12 Greatest Ever Hard Rock Solo Artists
11. Stevie Ray Vaughan
If you were growing up in the hard rock world in the 80's, chances are the blues was the furthest thing from your mind. Sure, bands like Cream and Led Zeppelin were doing heavy blues tunes in the 60's, but now was the time for the shredders like Joe Satriani and Steve Vai to come to the forefront. Then again, you should never really count out a blues soul.
Emerging from the bowels of Texas, Stevie Ray Vaughan sprouted to life and laid claim to the rock god throne. Starting with the album Texas Flood, Vaughan earned his stripes in the rock world by how aggressive he would be once he got an instrument in his hands. He may have been a mild mannered dude when you met him, but once you saw him live, he turned into a ferocious animal that would attack the guitar like a lion would a slab of meat.
While he may have been at the top tier of rock gods, everything came to a close in the early 90's, when Vaughan was killed in a helicopter crash shortly after a gig. Though Vaughan may have been a lowlight on the rock scene, his voice is still heard in the hard rock realm, influencing players like Pearl Jam's Mike McCready to let themselves loose behind the six-string.