Wow, I forgot he was dead. Your post was kind of a surprise. 
Yes, he's been gone that long now. I first heard about it I think the day after it happened. I had recently got out of the service and was staying with my folks. My mom came into the living room and said "who's that guitar player you like, Eric Clapton?" Being that I'm a guitar player she knew I had some favorites. So I said "ya, I like Clapton, what's up?" She said she thought she just heard on the radio he died in a plane crash last night. "WHAT?!"
Then I found out what had really happened, that it was Stevie. Originally as it was discussed between them Clapton was to have been on the helicopter as well but opted for a limo instead at the last minute so it
could have been both of them! The helo pilot had never flown into that particular helipad before. Fog was very heavy and it was about 1:00 a.m. He could not have known there was a steep hill very close to one side and he flew right into it blind. The helicopter company was sued by the families of those lost because the pilot lacked the proper qualifications to be flying commercially at all.
I had the great fortune to meet Stevie on a sidewalk in Waikiki in '87 and got his autograph in sharpie on my shoe. Me and another guy, a buddy of mine in my squadron had just gotten off a city bus when a little yellow three wheel car came zooming around the corner and parked on the loop in front of a hotel there as we walked by (you can rent them in Waikiki. Two seats, two wheels in front, one in back and a snowmobile engine). I almost didn't recognize him because of how he was dressed. No hat (not a hair on his head above the ears), surf trunks, flip flops and an unbuttoned Aloha shirt. I did however instantly recognize the peacock tattoo on his chest.
Stevie was a little guy, about 5'5" but he had huge hands and a bone crushing handshake. He had funny looking teeth too. I think the condition is referred to as "popcorn teeth" where a person is born with no permanent adult teeth and keeps their baby teeth all of their life. He was a very laid back and gracious person. My buddy Rob was also a guitar player and Stevie chatted with us for a good half hour about guitar playing and where all the best beaches on the island were away from the tourist crowds. He was a very cool dude indeed, not a shred of arrogance about him. When we asked for autographs and had no paper the girl he was with whipped out a sharpie from her purse and he got right down on his knees and signed our shoes for us right on the curb. He was a very salt of the earth sort of guy.
(O.J. Simpson was nice too when me and my mom happened to run into him in the toy aisle at K-Mart when I was a kid. Got his autograph on the back of the gas bill but that's a different story).
