Personal Life
Vaughan and Lenora "Lenny" Bailey met in 1973 after one of Vaughan's performances with the Nightcrawlers at La Cucaracha, a nightclub in east Austin. Although moved by Vaughan's musical prowess, she was attracted to his charmingly modest personality. Double Trouble's song "Love Struck Baby", he said, was written about her, after claiming July 5 as their "love struck day". The couple were married on December 23, 1979, between sets at the Rome Inn in Austin, using pieces of wire for rings. Drummer, Chris Layton, described the ceremony as "spontaneous", saying, "It wasn't like there was invitations sent out or a certain group of people attended—it was just whoever was there was hanging around." Layton also said their marriage was "pretty excitable and passionate". The song "Pride and Joy" is also about her, as well as the instrumental "Lenny", after she thought "Pride and Joy" referred to a former girlfriend of Vaughan's.
Upon return to their home in Austin from touring, Vaughan found the house padlocked, electricity shut off, and Lenny nowhere to be found. Biographers Joe Nick Patoski and Bill Crawford wrote that she "squandered his road earnings on dope while running around with other men that one acquaintance glibly described as 'police characters.'" After she declined to visit Vaughan in treatment for substance abuse, he filed for divorce three months later. The case was settled out of court, with Lenny receiving alimony, plus $50,000 in cash and twenty-five percent of net royalties (excluding albums after Live Alive). Vaughan's manager attributes the demise of their marriage to "jealousy" and "unfaithfulness", and as a result, they were both brokenhearted.
On March 12, 1986, Double Trouble arrived in New Zealand for a performance at the Wellington Town Hall, where Vaughan was sitting outside his hotel room. Janna Lapidus, who was born in Russia, ran into Vaughan on the street and immediately struck up a friendship. In October 1986, while Vaughan was in the London Clinic for substance abuse, Lapidus visited him; they both decided to be together after seeing an older couple in front of them during a walk in Hyde Park.
During Vaughan's last two years before his death, he referred to Lapidus as his fiancée. They often made public appearances together including a commercial for Europa, a New Zealand-owned oil company. Janna also appeared in the video for 'The House is a Rockin' They first lived at Vaughan's childhood home in Dallas, then moved to a house on Travis Street on May 3, 1987. Lapidus found modeling work in New York City, and they relocated to a Manhattan apartment at Park Avenue and 24th Street in May 1990, splitting their time between Dallas and New York City.
Read more about this topic: Stevie Ray Vaughan
Famous quotes containing the words personal life, personal and/or life:
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