“I got on the mic and said, ‘I’m gonna go see Albert King. If you got any brains, you will, too.’ And I picked up and went”: The night Stevie Ray Vaughan walked out of his own show to go watch his blues hero

FOMO can be a hell of a drag. No-one wants to miss a great show. But say you are up onstage at your own gig, under what circumstances would you think of bailing on it to have a better time elsewhere?

Stevie Ray Vaughan had the answer to that question. The late blues guitar icon could remember the night as clear as day when he spoke with Guitar World in September 1988: the time when he was up onstage and just decided that, no, he had somewhere better to be.

Now, this might be the only story of someone walking out of a Stevie Ray Vaughan gig and the person doing the walking was Stevie Ray Vaughan. But his hero, Albert King, was in town, and Vaughan had yet to see him play live. He had already copped a lot from listening to King.

“I do owe a lot to that man. That’s where a lot of my ideas about how to play guitar came from,” said Vaughan. “I don’t know of anybody who can play sassier than Albert. There’s a lot of different kinds of blues guitar, a lot of different styles, but the first time I heard Albert King I thought, ‘This is it!’ I still think so.”

Picture the scene on this night in 1972. Vaughan was playing in one of Austin’s legendary/notorious dive spots – “a little dump in Austin called the One Knight on 8th & Red River, a block from the police station.”

Like many of the bands who played there, Vaughan would be playing for tips.

“There was no cover at this place, just a pass-the-hat situation,” he explained.

The One Knight was quite the place, like the Double Deuce without Swayze on the door, Harleys out front, and it was tiny. This was the spot where Pink Floyd were told in no uncertain terms that they were not welcome to jam onstage because they were not a blues band. It’s not called Stubbs.

But as Michael Corcoran writes in this superlative Overserved Substack, back in the day the One Knight used to host the elder Vaughan brother, Jimmie, and Doyle Bramhall’s band, Storm, every Monday night for five years. Stormy Monday. And there was a legendary night involving The Velvet Underground.

This, however, as not going to be one of these legendary nights, not after SRV got wind that Albert King was making an unscheduled appearance across town.

“He was substituting for Bobby Bland, who was in the hospital,” said Vaughan. “Actually, Bobby was supposed to open for the group Cactus, but when Cactus found out it was Albert, they insisted on opening up for him.

I'll Play the Blues for You - Albert King | The Midnight Special - YouTube

Watch On

“Anyway, that night somebody came over and said, ‘Albert King’s in town, filling in for Bobby Blue Bland. You wanna go?’ And I got on the microphone and said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t know about you, but I’m gonna go see Albert King, and if you got any brains you will, too.’ And I just packed up and went. Man, it was quite a night.”

King’s influence is all over Vaughan’s playing. If there’s sassiness, then that’s where it’s coming from. Vaughan studied his every move.

“I remember seeing him on TV doing Born Under A Bad Sign. I just couldn’t get enough of the guy,” admitted Vaughan. “And I began trying to figure out what he was playing, just listening to his records day and night and kind of feeling my way around the neck, figuring out those bends.”

Vaughan made it across town in time for the show. He was one of the few.

“There were only about 75 people there when Albert played, but every single person was there to hear Albert King,” he said. “The vibe was really happening.”

In his stocking soles, Albert King stood at 6ft 4-inch or 6ft 7, depending on whom you asked. And he was broad, too. They didn’t call him the Velvet Bulldozer for nothing. There was no missing the big man on stage. And yet Vaughan still maneuvered a better vantage point, standing on a table side of stage by the PA system.

“I just stared at him,” said Vaughan. “And partway through the show, he takes his mic stand and walks over there to the side of the stage, plants it and just stood there singing and playing to me the rest of the night.”

And this is when the two blues legends met for the first time. King appreciated the support and made a beeline to Vaughan after the show to thank him.

“I mean, here was this little kid, all of 18. I guess I yelled right or something, 'cause he really took a liking to me,” said Vaughan. “After he finished playing, he walked over to me, handed me his guitar and shook my hand. I was, like, stunned. I'll never forget that evening. There wasn’t very many of us there, but he gave it everything he had.”

That was the code of honor that all the blues greats had: they put everything into the show. Playing the blues is a little like stand-up comedy in that respect: the audience matters. They’ll make the show or break it. Cats like the Albert King knew this. Like the best of the original bluesmen, he knew people – and he never forgot a face.

A few years later, King was passing through Texas again. This time the show was on the calendar and Vaughan did not do anything so foolish as to book himself a show that night. He made sure he got to Antone’s early. He wanted to see King soundcheck. He wanted to see it “from the word ‘go’”. King spotted him immediately.

“First thing he did was he walked up to me, started pointing his finger and said, ‘I remember you, ‘bout three-and-a-half years ago we met,’” said Vaughan. “He never forgets people. He started calling me by name, telling me where we met, what happened and everything.”

Vaughan did not know it at the time. But it was a good thing that he decided to take in the soundcheck because he was about to become part of the show, and a little bit of blues history was about to be made. The kid whose style was cribbed from King was about to have the night of his life.

“Later on that night, I was sitting in the audience, and he starts talking about this little kid, 98lbs, soaking wet, you know… then all of a sudden I hear my name,” said Vaughan.

“He called me up to the stage with my guitar and I thought I was gonna play maybe one song with him. But I ended up playing with him for the rest of the night. It was amazing, you know? He’s an amazing guy. Nicest guy I ever met.”