Quotes from Stevie

"Music really is a way to reach out and hold on to each other in a healthy way."

"I don't drink or get high because I have all these problems;
I have these problems because I drink and get high.
I realize now that nothing's so bad that getting drunk or getting high is gonna make it any better. Period."

"I think I've got something special to say with my music. But I have to keep these things in perspective, because they're gifts.
It's all a gift, and I have to keep giving it back or it goes away. If I start believing that it's all my doing, it's gonna be my undoing.
I'm committing myself to doing the most I can with the gifts I have, so that they do as much good as possible."

"I can't see tomorrow any better than anyone else, man.
I just hope that the music is taken seriously, y'know?."

"I was walking around trying to act cool, like I had no fear at all.
But I was afraid, afraid that somebody would find out just how scared I was.
Now I'm finally realizing that fear is the opposite of love."

"I loved Jimi a lot, he was so much more than just a blues guitarist, he could do anything."

"Music has become really important now. It's helped me to open up more and take a chance on loving people. Music is a good reason to care.
It's just a vehicle though. It's a way to try and give somebody something that you feel.
If trying the best I can isn't good enough, I'll just have to try harder next time...it's all I can do.
If I do the best I can, then at least I did the best I could in this life
The way I like to look at it is....if that's the last time /I ever got to play, I'd better give it everything I've got."

"Like my brother Jimmie says, I play like I'm breaking out of jail."

"Ya know, right now the most important thing in my life is to make sure you understand that, first of all I thank God I'm alive today, and I mean that.
I spent too many years of my life thinking that the big party was the whole thing. it took me quiet a while to find out that the real deal is to be able to be enough of a person on your own to know when somebody loves you and cares about you.
You see, we are here, as far as I can tell, to help each other; our brothers, our sisters, our friends, our enemies. That is to help each other and not hurt each other. And sometimes to help them we have got to help ourself. So that we will know that they are around in the first place.
Its a big world out there; with enough pain and misery in it; without me going around and helping it out by hurting myself; and consequently, those that care about me.
What I am trying to get across to you; is please take of yourselves and those that you love; because that is what we are hear for, that's all we got, and that is all we can take with us. Are you with me ?"

In the summer of 1973, Stevie Ray walked into Ray Hennig's Heart of Texas music store and found his pride and joy, a 1959 fender stratocaster.
"I didn't even have to play it- I just knew by the way it looked that it would sound great. I was carrying my '63 strat, and asked if he wanted to trade. Thank God he did, and it's been my main axe ever since.
The guitar was officially put out in 1962, but the neck has a '59 stamp on it. There was also a sticker under the bass pickup that read 'l.f. '59'. I think Leo Fender put it together with spare parts and issued it in '62.
To me it doesn't really matter; all I know is I've never found another one like it. The neck is shaped differently from the others. It's a D-neck, but it's oddly shaped- it's real, real big, and fits my hand like a glove."