CLEAR LAKE

Waylon Jennings last words to rocker Buddy Holly were spoken in Clear Lake, Iowa as he allowed J.P.Richardson to take his seat on a small chartered aircraft. Only three could fly along with the pilot. Originally, Holly had chartered the plane to fly himself, and band members, Tommy Alsup and Waylon Jennings on to Moorhead, Minnesota for their next performance. Alsup had every intention of making the flight with Buddy but hot young rock sensation, Ritchie Valens, who had never flown, badgered him for his seat. Finally, Alsup gambled it with him on the toss of a coin and lost giving up his seat to Valens just before the flight. J.P. Richardson, a.k.a. “The Big Bopper” had come down with the flu while in Clear Lake and wanted to avoid the long, cold bus ride to Moorhead. Jennings gave up his seat on the plane to the ailing Richardson. Holly, hearing that Jennings had relinquished his seat jokingly commented to Waylon, “I hope your old bus freezes up”. Waylon, dreading the slow, cold bus ride to the next stop retorted, “Yeah, well I hope you old plane crashes.”

The Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft, tail# N3794N, owned and operated by Dwyer Flying Service of Mason City, Iowa and flown by charter pilot, Roger Peterson took off from the Mason City Iowa Airport into the freezing weather that wrapped Clear Lake and the surrounding area in its grip in the early hours of that fateful February 3rd, 1959. Shortly after takeoff it came crashing down into a frozen farm field killing all aboard including the pilot Roger Peterson, teen rock sensation, Ritchie Valens, the singing DJ from Beaumont, Texas, J.P. “Big Bopper” Richardson and, rock music pioneer, Charles Hardin, “Buddy” Holly. It was a time and event that would come to be called “the day the music died” and it would also become the day that Waylon Jennings wanted so much to relive so that he could take back those last words he had spoken to Holly. At the time, Waylon was 22-years old and although he would go on to achieve his own musical success; this event would never be far from his memory and would lead him back to wondering why he, a fledgling performer, had been spared when great ones had been taken from us on what seemed his wishes alone.

Clear Lake, Iowa is a small city even by modern day standards and it was even smaller back in 1959. At first glance, it did not seem a place that would host a traveling rock ‘n roll show with stars like Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens. A closer look reveals its proximity to Mason City, Iowa, a larger suburban market, and to the tourist traffic transiting Interstate 35 north and south. Clear Lake was a major hub on Interstate 35 sitting near a large lake of the same name and offering a host of truck stops, restaurants, tourist attractions, and entertainment. Among these was a place called “The Surf Ballroom” which would be the site of Buddy Holly’s last live performance on that cold night of February 2. Immediately after the performance, the entire ensemble would board the waiting tour bus for the journey to the next tour stop in Moorhead, Minnesota. Holly, Jennings, and Alsup planned to do the show and then head to the Mason City Airport to catch the charter flight. As it worked out, it was Holly, Richardson, and Valens who departed for the airport after the show. Both Holly and Valens would make their last phone calls to home from the Surf Ballroom pay phone prior to departure.

The tour, touted as “The Winter Dance Party” was a multi-artist production set to perform in 24 mid-western cities over a three-week run. Planning had been poor as promoters had been more interested in filling show dates than worrying about the distance between stops. This led to some hurry up departures and long hours on a drafty crowded bus enduring the cold winter weather of the Midwest region. The tour bus was in poor condition with a heating system that had broken soon after the tour was launched. The bus was so cold that The Cricket’s drummer (Holly’s band), Carl Bunch, had come down with severe frost-bite on his feet and ended up in the hospital. This had left Holly in a lurch and forced him play drums himself or to depend on Ritchie Valens to help out on drums when Buddy performed. Waylon was playing bass guitar for Buddy’s performances at the time. Everyone on the tour was feed up with the poor traveling conditions but most of them were not in position to do anything about it. Holly’s success allowed him to weigh the alternatives and he opted to charter the plane for the next leg.

The Clear Lake performance had not been planned in the original tour schedule. Promoters added it at the last minute to fill an open date in the schedule. The Surf Ballroom was large enough to accommodate the show and to provide a paying crowd. Getting to Clear Lake had been a struggle as the previous performance on February 1^st had been held at the Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay, Wisconsin, a distance of 360 miles. After the race to Clear Lake, the tour faced a similar journey of over 300 miles to get into Moorehead, MN in time for the next show. There was little rest to be had in Clear Lake and members were worn to a frazzle from the travel demands and the brutal cold weather.

The Winter Dance Party Tour included a list of rising stars in the relatively new music scene referred to as “rock ‘n roll”. The tour was a succession of one night stands starting out on January 23^rd in Milwaukee WI at George Devine’s Ballroom followed by Kenosha WI, Mankato MN, Eu Claire WI, Montevideo MN, St Paul MN, Davenport IA, Fort Dodge IA, Duluth MN, and Green Bay WI for the first ten nights of the 24 stop tour. Clear Lake would be the 11^th night without a break from performing or the fatiguing rigors of the travel and cold. Their bodies were tired and most if not all their clothes were dirty. Holly was out of clean underwear and needed to wash his clothes. This would be his driving motivation to charter the plane and get to the next stop in time to do some laundry before the next show time. Beyond the Clear Lake performance, the stops included Moorhead MN, Sioux City IA, Des Moines IA, Spring Valley IL, Chicago IL, Waterloo IA, Dubuque IA, Louisville KY, Canton OH, Youngstown OH, and the wrap up on the 15^th of February in Springfield IL at the Illinois Armory. If the tour stuck to the schedule, the groups would perform every night and then travel by bus every day for the entire period between 23 January and 15 February. Frequently, they left the last performance headed back in the direction they had just come from retracing the roads and miles they had just covered the previous day.

Performers on the tour included Buddy Holly & The Crickets, The Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens, Dion & The Belmonts, and Frankie Sardo. All were young, promising performers excited at the opportunity to gain exposure and grow their fan base. For those reasons, the hardships of the whirlwind tour were a bit more bearable and rest could be had at the end. With the turn of events in Clear Lake, some left the tour and other acts filled in the dates. Dion & The Belmonts was the only original act to stay through the full tour schedule.

As the events of those early morning hours played out the fate one can only wonder what thoughts were going through the minds of those involved. Waylon Jennings and Tommy Alsup were once again boarding that all too familiar bus for yet another long cold leg possibly regretting the factors that had taken them out of their airplane seats and back into this hell on wheels. As the bus rolled out onto the highway for the next destination, the Bonanza aircraft taxied to a snow and ice covered runway for the takeoff into freezing overcast skies. Holly was probably thinking about everything but the weather and glad that he was finally going to get his laundry done. Richardson was distracted by the flu that continued to hang on him, and young Ritchie Valens, never having been inside an airplane, must have been sitting there with his heart beating rapidly in anticipation of a sensation he had yet to experience in his life. Pilot, Roger Peterson, could not ignore the weather but had elected to make a visual takeoff and then file an instrument clearance to destination after getting airborne. What his passengers did not know was that Peterson was only marginally capable of flying in this weather not yet having completed his instrument training or receiving his instrument pilot certification. Peterson’s lack of experience would prove fatal for all on board on this fateful night.

The small airplane took off at approximately 12:55 AM. Airport tower observers watched the red tail light descend out of their line of sight into the night gaining some altitude and speed. Peterson never made any radio calls or filed his flight plan. The aircraft struck the ground in a slightly nose-down angle in a bank turn to the right at a speed near 170 miles per hour. It skidded and tumbled along the ground for an additional 570 feet in the frozen field literally turning into a twisted ball of metal and wires coming to rest against a wire fence at the edge of the field. In the process, Holly, Valens, and Richardson were ejected frcm their seats onto the frozen ground already dead from the`blunt force trauma of the initial crash. Peterson, also dead, remained trapped in the wreckage. The crash would not be discovered for hours.

On the bus, Waylon Jennings sat trying to keep warm. It would be a while before he would learn of the fate of Buddy and the others in that cold Iowa cornfield. It would be a while before he would remember those fateful words that would haunt him for a lifetime…regrettable words spoken jokingly to his good friend on a cold night in Clear Lake, Iowa.

(Copyright) WBrown2010