WHO IS THAT MAN ?????

CHESLEY MILLIKIN 1934 -2001

Irishman noted for launching Vaughan's career By Michael Corcoran

American-Statesman Staff Saturday, September 22, 2001

Chesley Millikin, the well-connected Irishman credited with discovering Stevie Ray Vaughan and guiding him to stardom as his manager, died Thursday at his home in Indian Wells, Calif., after a long bout with emphysema. He was 67. "Before Chesley moved to Austin (in 1980), there were a lot of musicians but not much of a music industry," said Joe Nick Patoski, who co-authored "Caught In a Crossfire," the definitive Vaughan biography. "He helped legitimize Austin as a music town to the rest of the world." "Chesley knew everyone," said Frances Carr Tapp, Millikin's partner in Classic Management. "He was incredible at putting people together." It was Millikin who introduced Jackson Browne to his longtime guitarist and collaborator David Lindley in 1967. Millikin also hooked up a 16-year-old Charlie Sexton with Rolling Stone Ron Wood, which led to some jamming with Bob Dylan, Sexton's current boss. With his gregarious personality and great knack for storytelling, the former horse-jumper from Dublin could work a room with the best of them. "Carry on" was his infectious catchphrase. Millikin used the full power of his connections in launching the career of Vaughan, whom he first saw at Steamboat on Sixth Street in 1980. "For a blues guitarist from Texas, Stevie had a very classy entree into the national music scene," said Woody Roberts, a former Millikin associate currently heading the Austin Music Network. "Chesley knew the Rolling Stones, so he got them to hire Stevie to play a private party in New York City. Everyone was buzzing about Stevie Ray even before he had a record out." Perhaps the most significant favor Millikin called in was when he asked record executive Jerry Wexler, a big Vaughan fan, if he could get the guitarist onto the bill at the 1982 Montreux Jazz Festival. The first unsigned act ever to play the fest, Vaughan and Double Trouble blew away the crowd. David Bowie saw the show and hired Stevie Ray for his "Let's Dance" album and an upcoming European tour. When Millikin found out that Vaughan was to receive only $500 a night from Bowie, he yanked his client from the band a few days before the tour was to begin. "We all thought he was crazy," Patoski said of Millikin's move. "We saw that tour as Stevie's big break. You don't quit that kind of gig." But Millikin foresaw bigger things for "Junior," as he called Vaughan. With the 1983 release of Vaughan's debut, "Texas Flood," a new guitar hero was heralded. It was hooves, not riffs, that brought Millikin to Austin in 1980. After two decades in the music business, starting with a general manager post at Epic Records' London office and including management of such acts as the Grateful Dead and the Chieftains, Millikin jumped at the chance to return to his equestrian roots and manage Manor Downs, owned by his friend Tapp since 1974. "I said, `OK, but first you gotta see this incredible guitarist,' " said Tapp. Millikin was itching to get back into management with the right act, and when he witnessed his first Vaughan show, he saw magic. After Vaughan's first three albums went gold, the manager and the star parted company in 1986, reportedly due to Vaughan's hard-partying ways. "He didn't want to be the manager that got the phone call that said Stevie was dead," said guitarist Widgeon Holland, Millikin's lone client since Vaughan. Vaughan collapsed during a show in London a few months after Millikin's exit and entered a drug and alcohol rehab program. He remained sober the final years of his life. Millikin moved from Manor to California after being diagnosed with emphysema in 1993. "He really wanted to come back to Ireland after he got sick," said Holland, who resides in Dublin. "But the weather just wasn't good for his lungs." An Irish wake, one last chance to say "carry on," was held for Millikin at the Manor Downs Turf Club at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday

CHESLEY MILLIKIN DEDICATION

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