My buddy Brian convinced me to invest in tickets to see Stevie Ray at the Memphis Mud Island Ampitheatre — which I was dubious about; they were second-row seats, but “Possibly Obstructed.”  I pictured the worst.

And got the best.  Not only were the seats pretty much completely unobstructed (except for some speakers partially blocking our view of Chris “Whipper” Layton), but we were within spitting distance of the Great One.

It was the show of a lifetime.

Just a few years later I was visiting my brother Steve up in Boston.  He and a friend came in from work to eat lunch with us, and I caught him saying “…helicopter crashed, and they’re pretty sure Stevie Ray was on it.”  A quick check of the news confirmed the worst, and it was all I could do to keep from sobbing.

Can that really have been twenty years ago?