He’d say, “All Junior wants to do is play the blues.” The band would work around Texas and we established a tour through the Southeast and Northeast, anchored by the Lone Star Café in New York City. JOE PRIESNITZ, Double Trouble booking agent, 1979-’83: One of Chesley’s big problems with Stevie, who he called Junior, was the lack of original material.
JIMMIE VAUGHAN: I mean, who likes managers anyway? LAYTON: Chesley was a very high-rolling guy with a lot of great ideas, but with very little attention to what it meant to the bottom line. JACKIE NEWHOUSE, Triple Threat and Double Trouble bassist, 1978-’80: Chesley would tell us, “You guys have got to watch out for Stevie keep him away from the drug dealers and make sure he’s not doing coke.” Then 20 minutes later we’d see him shoving coke up Stevie’s nose. As good as he was, he could have kept grinding his gears for years.
But there were so few business people in the Austin music world.
One of the first promo posters for Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble (Image credit: Courtesy Joe Priesnitz)ĪNGELA STREHLI, Austin singer: Stevie was so compelling that we all figured that sooner or later he was going to grab a lot of people.
