Stevie's love for music did come from his mom and dad listening to music and going out dancing. He does have an older brother Jimmie that is three and half years older.
Stevie did get an education but never graduated high school. The school was giving Stevie a hard time about the length of his hair. So Stevie cut the back of his hair short but kept his bangs long to cover his face. But the school would not let up on him so Stevie dropped out his senior year of high school.
At age seven Stevie had a Roy Rogers guitar and he was playing for the company that came to the house. At first Stevie wanted to play drums then he wanted to play the saxophone but only could get a couple of squeaks or two out of it. Then he decided to follow his big brother and play the guitar.
That is when Stevie would sneak into Jimmy's room and start playing his guitars. He would also listen to Jimmy's albums. Stevie would listen to Eric Clapton, B.B King, Chuck Berry and Jimmy Reed and more. He would sit in his room and practice his guitar playing the music.
Stevie's teenage years he was playing in clubs until two am then going to school. But he was starting to fall asleep in school so he dropped out of school. He seen how good his older brother was doing with his band. Jimmy never graduated either. Stevie could play the music but couldn't read music. Kids would be drinking alcohol when they were teenagers and in the cars they would have a case of beer. Stevie played the rockabilly blues. He knew how to play that guitar so good. I just love listening to him on his solos.
Stevie had a great career with his music. But he was drinking and on drugs really bad. In September of 1986 Chris Layton called a doctor in Switzerland to see Stevie. Stevie was really bad he was spitting up blood, bleeding internally and if he didn't get help he would die with in a month. He had called his mom to ask for her help but she was not home. Eric Clapton told Stevie he would help him out with his drugs and alcohol problem. Eric had the same problem and tried to tell Stevie to get off the stuff earlier. Stevie did get clean in late 1986.
On August 27, 1990 is when Stevie passed away in a helicopter crash. Stevie was leaving Alpine Valley in East Troy Wisconsin to go to Chicago. The Crash happened at about 1am after the concert. There was dense fog and they went into a 300 ft hill. It was at about 7:30 am his mom had gotten the news. By noon a shock wave went through the Texas capital and people where walking the streets in a daze. The tv, shops posted signs saying " We Love You SRV " . The city coliseum put on their sign "SRV R.I.P". By about 7:30pm over 3,000 people had gotten together to mourn for Stevie. This is how much he has touch each of these people. They are all strangers and coming together for him.
If you like Stevie Ray this is a must read book. It is excellent and I only did a very short parts of the book. I really enjoyed reading this book you learn a lot of what happened to Stevie growing up and starting his career. I hope everyone enjoys this book as much as I did. I am going to leave you with one of his videos.
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