As Double Trouble drummer Chris Layton told me of first experiencing Stevie Ray Vaughan’s extraordinary guitar talent from outside an Austin nightclub, I had to smile. Like Chris, I had not actually seen the young blues guitarist the first time I heard him play live , but the memory is burned into my mind. It was February 4 , 1984 as I was anchoring the live network broadcast interviews of the myriad of performers at the annual Charlie Daniels Volunteer Jam backstage at Nashville’s War Memorial Auditorium. Over ten years the Volunteer Jam had grown into an annual pilgrimage by the biggest names then in American rock music, featuring in one night the Charlie Daniels Band, the Marshall Tucker Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Allman Brothers Band, Molly Hatchet , the Outlaws, plus Billy Joel, Emmylou Harris, and Ted Nugent!

In April 1982, little more than a month after a plane crash had taken the life of his young & talented guitarist Randy Rhoads , Ozzy Osbourne chose my afternoon radio show on Memphis' #1 station , ROCK 103 , to make his first public statements concerning the tragedy.

Honestly I cannot think of a consistently better live band, which has such stunning live audio/ video production, than our buddies Styx, as evidenced here with "Come Sail Away" from their CD/ DVD/Blu Ray Live at the Orleans Arena Las Vegas.…