Page "Stevie Ray Vaughan" Paragraph 23

Vaughan developed a serious alcohol and cocaine habit while touring with Double Trouble ; his performance contract called for two fifths of Crown Royal and one fifth of Smirnoff.

His cocaine use increased to a quarter-ounce a day ( about seven grams ) and spiraled into a life-threatening dependency.

Doyle Bramhall recalls that there were " mounds of cocaine laying on top of the organ ", saying, " Where I was doing a lot, Stevie was doing five times, ten times more than I was doing.

" Vaughan's stomach became fiercely scarred from dissolving half a gram of cocaine in alcohol, leaving hundreds of small cuts in the stomach lining.

During a tour of Europe a month later, Vaughan was hospitalized in Ludwigshafen for suffering from near-death dehydration after years of alcohol and substance abuse.

Tommy Shannon said that as Vaughan tried to get up from his hotel bed, he vomited all over his chest and was covered with a puddle of blood.

Layton recalled: