Maestro to Maestro - Stevie Ray Vaughan / Muddy Waters

 

Muddy Waters and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Carlos Alomar: One day, Stevie said he can’t make a rehearsal because he was in mourning. I said, “I’m really sorry for your loss. Who died?’” “Muddy Waters.” “Oh, did you know him?” “Not really.”

At first, I said, “I understand mourning, but we’ve got a rehearsal to do.” But no, no, no, brother, you do not tell a bluesman to just keep on walking when Muddy Waters died! That is a sacrilegious thought, so rehearsal was canceled, to Bowie’s chagrin. I had to respectfully say, “You cannot make the man, a true bluesman, come, David. I’ll cover his parts, and we can rehearse without him, but you’ve got to leave him alone.”

Cutter 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.”

From Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan by Alan Paul

Photos by Kirby Warnock

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