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Artist
Stevey hay
3+ albums
bluesguitarblues rock
about
Blues guitarist and singer Stevey Hay died suddenly in Edinburgh on the night of Wednesday, 4 July at the age of 51. Born in Edinburgh on 5 November, 1962, Mr Hay was the oldest of four children, with a sister and two brothers. He attended Craigroyston High School, Edinburgh, graduating in 1978. Intrigued by the guitar, and inspired by his parents’ Johnny Cash records, Stevey was a self-taught musician, experimenting with his father’s guitar, which he was not supposed to touch. It was his dad who eventually bought him his first instrument. He joined local band The Exploited as a teenager, riding the punk explosion into the indie charts in 1980 with the song Army Life – co-written by “Hay Boy” (as he was known to the band), but never credited, as he omitted to sign the necessary documentation. Following a UK tour, hospitalised with a leg injury, Stevey was replaced in The Exploited by Big John Duncan, leaving him free to pursue a burgeoning interest in blues music. On the recommendation of local guitar hero John Bruce of Edinburgh band Blues’ n’ Trouble, he anatomised the playing of BB King on his Live At The Regal album, widely regarded as one of the all time great blues recordings, and then found further inspiration in the work of Texas blues guitar prodigy Stevey Ray Vaughan. Edinburgh in the 1980s and early 1990s was host to a vibrant live music circuit, and Stevey was able to work up to six or seven nights a week – plus weekend afternoons. Blues music underwent s
