Once when I was at the New Orleans Jazz Fest (mid-1980s sometime) there was an evening concert on the Riverboat President. Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown opened, then Albert King, then SRV. To my estimation they played in descending order of musicianship, though if someone there had preferred Albert King I wouldn't have argued with them. SRV was drunk and stoned and kind of mailed it in for the most part. Based on that experience I pretty much ignored SRV after that. I later came to think I should have given him another chance but oh well.
SRV definately did bottom out in the mid 80s. There was a clip of him sloppily playing the Star Spangled Banner before a Houston Astros game, and the fans there booed very loudly. But he had cleaned up and was playing better than ever at the time of his death.
You should have. Pick up "The Sky is Crying." It has a sampling of the last songs he recorded and it's got some great stuff on it.
“SRV was drunk and stoned and kind of mailed it in for the most part. Based on that experience I pretty much ignored SRV after that.”
SRV was an admitted alcoholic. He then got sober, lived a few more years. Killed in a helicopter crash.
As a relatively young man, the best guitar players in the world recognized him as their peer. B.B. King, Clapton, etc.
Too bad Nugent ignores all the musicians that got clean/sober and now live to make great music, and in many cases to help others.
Clapton would be one of those. He is clearly in a class way above Nugent as an artist. And he has spent a lot of his own money helping other alcoholics/addicts.
http://www.crossroadsantigua.org/website/about/about1.html