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<\/p>\n The 72-year-old blues guitar legend Robert Cray and his band will play the Wheeler Opera House at 5:30 p.m. today as part of the JAS June Experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n When Stevie Ray Vaughan\u2019s helicopter crashed in August 1990 after a concert in Alpine Valley, Wisconsin, the very first reports had Robert Cray on the helicopter with him.<\/p>\n Cray, who plays the Wheeler Opera House at 5:30 p.m. today as part of the JAS June Experience, remembers waking up that morning and hearing the news.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe initial report said I was on the helicopter,\u201d Cray said in an interview with the Aspen Daily News. \u201cI had to call my mom to tell her that I was alive.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Cray was devastated by the loss of his friend Stevie Ray (whose brother Jimmie is part of this year\u2019s JAS June lineup and also was at Alpine Valley that fateful night).<\/p>\n In the 1980s, Cray and Stevie Ray led a mainstream revitalization of blues music as the genre achieved its greatest mainstream success since the blues heyday of the 1940s and \u201950s.<\/p>\n Vaughan had a No. 1 hit on the rock charts with \u201cCrossfire\u201d and had multiple platinum albums. Meanwhile, Cray had eight singles in the Top 40 of the American Rock Singles charts between 1986 and 1992, with two of them (\u201cSmoking Gun\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t Be Afraid of the Dark\u201d) rising to No. 2 and No. 4, respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cray\u2019s 1986 album \u201cStrong Persuader\u201d sold over two million copies in the U.S. and achieved double-platinum status. It was named one of the 50 Best Albums of the 1980s by Rolling Stone Magazine.<\/p>\n The road to the Wheeler began for Cray in Columbus, Georgia. He spent much of his childhood moving around the world as his father served in the Army. The family lived in Washington state, California and Germany, where Cray first developed a deep appreciation for music through his parents\u2019 record collection.<\/p>\n When he was supposed to be asleep each evening, Cray remembers listening from his bedroom as music filled the house.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had Ray Charles, Sarah Vaughan, Sam Cooke, Bobby \u2018Blue\u2019 Bland, a bunch of jazz and a whole lot of gospel music on Sundays,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n When the family moved to Washington during the early days of Beatlemania, Cray picked up a guitar like countless other teenagers of the era. But it was the blues that ultimately captured his imagination.<\/p>\n Cray immersed himself in the music of Muddy Waters, Howlin\u2019 Wolf and Buddy Guy. In 1971, Cray\u2019s life changed when he met Albert \u201cThe Iceman\u201d Collins in high school at an outdoor festival in Washington state when he was 16.\u00a0<\/p>\n A few months later, Cray\u2019s graduating class voted to hire Collins to play their senior party. After the show, the legendary guitarist approached Cray.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe asked if I played guitar,\u201d Cray recalled. \u201cI said yes, and he said, \u2018Keep it up.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Those words inspired Cray and in 1974, he and bassist Richard Cousins moved to Eugene, Oregon, and formed what would eventually become The Robert Cray Band. In a full circle moment in young Cray\u2019s life, his band became Collins\u2019 backing group whenever the guitarist toured the West Coast.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe wound up being Albert Collins\u2019 backup band for about a year and a half,\u201d Cray said. \u201cThat opened the door for us.\u201d<\/p>\n Cray\u2019s band went on to play with some of the biggest names in blues history.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe got a chance to work with Buddy Guy,\u201d Cray said. \u201cWe opened up for Muddy Waters and I got to sit in with Muddy. We did shows with B.B. King.\u201d<\/p>\n And while Cray was influenced by those legends, it was Cray himself who had a significant influence on an unlikely blues star: \u201cJoliet\u201d Jake Blues, otherwise known as John Belushi.\u00a0<\/p>\n A talent scout recruited Cray and other local musicians to appear as extras in a fraternity party scene in the 1978 comedy classic \u201cAnimal House,\u201d which was being shot in Eugene.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe were just extras,\u201d Cray said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t even get credited in the movie.\u201d<\/p>\n During filming, Cray and his cinematic bandmates spent time teaching Belushi about blues music. The experience helped inspire Belushi\u2019s passion for the genre and the eventual creation of the Blues Brothers band.\u00a0<\/p>\n The 1980 movie of the same name was one of the main drivers for the explosion of blues music that would follow in the 1980s and propel Cray\u2019s own career to new heights.<\/p>\n Cray cut his first record \u201cWho\u2019s Been Talkin\u201d in 1978 and he has released over 25 records since, winning five Grammys along the way.<\/p>\n Cray describes his songwriting as focusing on \u201ceveryday life and what you see people going through.\u201d In the last 25 years, he has addressed war, politics and social issues.<\/p>\n His song \u201cTwenty\u201d examined the human cost of the Iraq War through the eyes of a young soldier.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s about what we were going through as a nation,\u201d Cray said. His songs \u201cJust How Low\u201d and \u201cThis Man\u201d are harsh criticisms of President Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n Today, at age 72, Cray shows no signs of slowing down. He recently returned from touring in Europe as part of his \u201cAll Amped Up Tour\u201d and is preparing to release a new album in February, with a possible single arriving this fall.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a blast,\u201d Cray said looking back on his career. \u201cWe\u2019re still out here doing it and people still come to see us. You couldn\u2019t ask for a better career when you\u2019re having fun.\u201d<\/p>\n Colorado remains a regular stop. \u201cWe seem like we\u2019re in Colorado every year,\u201d he said. \u201cWe come every year.\u201d<\/p>\n For audiences attending Saturday\u2019s Wheeler performance, Cray promises a set that reflects the full range of his musical journey.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s pretty varied, the music that we do,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s R&B, it\u2019s rock, it\u2019s soul. It\u2019s got a little bit of this and that. There are some sad tunes and there are some rocking tunes.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just hope people feel good after they see our performance,\u201d Cray added. \u201cAnd I hope we put a smile on their faces.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.aspendailynews.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The 72-year-old blues guitar legend Robert Cray and his band will play the Wheeler Opera House at 5:30 p.m. today as part of the JAS June Experience.\u00a0 Photo by Melanie Lemahieu When Stevie Ray Vaughan\u2019s helicopter crashed in August 1990 after a concert in Alpine Valley, Wisconsin, the very first reports had Robert Cray on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2478865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[412834],"class_list":["post-2478864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-lead-story"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/The-strong-persuader-comes-to-the-Wheeler-Arts.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2478864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2478864"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2478864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2478866,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2478864\/revisions\/2478866"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2478865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2478864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2478864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2478864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n Photo by Melanie Lemahieu<\/span>
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\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nThe early days<\/strong><\/h3>\n
The Blues Brother\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
A storied career<\/strong><\/h3>\n