Really knocked my socks off." How a thrown-out Jimi Hendrix album inspired Stevie Ray Vaughan's guitar journey

Jimmie Vaughan found a discarded Jimi Hendrix album behind a Dallas blues club, an encounter that shaped Stevie Ray Vaughan's guitar journey. Around 1969 or 1970, SRV, then a teenager, absorbed Hendrix by listening repeatedly, setting up a home rig with an Airline stereo and a Shure PA. This discovery showed that blues could be expansive and opened new possibilities in his playing.

Vaughan later argued that Hendrix was a blues player and a radical extension of the tradition, not an outsider. Hendrix material entered SRV's live repertoire, and Vaughan defended playing Hendrix as accessible rather than sacrilegious. That influence shaped SRV's approach, making Hendrix a constant reference as he developed his own guitar voice.