Imagine being trapped on a bus in forty degrees below zero with no heat at all. This was not a bad dream for Buddy Holly in early 1959.
The engine was a block of ice and the musicians had to burn old newspapers just to keep their fingers from freezing. They were stuck on a dark Wisconsin road near the town of Hurley. This bitter night, Buddy Holly decided he was done with the road.
You can feel the shiver in his voice when Dion DiMucci talks about the night turned into a funeral.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame History of The Winter Dance Party told by Dion
Fans often talk about how that scary night. One viewer noted that it is haunting to realize how a simple broken bus changed the course of history. People today still feel the weight of that $36 decision.
While the stars were shivering on the ground, a bigger problem was waiting at the airport. A young pilot named Roger Peterson was getting ready to fly them into the dark. He was only twenty one years old and he did not have the training to fly by looking at his tools alone.
The Day The Music Died: The Life and Tragedy of Buddy Holly – Part 1
The plane had a tool called a gyro that was different from the one Roger used in flight school. When the needle moved, he likely thought the plane was climbing higher into the clouds.
He was doing exactly what he thought was right. But in reality, he was falling at one hundred and seventy miles per hour. In that crash, we lost Buddy Holly.
Buddy Holly’s journey was short but his footprint on music is deep and permanent.
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