Then, how does it happen that a young white man from Dallas plays blues guitar as good as it has ever been played and sings with a voice that the first time I heard him, I swore he had to be black. A man who was so in touch with the past greats that he encouraged many to perform again and brought the blues to a new generation. A man that BB King said;
"The fact is that he affected the way blues will be played and heard forever. I've said that playing the blues is like having to be black twice. Stevie missed on both counts, but I never noticed."
He had a seven year career in mainstream music. He succumbed to the demons of addiction and then overcame them for 3 years clean and sober before he was killed in a senseless helicopter accident beyond his control.
Just as those chance meetings happen between artists that begin a synergy, that the whole is better than sum of it's parts, why would God take someone who is as gifted as Stevie Ray Vaughan was?
There are just some things that are beyond understanding, but either way, I am glad that Elvis, Jimi, Janis, SRV, John Lennon, Freddie Mercury, Keith Moon, John Entwistle, John Bonham, Michael Hutchence, Randy Rhoads, Bon Scott and others were around for me to hear them. All of them were not perfect, but my memories of them and what they aspired to, make me believe in God given talent. Yes, they worked to become great, but they had "it."
Don Henley thanked Glen Frey for having the balls to go after his dream. He took Henley and others with him to that dream. As with the Beatles, Aerosmith, Led Zepplin and other bands, when the right people come together it is magical. It's karma, voodoo, whatever you want to call it, but "it" becomes stuff of legend.
If you can, take a few minutes and read the quotes from these legends about SRV, I found myself coming to the conclusion that this was a person who did it right. People don't say vulnerable things about their own ability in comparison if they didn't respect them.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Stevie_Ray_Vaughan