Claim: Stevie Ray Vaughan played the guitar.

Stephen Ray Vaughan -LRB- October 3 , 1954 -- August 27 , 1990 -RRB- was an American musician , singer , songwriter , and record producer . In spite of a short-lived mainstream career spanning seven years , he is widely considered one of the most influential guitarists in the history of music , and one of the most important figures in the revival of blues in the 1980s . AllMusic describes him as `` a rocking powerhouse of a guitarist who gave blues a burst of momentum in the '80s , with influence still felt long after his tragic death . ''   Born and raised in Dallas , Texas , Vaughan began playing guitar at the age of seven , inspired by his older brother Jimmie . In 1971 he dropped out of high school , and moved to Austin the following year . He played gigs with numerous bands , earning a spot in Marc Benno 's band , the Nightcrawlers , and later with Denny Freeman in the Cobras , with whom he continued to work through late 1977 . He then formed his own group , Triple Threat Revue , before renaming the band Double Trouble after hiring drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon . He gained fame after his performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1982 , and in 1983 his debut studio album , Texas Flood , charted at number 38 . The ten-song album was a commercially successful release that sold over half a million copies . After achieving sobriety in late 1986 , he headlined concert tours with Jeff Beck in 1989 and Joe Cocker in 1990 before his death in a helicopter crash on August 27 , 1990 , at the age of 35 .   Vaughan was inspired musically by American and British blues rock . He favored clean amplifiers with high volume and contributed to the popularity of vintage musical equipment . He often combined several different amplifiers together and used minimal effects pedals . Chris Gill of Guitar World commented : `` Stevie Ray Vaughan 's guitar tone was as dry as a San Antonio summer and as sparkling clean as a Dallas debutante , the product of the natural sound of amps with ample clean headroom . However , Vaughan occasionally used pedals to augment his sound , mainly to boost the signal , although he occasionally employed a rotating speaker cabinet and wah pedals for added textural flair . ''   Vaughan received several music awards during his lifetime and posthumously . In 1983 , readers of Guitar Player voted him Best New Talent and Best Electric Blues Guitar Player . In 1984 , the Blues Foundation named him Entertainer of the Year and Blues Instrumentalist of the Year , and in 1987 , Performance Magazine honored him with Rhythm and Blues Act of the Year . Earning six Grammy Awards and ten Austin Music Awards , he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2000 , and the Musicians Hall of Fame in 2014 . Rolling Stone ranked Vaughan as the twelfth greatest guitarist of all time . In 2015 , he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame .