TEXAS FLOOD COULDN'T STAND THE WEATHER SOUL TO SOUL
IN THE STUDIO, NO ONE WAS CLOSER TO STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN THAN HIS HANDPICKED PRODUCER/ENGINEER, RICHARD MULLEN. IN THIS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW FROM 2003, MULLEN DETAILS HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH SRV AND HOW HE CAPTURED THE OTHERWORLDLY GUITAR SOUNDS ON TEXAS FLOOD AND COULDN’T STAND THE WEATHER
BY ANDY ALEDORT
“IF YOU GOT close enough to Stevie while he was doing his thing, it was almost like he was in a trance, like something else was playing through him.” The late producer/engineer Richard Mullen — the man behind the boards for Texas Flood, Couldn’t Stand the Weather, Soul to Soul, In Step, The Sky Is Crying and Live at Carnegie Hall — was well-equipped to speak about the power and glory of Stevie Ray Vaughan. “On the spot, Stevie could play things that he’d never done before, like he was tapped into a higher plane. His level of precision and expertise was flawless.
In this rare 2003 interview, Mullen describes his approach to recording Stevie, as well as their close working relationship over the course of SRV’s life.
A guitarist and pedal steel player, Mullen (1953-2019) moved to Austin in the early Seventies, and in 1976 connected with a young SRV, initiating a fruitful relationship that lasted throughout Stevie’s career.
In conversation, Mullen’s respect and admiration for Stevie’s artistry is overflowing. “He played on at least a 95 to 98 percent level of perfection all the time. In the studio, whether he would ‘bring it’ was not even an issue. He was fearless when it came to playing, and he always played well.” Regarding Texas Flood and Couldn’t Stand the Weather, Mullen says, “Every take was based on Stevie’s performance; if he exploded on the track, that’s the one we used. On every record I made with him, the final product consisted primarily of live takes, which is something above and beyond what most musicians are capable of.”
How did you first meet Stevie?
I was playing in an original band in Austin called Denim, and the main place we played was the Rome Inn, where we often crossed paths with Stevie when he was with Paul Ray and the Cobras. This is where Stevie and I had our first conversations; he was very shy and I think the first three times we spoke, we had exactly the same conversation! I often ran sound at the Rome Inn during those days, and I would record the shows. I was running sound one night when Paul Ray had gotten sick, and this was literally the very first time Stevie came out as the front man, doing all the s
