They even took everyone’s laundry with them on the plane. Between the unbearable cold, sleepless nights and lack of clean clothes (the guys were never in one town long enough to take care of the chore) Holly decided he’d had enough after their show in Clear Lake Iowa, and rented a private plane for $108 to fly he and his bandmates – guitarist Tommy Allsup and bassist Waylon Jennings (yep -THAT Waylon Jennings!) – to their next concert date in Minnesota. Holly’s drummer Carl Bunch suffered frostbite on his feet and had to miss the performance that would be Holly’s last. It wasn’t very well organized and the musicians traveled from town to town in a reconditioned school bus – remember the ones with no heating? It wasn’t a great time of year to be traveling in one of those! The bus was so cold that the men often huddled together under blankets to share warmth. Richardson, Valens and Holly were performing on a concert tour called the “Winter Dance Party,” that started in January 1959 with Dion and the Belmonts. It was the “Day the Music Died,” when rock legends Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and Jiles Perry Richardson – better known as “The Big Bopper” – were lost in a tragic plane crash. A turning point in rock and roll history that Don McLean sang about in his song American Pie has strong ties to Texas.
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