Lake Park, Austin, Texas – near the site of his last Austin concert. On August 6, 1996, “A Tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan” was released, on which Clapton covers several Vaughan compositions, in addition to B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Dr. John, Bonnie Raitt, Jimmie Vaughan, and Robert Cray.
An annual motorcycle ride and concert in Dallas Texas now benefits the Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial Scholarship Fund. The city of Austin erected the Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial Statue at Auditorium Shores on Lady Bird Lake, the site of a number of his concerts. It has become one of the city’s most popular tourist attractions. Since 1998, St. Louis has hosted an annual Stevie Ray Vaughan Tribute Concert around Thanksgiving featuring local musicians. In 2000, Vaughan was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. He also became eligible for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2008, residents voted to rename Dallas’ Industrial Boulevard, with Vaughan’s name being one of the finalists alongside Stanley Marcus, Eddie Bernice Johnson, and César Chávez. Stevie Ray Vaughan was eventually inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.
Plane crashes have claimed other pop and rock stars: Otis Redding, Jim Croce, Rick Nelson, Ronnie Van Zant, Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens. But in the world of blues generally and electric guitar specifically, the East Troy crash is a singular tragedy that resonates to this day. “After he cleaned himself up, by 1990, he was back to playing guitar in a ferocious way. The tour with Eric Clapton, those shows are legendary,” said Jason Hanley, senior director of education for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. “…Who knows what he would have done next.”
SOURCES:
http://www.stevieray.com/
http://www.srvofficial.com/us/home
http://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/SRVaughan-N16933.htm
http://www.rollingstone.com/…/…/stevie-ray-vaughan/biography
http://www.allmusic.com/…/stevie-ray-vaughan-mn00…/biography
http://www.biography.com/people/stevie-ray-vaughan-9516459
http://www.guitarworld.com/stevie-ray-vaughan-biography
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fvakr
http://www.mojohand.com/stevierayvaughanbiography.htm
http://www.blues101.org/biographies/biosrv.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevie_Ray_Vaughan
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stevie-Ray-Vaughan-Biography/496870560337
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