On the morning of August 28, 1990, I was doing midday’s on a South Jersey radio station 100.7 WZXL.  Back then there was not internet or TMZ.com.  We got our news from The AP wire.  Sometime that morning, the AP machine printed out the story of that fateful helicopter crash. The night before, Stevie Ray Vaughan and members of Eric Clapton‘s touring entourage played an all-star encore jam session at Alpine Valley Music Theater in Alpine Valley Resort in East Troy, Wisconsin. The most common way for acts to enter and exit the venue, was via helicopter. After the concert concluded, Stevie and three members of Eric Clapton’s tour entourage boarded a helicopter.  A few minutes later that helicopter crashed into the side of a nearby ski hill shortly after takeoff. No survivors. Initially unofficial reports claimed that Clapton was also on the helicopter, but later confirmed not to be the case. SRV was “the second coming of the blues”!

Two years earlier, October 21, 1988 I was backstage at the Spectrum for a pre-show Meet and Greet for Robert Plant‘s #NowandZenTour.  Stevie Ray Vaughan was his opener.  As Robert entered the room, he then climbed on a chair to turn off the TV monitor showing Stevie’s performance.

Oh yeah and the other picture was a double photobomb!  That’s Robert Plants songwriter, keyboardist, and guitarist at the time Phil Johnstone in the upper left.  Well you know where I am.  🙂