Jake Brennan

And Dwayne stepped out of the background and shot to stardom before he died in a fiery motorcycle accident in 1971.

Ever since then, there had been a giant vacancy at the peak of Mount Olympus, of the guitar gods of Mount Olympus, that is.

And at least Eric Clapton figured as he turned the car back toward into town.

That vacancy was empty, but right about now, it sure sounded like it might be filled.

By the time his guitar playing was making its way to God's ears in London, Stevie Ray Vaughan was in Dallas contemplating a deal with the devil.

On April 30th, he was camped out in a Dallas hotel room preparing for rehearsals with Bowie's band when his brother Jimmy called with some news.

It was the kind of news that required a cold shot.

Muddy Waters was dead.

As Stevie tossed one back for the blues legend, his mind wandered back to his options.

On the one hand, after years of struggling, he was suddenly featured on the hottest song of the year.

He was rehearsing with a killer band for the biggest tour in the world, and the hype was bigger than anything he'd ever seen.

And thanks to that hype, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, who he insisted get full billing in his contract, finally landed a record deal.

And the demos turned out to be good enough for Epic Records to release them untouched.

And the album was coming out in just a few weeks to coincide with the start of David Bowie's Sirius Moonlight tour.

And that was the rub.

Stevie Ray Vaughan wouldn't be playing shows to support his own debut album.

Instead, he'd be playing on a David Bowie tour.

And a David Bowie tour was all about, well, David Bowie.

The musicians in the band were cool.

Stevie liked jamming on China Girl and the Gene Genie, but what the fuck was he going to play on songs like Life on Mars or Space Oddity?