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On the early morning of Monday, August 27, 1990, American musician
Stevie Ray Vaughan Stephen Ray Vaughan (October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was an American musician, best known as the guitarist and frontman of the blues rock trio Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. Although his mainstream career spanned only seven years, ...
was killed in a helicopter crash near East Troy, Wisconsin, at age 35. He was one of the most influential
blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the ...
guitarists of the 1980s, described by the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and ...
as "the second coming of the blues". Vaughan spent many of his last days performing with his band Double Trouble as the opening act for
Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list o ...
at
Alpine Valley Music Theatre Alpine Valley Music Theatre is a 37,000-capacity amphitheater located on County Highway D in East Troy, Wisconsin. The seasonal venue was built in 1977 and it features a characteristic wooden roof, covering the 7,500-seat pavilion and a sprawlin ...
. After the concert concluded, Vaughan and three members of Clapton's entourage boarded a helicopter that crashed into the side of a nearby ski hill shortly after takeoff. The
Civil Air Patrol Civil Air Patrol (CAP) is a congressionally chartered, federally supported non-profit corporation that serves as the official civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force (USAF). CAP is a volunteer organization with an aviation-minded mem ...
was notified of the crash at 4:30 am, and authorities were called to locate the scene of the accident. All five people were pronounced dead on arrival. The autopsy concluded that Vaughan suffered multiple internal injuries and died of
exsanguination Exsanguination is death caused by loss of blood. Depending upon the health of the individual, people usually die from losing half to two-thirds of their blood; a loss of roughly one-third of the blood volume is considered very serious. Even a sin ...
due to blunt trauma. At the
inquest An inquest is a judicial inquiry in common law jurisdictions, particularly one held to determine the cause of a person's death. Conducted by a judge, jury, or government official, an inquest may or may not require an autopsy carried out by a c ...
, the coroner found no evidence of drug or alcohol use and recorded death by misadventure. The
National Transportation Safety Board The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and inci ...
(NTSB) concluded that the pilot failed to gain sufficient altitude to avoid rising terrain. Vaughan was buried at Laurel Land Cemetery in
Dallas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...
, Texas, on August 31, 1990. In 1992, his family filed a
wrongful death Wrongful death claim is a claim against a person who can be held liable for a death. The claim is brought in a civil action, usually by close relatives, as enumerated by statute. In wrongful death cases, survivors are compensated for the harm, ...
lawsuit against Omniflight Helicopters, which was settled for an undisclosed amount in 1995.


Crash

The day before his death, Stevie Ray Vaughan allegedly told his band and crew members about a nightmare that he had in which he was at his own funeral and saw thousands of mourners. He felt "terrified, yet almost peaceful". 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 The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...
in early 1991 as a tribute to
Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...
.Dickerson, p. 154 Moments later, Clapton's tour manager, Peter Jackson, said that the weather was getting worse and they had to leave soon. Vaughan's last words to drummer Chris Layton were, "I love ya."Everitt, p. 132 Four helicopters were waiting on a golf course to transport concert group members to Chicago. Vaughan was with his brother
Jimmie Vaughan Jimmie Vaughan (born March 20, 1951) is an American blues rock guitarist and singer based in Austin, Texas. He is the older brother of the late Texas blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. Several notable blues guitarists have had a significant ...
and Jimmie's wife Connie as they went to board their reserved
Bell 206 The Bell 206 is a family of two-bladed, single- and twin-engined helicopters, manufactured by Bell Helicopter at its Mirabel, Quebec, plant. Originally developed as the Bell YOH-4 for the United States Army's Light Observation Helicopter prog ...
B Jet Ranger helicopter piloted by Jeff Brown. Jackson had told Vaughan that seats were reserved for all three of them. However, they discovered that the seats had been taken by Clapton's agent Bobby Brooks, bodyguard Nigel Browne, and assistant tour manager Colin Smythe, with only one empty seat available.Gregory, p. 119 Vaughan asked Jimmie and Connie if he could take the last seat, saying, "I really need to get back." Jimmie and Connie obliged and caught the next flight in
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin Lake Geneva is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located in Walworth County and situated on Geneva Lake, it is home to an estimated 8,105 people as of 2019, up from 7,651 at the 2010 census. It is located about 40 miles southwest of Mil ...
, with manager Mark Proct. Vaughan and the other three passengers departed aboard the third helicopter in dense fog at 1:00 amKitts, p. 70 Brown piloted the helicopter off the golf course, at a higher speed and slightly lower altitude than the others.Everitt, p. 134 It banked sharply to the left and crashed into the side of a 300-foot ski slope,Dickerson, p. 155 about from takeoff. All on board were killed instantly. No fire or explosion occurred, and the bodies and debris were scattered over .Everitt, p. 134 No one was aware of the crash until the helicopter failed to arrive at its destination. A Wisconsin Civil Air Patrol search airplane found the wreckage at 7 am, below the summit of the hill. 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 a ruptured spleen and liver and fractures of the right thigh bone and ribs. An investigation found that no drugs or alcohol were involved, and that all victims had worn seatbelts. No mechanical failures or malfunctions were found with the helicopter. Brown had many hours of experience operating the Bell 206B at night, but he was only instrument rated on airplanes, not helicopters. In fact, not long before the flight, Brown had failed an instrument check ride. According to the NTSB, the cause of the accident was deemed
controlled flight into terrain In aviation, a controlled flight into terrain (CFIT; usually ) is an accident in which an airworthy aircraft, under pilot control, is unintentionally flown into the ground, a mountain, a body of water or an obstacle. In a typical CFIT scenario, ...
, as Brown could not see the hill due to low visibility.


Aftermath

Vaughan's death triggered an outpouring of grief around the world. The album ''
Family Style Restaurants fall into several industry classifications, based upon menu style, preparation methods and pricing, as well as the means by which the food is served to the customer. This article mainly describes the situation in the USA, while catego ...
'', the only collaboration recorded with his brother Jimmie, was released in September 1990 and became Vaughan's best-selling non-Double Trouble album. On August 30, 1990, Vaughan was buried at Laurel Land Memorial Park in Dallas. Funeral services were held, with over 1,500 people attending and 3,000 more outside the chapel. His fiancée, Janna Lapidus, and Jimmie and Martha Vaughan were in attendance. Among the other mourners were Clapton,
Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, pop, s ...
,
Buddy Guy George "Buddy" Guy (born July 30, 1936) is an American blues guitarist and singer. He is an exponent of Chicago blues who has influenced generations of guitarists including Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Stevie Ray Vaugh ...
,
Dr. John Malcolm John Rebennack Jr. (November 20, 1941 – June 6, 2019), better known by his stage name Dr. John, was an American singer and songwriter. His music encompassed New Orleans blues, jazz, funk, and R&B. Active as a session musician from ...
,
ZZ Top ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. For 51 years, they comprised vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard and vocalist-bassist Dusty Hill, until Hill's death in 2021. ZZ Top developed a signature sou ...
,
Bonnie Raitt Bonnie Lynn Raitt (; born November 8, 1949) is an American blues singer and guitarist. In 1971, Raitt released her self-titled debut album. Following this, she released a series of critically acclaimed roots-influenced albums that incorporated ...
,
Jackson Browne Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and political activist who has sold over 18 million albums in the United States. Emerging as a precocious teenage songwriter in mid-1960s Los Angeles, he h ...
, and
Nile Rodgers Nile Gregory Rodgers Jr. (born September 19, 1952) is an American musician, record producer and composer. The co-founder of Chic, Rodgers has written, produced, and performed on records that have sold more than 500 million albums and 75 million ...
. 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 In aviation, visual flight rules (VFR) are a set of regulations under which a pilot operates an aircraft in weather conditions generally clear enough to allow the pilot to see where the aircraft is going. Specifically, the weather must be better ...
(VFR) while in
instrument meteorological conditions In aviation, instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) is a flight category that describes weather conditions that require pilots to fly primarily by reference to instruments, and therefore under instrument flight rules (IFR), rather than by o ...
. 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.


Memorials and tributes

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 William Thomas Emmanuel (born 31 May 1955) is an Australian guitarist. Regarded as one of the greatest acoustic guitarists of all time, he is known for his complex fingerstyle technique, energetic performances and use of percussive effects on ...
,
Buddy Guy George "Buddy" Guy (born July 30, 1936) is an American blues guitarist and singer. He is an exponent of Chicago blues who has influenced generations of guitarists including Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Stevie Ray Vaugh ...
,
Steve Vai Steven Siro Vai (; born June 6, 1960) is an American guitarist, composer, songwriter, and producer. A three-time Grammy Award winner and fifteen-time nominee, Vai started his music career in 1978 at the age of eighteen as a transcriptionist f ...
, Ezra Charles,
White Lion The white lion is a rare color mutation of the lion, specifically the Southern African lion. White lions in the area of Timbavati are thought to have been indigenous to the Timbavati region of South Africa for centuries, although the earliest ...
, and Wayne Perkins. Stevie Wonder, whose "
Superstition A superstition is any belief or practice considered by non-practitioners to be irrational or supernatural, attributed to fate or magic, perceived supernatural influence, or fear of that which is unknown. It is commonly applied to beliefs ...
" Vaughan covered, honored him with "Stevie Ray Blues" on his 1995 live album '' Natural Wonder''. Musicians such as Joe Bonamassa,Chappell, p. 251
John Mayer John Clayton Mayer ( ; born October 16, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Born and raised in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Mayer attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but left and moved to Atlanta in 1997 wit ...
, Robert Randolph,
Kenny Wayne Shepherd Kenny Wayne Shepherd (born Kenny Wayne Brobst; June 12, 1977) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He has released several studio albums and experienced significant commercial success as a blues artist. Life and career Shepherd wa ...
,Gregory, p. 153
Mark Tremonti Mark Thomas Tremonti (born April 18, 1974) is an American guitarist and singer, best known for his tenures with the rock bands Creed and Alter Bridge. He is a founding member of both bands, and has also collaborated with many other artists over ...
, Chris Duarte,
Colin James Colin James (born Colin James Munn, August 17, 1964) is a Canadian rock and blues singer and songwriter. Biography Early years James was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. His grandpa was Serbian. He got his break opening for Stevie Ray V ...
,Kitts, p. 76
Los Lonely Boys Los Lonely Boys are an American musical group from San Angelo, Texas. They play a style of music they call "Texican Rock n' Roll," combining elements of rock and roll, Texas blues, brown-eyed soul, country, and Tejano. The band consists of ...
,
Mike McCready Michael David McCready (born April 5, 1966) is an American musician who serves as the lead guitarist for the rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of the band. McCready ...
, Eric Johnson,
Orianthi Orianthi Penny Panagaris (born 22 January 1985), known mononymously as Orianthi, is an Australian guitarist, singer and songwriter who rehearsed in 2009 with Michael Jackson in preparation for his '' This Is It'' concert series, and performed wi ...
,
John Petrucci John Peter Petrucci (born July 12, 1967) is an American guitarist, best known as a founding member of the progressive metal band Dream Theater. He produced or co-produced (often with former member Mike Portnoy before he departed the band in 201 ...
, and
Doyle Bramhall II Doyle Bramhall II (born December 24, 1968) is an American guitarist, producer and songwriter best known for his work with Eric Clapton and Roger Waters. He is the son of the songwriter and drummer Doyle Bramhall. Early life Bramhall was born i ...
Gregory, p. 150 have cited Vaughan as an influence. An annual motorcycle ride and concert in Dallas benefits the Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial Scholarship Fund. The city of
Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
, erected the Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial Statue at Auditorium Shores on
Lady Bird Lake Lady Bird Lake (formerly, and still colloquially referred to as Town Lake) is a river-like reservoir on the Colorado River in Austin, Texas, United States. The City of Austin created the reservoir in 1960 as a cooling pond for a new city power pl ...
, the site of a number of his concerts. It has become one of the city's most popular tourist attractions. Since 1998,
St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
, Missouri, 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 The Blues Hall of Fame is a music museum located at 421 S. Main Street in Memphis, Tennessee. Initially, the "Blues Hall of Fame" was not a physical building, but a listing of people who have significantly contributed to blues music. Started in 1 ...
. He also became eligible for the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and ...
in 2008. In 2008, residents voted to rename Industrial Boulevard in Dallas, with Vaughan's name being one of the finalists, alongside
Stanley Marcus Harold Stanley Marcus"Personal" (column), ''The Dallas Morning News'', November 9, 1905, page 5. (April 20, 1905 – January 22, 2002) was president (1950–1972) and later chairman of the board (1972–1976) of the luxury retailer Neiman ...
,
Eddie Bernice Johnson Eddie Bernice Johnson (born December 3, 1935) is an American politician who represents Texas's in the United States House of Representatives. Johnson is a member of the Democratic Party. Elected in 1992, Johnson was the first registered nurse ...
, and
César Chávez Cesar Chavez (born Cesario Estrada Chavez ; ; March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) was an American labor leader and civil rights activist. Along with Dolores Huerta, he co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later merg ...
."Stanley Marcus, Stevie Ray Vaughan make Industrial Boulevard list"
/ref> In the end, it was renamed to Riverfront Boulevard. Stevie Ray Vaughan was eventually inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015 by
John Mayer John Clayton Mayer ( ; born October 16, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Born and raised in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Mayer attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but left and moved to Atlanta in 1997 wit ...
.


See also

* 1991 Bill Graham Helicopter Crash *
The Day the Music Died On February 3, 1959, American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and "The Big Bopper" J. P. Richardson were all killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, together with pilot Roger Peterson. The event later beca ...


Notes


Bibliography

* * * * * *


External links


NTSB report
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaughan, Stevie Ray, Death Of
Death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...
1990 in American music 1990 in Wisconsin Airliner accidents and incidents caused by pilot error August 1990 events in the United States Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1990 Aviation accidents and incidents in Wisconsin Aviation accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain Accidents and incidents involving the Bell 206 Deaths by person in Wisconsin History of Wisconsin Walworth County, Wisconsin