He was born 3 weeks after me, 5 weeks after Efren. I never saw him play, which I'll regret the rest of my life. There's an SRV tribute on YT, @ 90 mins, with his brother, BB King, Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raite, Clapton. etc... in between songs, they have short interviews with all of them @ Stevie. In one with Clapton, he said when he played with SRV, he had to shut him out, visually and audio-wise. He said, if he didn't, he would say to himself, "What's the point?" and just walk off stage... pretty strong medicine, coming from Clapton.
I saw Hendrix three times. And I saw every other super-star swingin' d**k lead guitarist from the 60s - 70s, at least once. None could hold a candle to Hendrix, IMHO. Not one of them. They were all great. But he was in a class by himself. And then, @ 10 years ago, I saw Stevie on YT. My jaw hit the floor. I'd heard him before, sure. But I was never a huge blues fan so I didn't pay much attention. I'm an idiot. I saw him play and it was like I couldn't breathe right. He's the only guitarist I ever saw who could play with Hendrix. If you watch him closely, it's like the guitar is part of his body. And every part of his body is music. His shoulders, his head, his arms... just astounding. Just simply... astounding.