“I just couldn’t believe I was gonna be on a George Harrison record. He’d been listening to what the T-Birds had been doing”: Jimmie Vaughan on longevity, Strats and recording the Porky’s Revenge soundtrack – with a Beatle

Jimmie Vaughan is still kicking at 74, but he’s endured a few setbacks along the way, mostly in the form of three recent heart attacks. After the third of these – which happened in 2022 – the Texas blues guitar slinger underwent successful quadruple bypass surgery.

Two years later, Vaughan was diagnosed with “a curable form of cancer.” But this also seems to be at bay, as he just wrapped a rippin’ tour beside fellow guitar legend Bonnie Raitt.

“I’m feeling great,” Vaughan tells GW when asked about his health. “I just did a tour with Bonnie – 30-something shows – and I went to Europe before that. We had a great time.”

Meanwhile, Vaughan is preparing to revisit his iconic – and undeniably influential – days with his old band, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, via a new box set, The Jimmie Vaughan Years: Studio Records 1978-1989.

“I’m really proud of the Thunderbirds and my participation with them,” Vaughan says. “And the new box set has the Doc Pomus recordings from before we signed with Takoma Records; nobody has ever heard those. And there’s also all the stuff on Takoma, like Girls Go Wild, What’s the Word, T-Bird Rhythm, Butt Rockin’, Tuff Enuff, Hot Number and Powerful Stuff. So there you go!”

Vaughan has come a long way since his Fab T-Birds days, dropping nearly a dozen solo offerings, which netted him four Grammys and one Blues Music Award even before we take into account 1990’s Family Style, the album he recorded with his late brother, Stevie Ray Vaughan. Regardless, his approach to guitar remains as simple as it was in the earliest days of the T-Birds.

“It sounds silly, but if you mix it the way you want it, you’re always gonna like it,” he says. “Just play what you want to hear. That’s what I’ve been doing for a long time. If all of my favorite guitar players were in the same room, and it got to me, I’d think, ‘What am I gonna do? Play what I want to hear’!”

Vaughan seems to have plenty more music that he wants to hear – and that he wants us to hear, too. “I’m working on my new album,” he says. “I’m always looking forward and trying to figure out what I’m gonna do next. It’s totally exciting.”

Though he’s not ready to offer up any details just yet, mostly because he doesn’t know himself, he does give us a few crumbs to nibble on. “I can’t say what it’s gonna be called,” he says. “I’m not gonna tell you! I don’t want it to get out. But I also haven’t made it yet. I’m working on it, and I’m excited and looking forward to doing it.”

When you look back on how you played guitar across that era, did you have a developed approach that you worked on, or did you just do what came naturally?

I’ve been playing, or trying to play, since 1962. I was playing when I was 12, 13 or 14, and I’ve been working on it since then. When we recorded, they just put the mic right on the soaker, you know?

I always had a room sound, and it was Kim [Wilson, Fabulous Thunderbirds singer/harpist] and I that came up with that room sound. We found that if you move the mic away from the amp and just put it in the right place, it sounds better. That’s what we were into.

It was mainly Fender gear to go along with that, right?

Yeah, we pretty much always used Fender amps. We had a Marshall back then, too, but it was mostly Fender. I had a Fender amp from when I was 12 that I bought at Barry’s Music in downtown Jefferson [Texas]; when you turned up the presence, it just came alive. At the beginning of the T-Birds, I was still trying to get that same sound – and I still look to get that sound.

Was there a moment during your time with the T-Birds when you felt you came into your own as a player?

I didn’t think about it that way. We were just always working on it, and I was always working on my tone and sound. I was just trying to make it happen. We loved it. We were on the road a lot, in the van, going all over the country, and didn’t come home for a long time. I was always working on all of it.

All that work led to you and Stevie Ray giving the ’80s blues scene a real shot in the arm.

It was a club that there weren’t very many members of. We just went around, the people showed up, they liked it and wanted to hear more. [Laughs] But as far as importance, I don’t wanna think about that. We always liked the blues. We were there, we played and we just had a good time, you know?

The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Tuff Enuff (Official Video) - YouTube

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Circling back to the new box set, you mentioned the Fabulous Thunderbirds’ 1978 sessions with songwriter/producer Doc Pomus – which not too many people know about.

Yeah, that was before Girls Go Wild [1979]. We met Doc Pomus while we were playing over the place, and he basically had a room full of horns, and we did all the songs we’d been doing live. Of course, a lot of the songs ended up on the albums that came [later]. After that, we played a lot of blues festivals, and we got a pretty good buzz going.

How would you say that session with Doc impacted you as a young player?

We learned about room mic’ing. If you go to engineering school, you learn that they want to put the mic right next to the speaker. All of the blues records we’d been listening to had that perfect sound – and that was partly because of the room mics. So we looked for that – particularly when we went and tried out a studio and found out that Doc Pomus was into that same room sound! It’s just a way of recording where you put your amps in a room.

Have you ever been to a club [where live music] sounds great going through the PA?

Yes. It’s a sound you get when things are mic’d properly in a small room. That’s the method, and that’s what the Chess brothers figured out with a lot of guys back in the ’40s and ’50s. So we experimented with Doc and figured out how to do it.

It’s been about 40 years since you participated in the recording of Bob Dylan’s I Don’t Wanna Do It with George Harrison, which ended up on the Porky’s Revenge soundtrack. What was that like?

George was fabulous. It’s been a long time – 40 fucking years ago! I’m still trying to figure out what I’m gonna do tomorrow. [Laughs] But it was great to meet George, one of my heroes. I mean, I had all the Beatles albums in the ’60s. I couldn’t believe I was actually in the same room with him.

I don’t really remember what George said at the time; I just couldn’t believe I was gonna be on a George Harrison record. Actually, he did say he’d been listening to what the T-Birds had been doing, so it was kudos back and forth. [Laughs]

There are rumors that you’re working on a yet-to-be-titled new album, your first proper studio album since 2019’s Baby, Please Come Home. What inspires you to press on with new music these days?

I just forget about everybody else – forget about what the trends are. I don’t even know what the trends are! [Laughs] I just make records that flip my switch. That’s the goal. I have to get in the recording mindset. You write a song – you make it up when you have a little bit, and then you go into the studio. Sometimes, it turns out that you don’t have to analyze it too much, and then you have to mix it. And that’s sort of the final say, if that makes sense. After that, you go on to the next one.

What flips your switch these days?

I don’t differentiate between albums and periods and things like that. I just keep going. I guess I don’t really think about all that. If somebody writes me a song and sends it to me, like the one we just did with Kenny Wayne Shepherd, who we’re going on tour with, I’ll listen and maybe do a bunch more stuff. You just take it one day at a time.

What’s the latest on your rig?

I’m still using two Fender Bassmans with a Strymon Flint tremolo/reverb. It’s a great little pedal that does both. It’s got a little toggle switch on it, and you can go back and forth between tremolo and reverb. And I’m still playing my Jimmie Vaughan Fender Custom Shop Strat. I keep wearing out the frets, but it’s still doing it. [Laughs]

If the building were burning down, and you could rescue only one guitar, which would you choose, and why?

I would grab the two I had while I was on tour with Bonnie. That’s my white Strat, which has a Mexican-made body and custom-wired pickups.

And then the Fender Custom Shop came out with a copy of my old guitar from my Fabulous Thunderbirds days, which you can still buy… unless they discontinued it! [Laughs] But that guitar sounds good. Once you figure out the mix, it sounds fabulous, and it’ll sound good from there on.

• The Jimmie Vaughan Years: Complete Studio Recordings 1978-1989 is out now via The Last Music Company
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.