10. STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN
Whether it was playing the national anthem at the Astrodome’s 20th anniversary shindig, rocking out before 75,000 spring breakers at South Padre or honing his skills before the longneck-guzzling regulars at Austin’s Soap Creek Saloon, Stevie Ray Vaughan was always there for Texas as an electric blues firebrand. Until he wasn’t. His death in a helicopter crash at age 35 cut short a career that had overcome drug and alcohol addictions. The Dallas native’s legacy is as blues revivalist, rootsy rocker and a believer in turning it up to 11 who could make guitar nerds swoon. As with other artists who died young, there’s questions of what could have been. Most Texas musical moment: Picking a haunting take on “The Eyes of Texas,” he cautioned television viewers “not to mess with Texas.”