Texas Flood

by Alan Paul

  Stevie and Lenny. (Courtesy Gary Wiley)

  BRANDENBURG: He planned to go to Muddy’s funeral, but he was really having a hard time with drugs and couldn’t get it together. He always felt bad about that, but I know Muddy would have understood. He was a kind and loving, sweet man who called Stevie “my baby boy.”

  LAYTON: The Dallas Morning News ran a big story on Stevie, headlined DALLAS’ FAVORITE SON on the front of the Entertainment section with a huge picture of Stevie and a little tiny shot of Bowie. Lenny felt that Stevie wasn’t getting his due, and she went to the rehearsal with the paper, walked right up to Bowie, and threw it down at his feet. She said, “Look at that!” Lenny’s intensity was not something Bowie would tolerate, and she and Stevie were doing a lot of drugs.

  EDI JOHNSON: Lenny was causing a lot of problems, and someone called Chesley and said, “Get that woman out of here.”

  ALOMAR: Lenny disrupted things, but I think it was more of a buildup than one incident. Anyone’s substance abuse problems are private—I don’t care what you do if you play your ass off—but anything that disrupts rehearsal is disruptive. If you go to somebody’s house, you don’t put your feet on the table. If you smoke cigarettes, you don’t ask to leave work to smoke every five minutes.

  LAYTON: Bowie insisted that he orchestrate all press. He was turning the screw a little tighter, and Stevie hated to be controlled; it made him want to break out of jail, and things really started to become strained between Bowie and Stevie’s management.

  ALOMAR: There are many places where wives and children are not allowed, and anything interrupting the rehearsal will not be tolerated. I want everyone to be happy, but we cannot continue moving forward if you keep raising the threshold for our tolerance. It ain’t gonna work, brother. When Lenny was asked not to attend, things got personal: “Anything that’s an affront to my wife is an affront to me.” As musicians, our sensitivities are much greater, and if you’re in an altered state, then that awareness is distorted, and business decisions feel personal.

  LAYTON: Tommy and I were just sitting here in Austin, on salary, wondering what would happen. David’s original pitch was presented as, “Stevie should come and play on my record and world tour. It would be great if Double Trouble came, too, and opened the shows.” But it was really an insinuation as opposed to a real invitation. It was a way to get Stevie interested in the record and tour. There wasn’t any reneging, because it never was an actual offer.

  BRANDENBURG: We were on salary under the impression that we were gonna open some shows, but we were a month or so away from the tour beginning, Stevie’s rehearsing away, we have no dates, and no one from Bowie’s camp is returning my calls. I called Stevie at Las Colinas and said, “I don’t know what’s goin’ on, but I don’t think it’s gonna happen.” I felt something was amiss and told Stevie that.

  SHANNON: We weren’t involved in any of these conversations, but I know that he was pissed off when he found out that they didn’t really want us to open any shows. He didn’t want to leave us in limbo for a year. Meanwhile, Chesley was pressuring Stevie tremendously: “Stevie, you’ve got to do this tour with Bowie!”

  HODGES: There was talk about them opening shows and playing club dates late at night and on off days. Trying to figure out how to make that work with a different agent routing a major arena-level tour is pretty daunting. Having a parallel tour makes sense as a goal, but there are built-in conflicts, including logistical ones. What kind of access is he going to have to the press? How is he going to get from the arena to the club? Who is going to pull him out of the rhythm and schedule of the big tour? What if Bowie is traveling on an off day and you’re trying to play a club in the last city? And how are you going to take care of Stevie’s band and crew 24-7? I remember thinking, “I just hope this all works.”

  As tensions grew between Vaughan’s and Bowie’s camps, Epic was gearing up for the release of Texas Flood. Vaughan’s camp and label were debating if it would serve the album better to have Stevie out promoting the record, or to be featured on a very high-visibility tour with Bowie. When Bowie’s camp moved to New York, Epic set up two industry showcases with Bryan Adams at the Bottom Line on May 9 and 10.

  Among those in attendance were Mick Jagger, John Hammond Jr., Johnny Winter, Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen, and tennis player John McEnroe, ranked number one in the world and a huge star oft seen out on the town.

  LEEDS: We wanted New York radio and press to see Stevie Ray, and my friends at A&M wanted to showcase Bryan Adams. Both projects were going to be attacking album radio, so I suggested doing a showcase together since we’re trying to reach all the same people. A&M agreed but insisted that Bryan had to be the headliner. We were like, “Are you sure?”

  BRANDENBURG: I met Mr. Hammond at the Bottom Line, and he said, “Stevie is a phenomenal artist and he’s going to be an icon, and it’s so obvious.” I said, “I’ve kinda felt this way my whole life about Stevie,” and he said, “Many artists struggle for years to become huge, and others are discovered overnight. I don’t know why, but it’s the obvious ones who seem to take longer.”

  JOHN McENROE, tennis legend and guitarist: Half the crowd was teenage girls there to see the new pop guy Bryan Adams, and the other half was music biz types or musicians who had heard about Stevie Ray. It was a totally bizarre, disparate group of people.

  BRANDENBURG: Bryan Adams’s crew was rude to us, providing very little stage room and no light gels, so Whipper and Tommy were in the shadows and I only had a white spotlight for Stevie, who wore a gold metal shirt that he had bought in a New Orleans secondhand shop. When the light came on, his shirt lit up like he was alive, and his performance was just as blinding.

  LEEDS: Adams was very good and actually more suited to rock radio, but Stevie was a rock-and-roll guitar virtuoso. He went on first and was a total powerhouse, playing behind his head and with total commitment. He’s Jimi Hendrix up there! It was like, “Follow that, motherfucker!”

  McENROE: Stevie blew the doors down. I remember wondering how it was possible for this guy to play for an hour and not miss a note. Stevie destroyed the place and when he was done, everyone left.

  PAUL SHAFFER, bandleader, Late Night with David Letterman: There was a lot of excitement surrounding Stevie and a lot of people from MTV were there to see him play. His performance, which included a lot of Hendrix, was explosive.

  McENROE: His level of intensity was unbelievable and so unexpected. I felt chills running down my spine. Seeing Stevie that first time was like seeing the Police at their peak or seeing a phenomenal Rolling Stones or Bruce Springsteen show. Stadium-level intensity and power in a small club.

  GELLER: There was a big debate whether Stevie should do the tour with Bowie, which would elevate his profile but was at odds with him doing what was best for his own band.

  ALOMAR: Stevie was at the pinnacle of his coming out; everything he had worked on for so long was about to happen, with his own album release riding the wave of Let’s Dance. The thought was doing a David Bowie tour will heighten awareness, and I was very candid when he asked me about this. Anytime I’m with a musician, I feel that we’re brothers, so I was just sharing information and experience. I told him man-to-man that the star here is David Bowie, and his fans might discover you and your new release, but history suggests they won’t. Plus, dude! You only get one shot at your first album, and Bowie’s management are not suddenly gonna put their press team at your disposal. You should know that we’re about Bowie, the greatest superstar in the world.

  HODGES: Stevie was doubting doing the Bowie tour, and I was backstage at the Bottom Line reassuring him that it would help set the stage for his career.

  SHANNON: They gradually started taking things off the table. The idea of us opening some dates fell through. And then Stevie was told that he couldn’t mention his own band or music in interviews.

  ALOMAR: He had all these last-minute negotiations. There are many different things you can discuss, but the unspoke
n law is simple: if you enter into an agreement, honor it. You certainly don’t hold everything up when everybody is downstairs getting ready to go to Brussels to do the first gig because you want to renegotiate your contract. That’s like cold blackmail, and it’s just bad management skills, but I never place things on management because the artist knows everything. So Bowie came to me and said, “I’m having problems.” My reply to that is always the same: never create a problem where there is no problem. You want another guitar player, Slicky [Earl Slick] already knows half of the material, and he certainly can play blues. Given that, it was like, “Sorry, Stevie Ray, you’re out.”

  BENTLEY: I sold a Stevie story to the Los Angeles Times to run when the Bowie tour came to LA. I did a really nice phone interview with Stevie, then he said, “I gotta run. I have to go quit this tour.” I was like, “Are you kidding?” And he said, “No. I’m not a sideman. I have my own band and our own record.”

  LAYTON: Stevie said, “They wanted to try and control what I could say or not say about the record and about me.” That’s really crossing a line with Stevie Ray Vaughan, so he wanted to have a talk with David, and he was told David was on an island and couldn’t be reached. Stevie asked, “Well, don’t they have a phone on that island?” And they said, “David cannot be reached.” Stevie said he told them, “Well, when you can get the word to him, tell him that Stevie Ray quit.”

  SHANNON: There weren’t many people except us telling him that he’d made the right decision. Bailing out when he did was scandalous, but Stevie couldn’t do what he couldn’t put his heart into. Most guitarists would have played the game and worked their career. Stevie always came in the back door, never the front! That was his approach to life.

  LAYTON: We were in New York doing stuff around the Epic deal and suddenly got word that Stevie’s off the tour and we’re going back to Texas. Tommy and I were very happy. I don’t know exactly what happened, and neither does anyone else, but the big picture is Stevie had never been told what to do and he wasn’t going to start right when he seemed on the cusp of getting somewhere with his own music.

  BRANDENBURG: Stevie had worked his whole life to have his music out there. He was not about to blow that off to play on David’s tour. Chesley was gung ho about that happening, and he thought it was a money problem, but it was not about money. Everything changed for him when he found out there were no opening shows.

  J. MARSHALL CRAIG, writer, confidant of Chesley Millikin: Chesley felt like Stevie had really helped relaunch Bowie’s career and they were disrespecting him, treating him just like another sideman. He thought he should be paid more than a backup singer. He wanted Stevie to be on the tour, but not for low pay, no opening shows, not allowed to talk about his own band. Chesley and Charlie Comer held a beef against David Bowie till the end.

  The legend of the unknown Texas renegade quitting the rock superstar’s tour made for an alluring story that boosted Stevie’s image, but the reality is a lot more complicated. Lenny had made herself an unwanted presence at rehearsals, and Millikin was playing hardball with Bowie’s managers, who grew irate about a sideman trying to dictate terms. Vaughan’s departure came at the very last minute as the bus was loading up to take everyone to the airport for the start of the world tour.

  ALOMAR: The bags are packed, and suddenly he ain’t coming. I was in shock. I’m still in shock decades later! You just don’t play that card to David Bowie. Ungracious is a word, but it doesn’t tell you everything. Ingratitude is a word, but it doesn’t tell you everything. We can facilitate a lot, but if you have your own agenda, then desperation makes for desperate moves. I asked him, “What do you think you’re doing here?” I’m not ashamed of that conversation.

  ROJAS: We were on the bus getting ready to fly to Europe, and I looked out the window and saw luggage on the ground and Stevie Ray standing against the hotel wall looking sad and saying goodbye to people. I asked Carlos what was going on in Spanish, which we used as code, and he replied in Spanish, “Stevie’s manager was trying to get more money or have him open up, and they shot it down.” Stevie brought a knife to a gunfight, going up against New York guys who make tours for the Rolling Stones. He hardballed the wrong people, and they weren’t having it. And these guys just moved. We arrived at the airport, and Earl Slick was already there to replace him.

  AL STAEHALEY: Stevie asked me to try and negotiate him back onto the tour, and I tried, but they already had Earl Slick on the payroll. Chesley spun a story: macho Texas guitar slinger tells poofed-up limey to fuck off. It wasn’t really the way things went, but it was the right way for his career to be spun.

  On May 21, 1983, the Austin American-Statesman wrote about Stevie leaving the Bowie tour. Writer Ed Ward quoted Bowie publicist Joe Dera as denying Millikin’s claim that Vaughan’s pay was supbar, adding, “We’re disappointed that the people around Stevie Ray Vaughan have grabbed every opportunity for a publicity stunt.” Still, Ward concluded, “Things may not have reached the end.… All concerned want him on the tour.”

  LAYTON: The advertising and advance on Texas Flood was Let’s Dance, which stoked people’s interest and curiosity about Stevie. People wanted to know who this unknown guitar player who told David Bowie to take a hike was. That was bigger news than if he’d done the tour.

  JIMMIE VAUGHAN: Charlie Comer handled that situation like a genius, finding a way to capitalize on the story and play it to Stevie’s advantage.

  ELWELL: I came home to see Stevie and Lenny standing in front of my house holding a test pressing of Texas Flood, well before it was released. He never had a stereo, and I had a good one, and we were all anxious to hear it. As we listened, Lenny and I were looking at each other, shaking our heads and saying, “We knew it! We knew it!” Stevie was up right on top of the speakers to hear every little pop. That was a magical moment. It was a wax pressing that you can only play about five times, and we wore it out quickly.

  The Austin American-Statesman treated Stevie’s departure from the Bowie tour as major news. (Courtesy Joe Priesnitz)

  Texas Flood was not yet released and the band was back in their van touring clubs when they first saw the “Let’s Dance” video, featuring Bowie miming Vaughan’s guitar solo. He was none too pleased.

  SHANNON: We saw it on the TV of a little club, and Stevie was furious.

  LAYTON: Stevie was about to become world famous as the guy who played that solo, but the video really bothered him. Bowie’s wearing white linen gloves, and Stevie said, “That motherfucker shouldn’t be pretending to be playing shit he wasn’t playing!” He couldn’t understand why Bowie would do that.

  14

  TEXAS FLOOD

  Texas Flood was released on June 13, 1983. Stevie Ray Vaughan was twenty-eight years old and had been grinding hard since he was sixteen. After all the hits and misses, the pieces finally fell into place, and at the center of his national arrival were the tapes he and everyone else thought were a demo, recorded in a couple of days at Jackson Browne’s Los Angeles studio.

  “We never made a record more honest than Texas Flood,” says Layton. “It’s like we walked out there naked and said, ‘Here we are.’”

  “There’s a strong correlation between Texas Flood and The Progressive Blues Experiment, my first record with Johnny Winter,” says Shannon. “Both are just raw blues played live by a trio recorded for virtually no money. I think Texas Flood sounds so powerful because it’s so basic.”

  The album was launched with a release party in Dallas on June 16. Epic flew in many radio VIPs for the show, and they were duly impressed. A week later, Double Trouble launched a national tour in Bloomington, Indiana.

  LAYTON: I don’t think there’s been a more un-thought-out record than Texas Flood! We were just making music—we weren’t making a record for a record company to release.

  SHANNON: I think of Texas Flood as a landmark album. What you hear is a kick-ass band contributing to the spirit and sound together as one. Texas Flood represents the first time many
people ever heard Stevie, and the two things that really set the record in a class by itself are that the performance is pure, honest, and right there, and it has the best guitar tone Stevie ever got on record.

  LAYTON: One of my favorite tracks is “Mary Had a Little Lamb” because it’s so tight. The way we all hit that one note together after Stevie says “Tiskit” always sounded so cool. And the guitar tone on the opening of “Pride and Joy” is as good as anything I’ve ever heard. It all speaks to the innocence and magic of those days.

  SHANNON: I really like “Texas Flood” because I’d never heard anyone play a slow blues so intensely that it was like crossing over into something new. Some of his live solos on the song took my breath away. Every time we started it up, people would stand and scream. I never saw a slow song get that kind of reaction.

  WARREN HAYNES: Stevie had the intensity of rock with the deep feeling of the blues. That was a lethal combination. Just like when Johnny Winter and Jeff Beck first came out playing blues that came across like something that no one had ever heard before. It was exciting and new.

  DR. JOHN: “Texas Flood” became so ingrained in him. It’s part of a Texas thing. It meant something totally different to this cat than it did to anyone else. He did the old Larry Davis song pretty straight, but certain things that came from other people became his thing in a very real way. That openness to other times and things that wasn’t where music was hangin’ at the minute, that’s part of what made Stevie who he was.

  MULLEN: You can hear every little nuance of Stevie’s playing on the album, and his original songs are so strong: “Love Struck Baby,” “Pride and Joy,” “Rude Mood,” and “Dirty Pool.”