Stevie Ray Vaughan – 26 Impressive Facts You Didn’t Know

Do you think you know all there is to know about Stevie Ray Vaughan? Or would you like to know more about the Texan guitarist? Keep reading for some impressive facts you probably didn’t know.

He Played Guitar On The Soundtrack To Rocky IV

James Brown Famously sang “Living In America” on the soundtrack of Rocky IV starring Sylvester Stallone. But did you know Stevie Ray Vaughan played guitar on that track? Probably not, because he was so disappointed with the way his work could hardly be heard that he asked representatives of the album if his name could be removed from the credits, it was.

 The problem was his guitar sound had been mixed so low,that they can hardly be heard. He felt insulted and said at the time, “I don’t understand it at all, It’s kind of, and I don’t want to take it this way, but it’s kind of insulting.  There’s only enough of what I played on there to legally use my name. You can’t really even tell what I played. I can show you what I played on it and where I played. I mean I played on the whole thing. They had me do the whole thing several times so that they could have different parts of the same style to use. And this is the first mix I’ve heard that didn’t use my guitar part all the way through. I’d used parts of a song that I was writin’ and I blew it off. I blew it off so that I could keep this one in a separate place.  Now they didn’t use my parts that are on there. I don’t know — it’s just that I’m kinda shocked.” 

He Recorded “Texas Flood” In Just 3 Days

Jackson Browne heard Stevie and Double Trouble playing and offered the use of his studio for 3 days. Stevie accepted and used the first day just getting all of the sounds right and dialling the guitars in. By the end of the third day, the album“Texas Flood” was recorded.

He Couldn’t Read A Note Of Music

He once said of music “It was more like math to me. A lot of the songs I write now…I don’t even know what key they’re in”

He Played With Double Trouble At A Private Party For The Rolling Stones

At the Danceteria Nightclub in New York City on the 22nd of April 1982 at a Rolling Stones party, Stevie and Double Trouble played a gig for the Stones. Guests included Johnny Winter, Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood. 

His Debut Album “Texas Flood” Contains 4 Covers

Most bands like to showcase their own material on their first album, but Stevie included 4 covers on his debut album. “Tell Me” was a Howlin’ Wolf track, “Testify” was an Isley Brothers track, “Mary Had a Little Lamb” was a cover of the Buddy Guy cover and “Texas Flood “was a cover of the Larry Davis track. In fact Stevie was so intrigued with the guitar work on “Texas Flood” when he first heard it, that he said he had to learn how to play it.

He called his Number one Strat a ‘59 Even Though It Was Actually A ‘62

Stevie Ray Vaughan had a Fender Strat that he referred to as his number one Strat. He also called it his first wife. He always called it his ‘59 Strat even though it was a ‘62 Strat. He called it a ‘59 Strat because of the wiring he’d found in it.The back of the pick-ups said ‘59, but the body was a ‘62 Strat.

His Number One Strat Was Refretted Every Year

SRV played the guitar so hard that he wore the frets out and also damaged the fretboard as well with the way he played. His luthier and guitar tech Rene Martinez, who Stevie had known for years told him this would be the last time it could be repaired because the fretboard was becoming too thin due to having to be made level every fret replacement.

He Used Jumbo Frets On His Guitars

On the advice of his guitar tech, Stevie’s frets were replaced with jumbo frets so they could be worked on and reshaped during the year.

He Played Using A High Action

The action on SRV’s guitars was so high that his guitar tech said he used to “adjust the screws down at the bridge to raise the height and I would run out of thread-I couldn’t make the strings any higher”.

He Used To Be A Dishwasher For 70 Cents An Hour

When Stevie was 16 he took a job at a hamburger stand, his role was washing dishes and dumping the rubbish for 70 cents per hour.

He Tuned His Guitars To E-flat

When asked why he tuned the guitar down to E-flat, Stevie said, “I can’t sing in E; It’s gotta be in E-flat”.

He Used The Bottom Of The Pick To Play The Guitar Strings

Due to his aggressive playing style and extremely heavy gauge strings, Stevie played the strings using the thicker bottom of the pick as opposed to the smaller, thinner, pointy end.

His First Studio Recording Was With A Band That Included The Actor Stephen Tobolowsky

The band were called “Cast of Thousands” They performed two tracks for a compilation album called  “A New High” which featured multiple teenage bands from Dallas. Stevie was the youngest member of the “Cast of Thousands” and Tobolowsky recalls there was some friction within the band for including him. That was until they heard him play…

He Played Guitar On David Bowie’s Hit Album, “Let’s Dance”

David Bowie saw Stevie play at the 1982  Montreux jazz festival and got talking to him after the show. Then months later he tracked Stevie down in California and asked him to come and play guitar for him on his latest album. Stevie went to New York and dubbed his guitar over the already recorded tracks of “Let’s Dance” and “China Girl”.

He Left The Bowie Camp to Concentrate On His Own Band

At some point during their working together, Stevie asked Bowie’s management team if he and his band Double Trouble could open for Bowie. He said it made sense as he was playing guitar for Bowie anyway. But the management team didn’t like the idea, so Stevie left them and went back to concentrate on Double Trouble.

One Of His Guitars Was A Gift From Billy Gibbons

Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top fame, commissioned James Hamilton of Hamiltone Guitars to build a guitar for Stevie. On the night it was presented to him at Springfest at the University of Buffalo he played it all night. Stevie nicknamed this guitar “Main”.

He Jammed With Many Blues Legends During The 70s 

At the time he was playing guitar in a band called “Paul Ray and the Cobras” he spent some of his time in Antones, a club that became known as Austin’s home of the blues. Stevie got to jam with the likes of Albert King, Jimmy Rogers, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Hubert Sumlin and Buddy Guy.

He Featured in A TV Ad For Europa Fuel In New Zealand

He appears along with his then fiance Janna Lapidus and others as they drive around New Zealand before stopping near a plane (DC3) parked in a small town. On entering a pub, they join Stevie on the stage.

He Could Play Every Note Of Every Song On The Album “Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs”

The Derek and the Dominos album which featured Eric Clapton and also featured the hit song Layla was all part of Stevie’s repertoire. Including all of Clapton’s solos.

He Made Lonnie Mack Relearn His Own Song

Lonnie Mack recalled the first time he heard Stevie play, when Stevie was playing “Wham!” one of Lonnie’s songs and let’s allow Lonnie to tell the story in his own words. “When I walked in the door, he was playing ‘Wham!’ And I said, ‘Dadgum.’ He was playing it right. I’d been playing it wrong for a long time and needed to go back and listen to my original record. That was in ’78, I believe”.

He Played Guitar On The Album Heartbeat By Don Johnson

When Don Johnson the Miami Vice actor made an album in 1986, Stevie played guitar on it. The album reached number 27 on the Hot 100 chart.

He Named One Of His Guitars After His Wife Who Bought it For Him

The story goes that Stevie saw a 1965 sunburst Fender Stratocaster in a pawn shop in 1980. It was priced at $300 which was more than he had at that time. His wife Lenora got six of her friends to chip in £50 each and she gave it to him as a birthday gift. He named the guitar “Lenny” after his wife and sat down with it and wrote the song “Lenny”.

He Played A Halloween Gig In Fancy Dress As Jimi Hendrix

In 1980 at the Austin Rehearsal Complex, Stevie played the whole show dressed as Jimi including a curly wig.

At One Point He Wanted To Be Called “Sting Ray”

Before deciding on being called Stevie Ray, he considered being known as StingRay. 

He Was In The Movie “Back to the Beach”

In the 1987 movie “Back to the Beach” Stevie performs the track “Pipeline” along with Dick Dale.

He May Have Foreseen His Own Death

According to eyewitnesses who watched Stevie play his last gig on that fateful night when he died, many said he had a halo of light around him as he played. His guitar tech said that Stevie hugged everyone and told them how much he loved them. He then got into the helicopter that crashed almost immediately after take off killing all of the occupants, including Stevie Ray Vaughan.

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Do You Have An Impressive Fact About SRV That We’ve Left Out?

That’s our 26 impressive facts about Stevie Ray Vaughan, Do you have any we’ve missed? Let us know in the comments.