To this day I still remember the moment when I happened to stumble upon the guitar icon just my mistake playing live in 1982.

It was during the summer at the annual music event called Chicago Fest at Soldiers Field. I was there with my brother in law.

The event was both inside and outside of the stadium. Inside I saw “Chicago” and the “Beach Boys” while outside there were beer pavilions that highlighted different styles of music.

My brother in law went to the bathroom and I was told to sit down at the edge of the Budweiser Pavilion. There was the song below playing and I looked up to see this trio playing this song about 150 feet away. They looked like some back woods band playing in the big city for their first time. Their attitude was bluesy and Rock & Roll epitomized to a “T”.

The drummer was on this small set, the bass player looked like the average guy that you might bump into on the street but the guitar player was a hold out from the 60’s. They were very tight and looked quite at home in their element on stage. The guitar player was the one who stood out like nothing that I have ever witnessed live before.

He had this great looking beat up old battered 1959 Fender Strat with a big rimmed hat with these fairly big silver Texas round things on it. His hands were just mesmerizing to look at. The sound was very southern. He even played part of the solo with his teeth. Up to that point in my life, I had never seen anyone play like this except Mr. Hendrix on old video footage.

I just sat there for a short period of time before I went up a little further. I was just in awe of this guy playing guitar. I also couldn’t believe that the crowd was so small for the talent that was in front of us, but what a huge win for the ones who were there.

I later found out who it was and he had just came back from recording the “Let’s Dance” album with David Bowie. He turned down the opportunity to tour with him to pursue his own tour with his band. This must have been a big ballsie move in Bowie’s eye’s to pull something like this off. Imagine the exposure that he would have gotten from touring with Bowie! Anyways, it was a concert that I will forever cherish.

So Mr Stevie Ray Vaughan (October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990), R.I.P.

Keep on Jammin’ Stevie