Chords for MediaTech's Russell Whitaker remembers Stevie Ray Vaughan

[Eb] _ _ _ _ [Ab] _ [Eb] _ _ _
[Gb] _ [Eb] _ _ _ [Gb] _ [Ab] _ [N] This is where he recorded Soul to Soul, Skies Crying, and Mixed Live [F] Alive, right here [Ab] on
this console here and out in [Eb] the studio.
_ [Ab]
His [Bb] theory on playing guitar was [Ab] to always have
it on ten, every knob, [Gb] _ and he had [Eb] the thickest strings [Bb] in the world.
I'd go [Eb] out and check
his guitar out and I couldn't even push the [Gb] strings down on the fret.
_ [Ab] And that's how he
got his [Eb] tone.
[Ab] _
[Eb] They would play real loud here, and this is completely soundproof, [F] _ [Bb] _ and [Ab] we
would hear it up [Gb] front.
It would just [Ebm] be rumbling the whole place.
_ [Ebm] _ _ [Eb] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
He [F] would call me every day
asking me if the console had come in yet, and I'd say no.
And one time I was on the
phone with him, he asked me if the console was there, and I said, and I looked out the
window and it was pulling up on an 18-wheeler in a wood crate.
And I said, Stevie, I think
it's here.
And he said, okay, I'll be there right away.
And I said, no, wait a minute,
we have to have time to set it up and install it.
And I mean, that's just the way he was.
He was very excited about recording and _ loved the equipment.
He was like a kid in a candy
store.
_ _ _ [Eb] _ _
_ _ So he came up in 1985 to do Soul to Soul on the new SSL.
[Fm] You know, I just saw
right away that he was really messed up on drugs and [Ebm] alcohol, and he would [Bb] get to where
he could just barely talk.
I mean, I'd tell people he's talking mumbo [Ab] jumbo.
It was just
like, you couldn't understand him.
[Eb] But he could, I didn't know how he did it, but he
could play and sing no [N] problem.
And he did most of the vocals for Soul to Soul one morning
after [B] being [Eb] up three days.
And [Ebm] it was just amazing how he could do it. _
[N] But I walked out
into the [Ebm] studio to clean up and found this legal [Eb] pad.
On the first [Bb] sheet [Eb] was Little Sister.
_ It said, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, look at Little Sister.
Hey, hey,
hey, hey, [B] hey, hey.
And I just said, well, _ you know, I'm throwing, I could write something
like that, and I threw it in [Eb] the trash. _
_ And that was the whole, that was [B] Skies Crying
and Soul to Soul, all the lyrics for all those songs that he had written on that [Bbm] legal pad.
_ _ [A] And if [Ebm] I had kept that, it would be [Eb] worth something.
[Bm] _ [Eb] _
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_ _ _ _ When he came in for the album Family Style, he'd been sober [B] for about three [Am] years.
And
he said, by the grace of God, he was still alive.
And I truly believe that because of
[D] how bad off he was.
[A] And he just [Bm] _ was [D] full of life.
He had a new girlfriend, and he seemed
very happy.
And we would talk, and I could understand him.
And we'd talk about projects
that he wanted to do.
And what he wanted to do is [E] start producing other people.
[A] _ And I
was excited about that, getting more projects in that he was branching out [D] into producing.
[Bm] _ [A] _
_ _ [D] _ _ [A] In _ [D] _
_ [A] _ _ _ between takes, he would be in the hallway pulling his brother over and asking Jimmy
to teach him [D] his licks, which I thought was really funny, because it should be the opposite.
[E] Jimmy should be asking him how he plays licks.
But Stevie [D] was real humble and respected [E] his
brother a lot.
[A] I think that's a good quality he had.
Stevie's been a real big influence
in my life, not musically, but in life, because 13 years after he died, I went to the same
treatment center he went to, _ and I had my head in my hands, [B] [A] down and out, and I looked
down, opened my eyes, and saw a rock that was painted.
It said, Tick Tock, Tick Tock,
Time is Slipping Away.
_ Remember that.
Stevie Ray Vaughan.
At that moment, I realized I
need to just do this deal and get out, because time is wasting.
And that's what he showed
me, that it works. _ _ _ _ _
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