That was a helluva thing you started there in Austin. Not a perfect human but a human none-the-less. Austin just won't be the same. In fact, it really hasn't been the same in a long time.
Clifford Antone (1950 in Port Arthur, Texas–May 23, 2006 in Austin, Texas) was the founder of a well-known Austin blues club, record label, and a mentor to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmie Vaughan and numerous other musicians.
Antone moved to Austin in 1968 and attended the University of Texas at Austin. An arrest for marijuana led to his dropping out of school. Nurturing a passion for Chicago blues, Antone started a blues club at age 25. The namesake club, Antone's, became one of the first music venues on Austin's Sixth Street, helped lead to Austin's reputation as a music city, and fostered the careers of a number of musicians. Fats Domino, John Lee Hooker, Delbert McClinton, Pinetop Perkins, Muddy Waters, Albert Collins, Jimmy Reed, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown and B.B. King and many other legends performed at Antone's in its more than 30-year history.
In 1987, Antone founded a recording label, Antone's Records and Tapes. Antone served time in federal prisons for drug charges in the early 1980s and in 2000.
