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Just 100 miles into the 440-mile journey, a piston punched a hole through the engine block and the bus stalled in the middle of the pitch-black highway. The show finished at 11pm-a concert that Bob Dylan attended-and the band members loaded their equipment into the bus and set off. The tour was headed back through Minnesota on Highway 51 after a stop in Duluth. The February 1st bus breakdown has received attention over the years as the final straw for Holly and his decision to charter the ill-fated plane. Holly historian Bill Griggs estimates that the musicians changed buses five different times before reaching Clear Lake. Two-lane highways, 400-mile treks and -30º temperatures were standard. The dates zig-zagged across the upper Midwest, often backtracking over the previous day’s journey, all in reconditioned school busses. The three week, 24 date tour, organised by General Artists Corp, had zero regards for logistical planning. The three stars were on a flight that Holly chartered after a gig in Clear Lake, Iowa, a gig that was added at the last second to fill a vacancy in the Winter Party Dance Tour. The narrative from the night that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper lost their lives has been played and replayed. It’s the coming of age tale that never comes of age.

It’s illustrative of a generation on the verge of adulthood and revolution, before the revolution. We would like for you to be our brother that we have missed having all of our life.‘American Pie’ commemorates the purity of a moment in rock and roll and in time. He told the Tulsa World last year, “I had wondered all those years, ‘What are you going to say to them? Are they going to hate you for flipping the coin?’ But they said, ‘We have been trying to get a hold of you because you are our only link to Ritchie. His son Austin appeared on the 2016 season of the NBC talent show “The Voice.”Īllsup, who said he kept the coin that kept him alive, said he felt moved to contact Valens’ family soon after the plane crash, but he did not meet them until 1994. By 18, he started his own western swing band, Tommy Allsup’s Range Riders.Ī complete list of his survivors could not immediately be determined. His father and brother were both fiddlers, and Allsup began playing guitar behind them at family square dances. Tommy Douglas Allsup was born near Owasso, Okla., on Nov.

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This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The band at Cain’s served as something of a farm team for the Playboys and other western swing bands. When Bob Wills moved to California, his younger brother Johnnie Lee took over the Cain’s engagement. Throughout the 1940s, Cain’s had served as the house gig for Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, the group often credited with creating western swing, the Southwestern synthesis of big band jazz, hillbilly and mariachi music. Fresh out of high school, Allsup was hired by western swing bandleader Johnnie Lee Wills, the bandleader at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Okla. Allsup’s recordings behind Holly, all cut in Clovis, New Mexico, in 1958, included “It’s So Easy,” credited to the Crickets and later covered by Linda Rondstadt, and “Heartbeat,” later covered by the Beatles.Īllsup’s career neither began nor ended with Holly. The Lubbock-born singer was moving to New York while members of his backup band, the Crickets, wanted to stay in Texas.

Dion and the Belmonts were brought in as headliners.Īllsup joined Holly during a transitional period. Allsup, Jennings and Bunch, all of whom rode the bus, soldiered on for two more weeks with Jennings singing Holly’s songs. The authorities found Allsup’s identification near Holly’s body and initially reported Allsup dead. He gave his wallet to Holly so that he could pick up some mail for him from general delivery. They died on impact.Īllsup was originally thought to have died in the crash. 3, and their bodies were ejected from the plane. The plane crashed into a cornfield about five miles north of the airport around 1 a.m. Filesīut Holly, Valens and Richardson never made it to their next gig. Richardson, better known as The Big Bopper. Holly’s bassist, Waylon Jennings, voluntarily gave up his seat to another headliner, J.P. “That’s the first time I’ve ever won anything in my life,” Valens reportedly said.

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