By: Rick Landers
Photos: Rick Landers
Craig Hopkins, author of The Essential Stevie Ray Vaughan
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Rick Landers: I just finished your book and found it entertaining, moving, and comprehensive to the point of being exhausting – that’s meant as a high compliment. What drove you to take on such an intense project?
Craig Hopkins: From 1993-98 I wrote the Stevie Ray Vaughan Fan Club newsletters. Over those years I received many requests for back issues, but because the fan club operated on a shoestring (there was no funding other than my own pocket and newsletter subscriptions), I tried not to print more copies of the newsletter than I needed to mail out to subscribers.
My first book, The Stevie Ray Vaughan Anthology, published in 1996, started out as a collection of all the newsletters to fulfill the requests for back issues. The Essential Stevie Ray Vaughan updated and expanded the Anthology with hundreds of photos and other information uncovered in ten years of research and collecting. So, I didn’t start out to write a 250-page book; I started with a 3-page newsletter in 1993, sharing the bibliography and discography I had created, and a few collectibles for sale.
Stevie Ray Vaughan Live in New York
Rick: Did you ever see Stevie play in person or meet him?
Craig Hopkins: I first saw Stevie play in in 1984, but did not buy his music until about 1986. I saw him perform several times, including an amazing show on June 17, 1990. He was instrumental in broadening my musical taste, no pun intended. I had an opportunity to meet Stevie in 1987.
I was at a B.B. King show at a small club in Dallas (one of the last opportunities to see B.B. in a small club before he started his big festival tours) and Stevie was sitting a few tables away from me in the audience. I thought about going up to him and asking for an autograph, but decided against it. I couldn’t think of anything to tell him that he hadn’t heard thousands of times before, so I left him alone to enjoy the show.
Rick: When did you start writing the book? How long did it take to complete?
Craig Hopkins: Once I realized the back issue project was becoming a book, it took several months. I did everything — writing, editing, photo clearances, layout, organization and finding a printer. It takes a while to pull all that together by yourself, especially when you have no previous experience.
Rick: Did it occur to you that you were writing the most definitive book on your guitar hero?
Craig Hopkins: Yes and no. I knew that I was presenting the most comprehensive collection of facts and details for the serious fans and collectors of Stevie. However, I know my limitations. I am more of a technical writer than a story writer. I did not set out to compete with anyone who had or will write a biography of Stevie.
My book is not the definitive book, but neither is anyone else’s. The Essential Stevie Ray Vaughan is a companion volume to those books, containing much more information for collectors and researchers than can be written into a story format.
Rick: Tell us about how you first met SRV’s brother, Jimmie Vaughan, and their mother, Martha Vaughan.
Craig Hopkins: I have known Mrs. Vaughan for so long now that I cannot recall our first meeting. She is a wonderful person and has been very supportive of my efforts with the fan club and books. I believe she was grateful to have someone who would help her respond to all the fan mail she received after Stevie died.
There is no telling how many fans she responded to directly, but the amount of mail was overwhelming and emotionally exhausting, I’m sure. I did not really meet Jimmie until December 2001 when we discussed my desire to create a nonprofit foundation and museum in Stevie’s name.
Stevie Ray Vaughan Live in New York
Rick: Did they support your research or in any other way help you out?
Craig Hopkins: My approach has always been to afford them an opportunity to be involved without intruding on their privacy. Mrs. Vaughan assisted me with some facts regarding Stevie’s school years and some other fact checking, and she allowed me to print her open letter to fans in my books.
By sharing the addresses of fans who had written her, she helped me reach a worldwide audience. The greatest support has simply been her friendship. I greatly appreciated Jimmie’s phone call to tell me he liked The Essential Stevie Ray Vaughan. I am grateful to both of them for allowing me to be a conduit of information for Stevie’s fans.
Rick: Throughout the book nearly everyone who was close to Stevie points out his humanity or generosity of spirit, at least in so many words. Did these expressions of friendship or love personally inspire you in any way?
Craig Hopkins: I have been fortunate to get to know some of Stevie’s family and friends. Through them and the research I have done, I feel like I knew Stevie. Without exception, everyone says Stevie was the same down to earth, friendly, approachable guy his entire career.
The most inspirational aspect of Stevie’s life may be his example of recovery from substance abuse. I still get email and letters from people who are clean and sober because of Stevie. It is impossible to count the number of lives he has touched with his example, not to mention his music.
Rick: Last year I bought Denny Freeman’s “Twang Bang” CD, not knowing he had any connection to Stevie until I read about him in your book. What’s in the drinking water down in Texas that inspires that special sound and such superb musicians as Denny, T-Bone Walker, Lyle Lovett, Stevie and Jimmie Vaughan, Eric Johnson, Buddy Holly and the Crickets and others?
Craig Hopkins: A lot of people have asked that question of folks far more learned about Texas music history than me. There is a list somewhere online of Texas music pioneers, and it’s well over 100 artists and growing. Texas is a big, diverse place. There is a lot of competition, so the best of Texas is going to be among the best in the world. Smokin’ Joe Kubek told me that growing up in the Dallas area, the size of guitar strings was a sign of virility. “You’re using 12s? Hah, I’m using 13s.”
Stevie Ray Vaughan Live in New York
Rick: Some of the most superb groups we’ve ever heard have been trios: Cream, The Experience, and Double Trouble…even that Lubbock guy and his Crickets…how do these guys fuse three instruments into such a powerful single unit?
Craig Hopkins: I’d really have to defer to the musicians on that one. I suppose the overly simplified answer is a guitarist who can play rhythm and lead at the same time. There are a lot of trios who are missing an essential element, whether it be a better drummer, bassist, singer, songwriter or stage presence.
Songwriting may be the most often missing element. There are a number of good bands out there who sound absolutely fantastic for a couple of songs, and then you realize they don’t have nearly enough variety from song to song. They do one style fabulously, but over the course of a couple of hours you get very tired of it no matter how good it is. Plus there are countless technically good guitar players who are unable to demonstrate passion and emotion in their playing. The greats have more than just good chops.
Rick: What surprises about Stevie did you discover in your research?
Craig Hopkins: It surprised me to learn the extent to which he devoted his life to his music, or to put it another way, what little else he did; how close he was to death before recovering from substance abuse; and that he was a good person even during his worst years.
Rick: Writing a book about a public figure always seems to uncover something private or intrusive that really belongs to the family and loved ones and not anyone else, including the most diehard fan. How did you manage to keep “Essential” balanced, interesting, yet dignified and respectful?
Craig Hopkins: There are things I have learned in confidence or through research that some would find interesting but that I won’t publish. I never had any desire to sell books based on sensationalism, controversy or facts which should be private. Some writers do that to gain their own celebrity, get published or to make money.
Certainly I wanted my books to be successful, but they are successful in many ways other than monetarily. My friendship with Mrs. Vaughan, Joe and Margaret Cook, Janna, Doyle, Tommy and Stevie’s fans are far more important than trying to write a best seller, and I would not be able to call them my friends if I had taken a different approach.
I believe my interview subjects appreciated that: (1) I focused on them rather than Stevie until the end of the interviews; (2) I wasn’t digging for dirt; and, (3) I typed it up just the way it happened. However, all that being said, I am grateful that biographers have described how bad Stevie’s substance abuse was, because without that knowledge it is impossible to understand the magnitude of his recovery. That is what is so inspirational about Stevie’s life story.
Stevie Ray Vaughan Live in New York
Rick: On your SRV tribute website, I see you own three Stevie Ray Vaughan replica guitars. How about telling our readers, who are Stratocaster fanatics, about the guitars you own and how you came upon them. Any favorite?
Craig Hopkins: Your readers are going to be disappointed because I do not have a lot of technical knowledge about gear. My first electric guitar was an SRV Strat in 1992. I have had three of the first-year SRV Strats with rosewood fingerboard. Until about two years ago, that was the only electric guitar I had. I just sold my last SRV Strat last week. All three of the SRV replica guitars I have now are absolutely fantastic. The Hamiltone is the most beautiful instrument. Jim installed Kent Armstrong Vintage pickups with the middle pickup reverse wound and it sounds great. (If your readers want a Hamiltone, I can assist.)
The Charley replica has the hottest (lipstick) pickups, but I have to admit I don’t know what they are. Although it is the most troublesome in terms of electronics, I prefer the tone of the Charley, but all the guitars sound great. The Fender Custom Shop Number One is the most comfortable to play. I love the big neck,and of course it is a work of art. Each guitar has aspects I like better than the others. It would be difficult to choose only one.
Rick: Has Jimmie Vaughan, Chris Layton or Tommy Shannon ever expressed where they thought Stevie was headed musically before his tragic accident? What do you think?
Craig Hopkins: Jimmie, Tommy, Chris and Doyle would be in the best positions to render an opinion, but no one can know. Stevie had a lot of influences from blues, rock, jazz, country and swing, so there is no telling where he would have gone. There is a great deal of variety in Stevie’s recorded legacy. He put his stamp on each style, and personally I don’t think he was about to make a 90-degree turn into something way off the course of his five studio albums. I believe he would have continued to meld all his influences into what can only be described as Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Rick: I understand you have enough Stevie Ray Vaughan memorabilia now that you are considering opening a SRV museum. How’s this coming along?
Craig Hopkins: I am trying to find a permanent home for the 2000-plus items so that the public can enjoy seeing Stevie’s stage-worn clothing, equipment, rare posters and photographs, and many of his personal effects from daily life. I have created several temporary displays over the past year, and the fans sometimes spend hours poring over the collection.
I am hoping to keep the museum in Dallas, but civic leaders here have not shown much interest. I may consider loaning items to places like the Fender Museum, EMP and the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. Fans can watch the website for details on future exhibits and other event. Related to the museum project, I need a professional(s) who would donate their time to help transfer the VHS and cassette collections to DVD and CDR.
Editor Note: The photographs accompanying this interview are not in the book: The Essential Stevie Ray Vaughan.
