Waylon Jennings / Buddy Holly

[Brian Coltrane]

Here's a fact I stumbled across recently, and maybe ya'll knew this already, or maybe not. But for a quirk of fate, ol' Waylon might not have been with us long enuff to become the Balladeer for the Dukes of Hazzard.

Back in the late 50's, a rising rock star by the name of Buddy Holly had put together a new back-up band for a winter concert tour. Waylon Jennings became his bass guitarist. Legend has it, that Buddy was tired of freezing his posterior off on the tour bus ( they weren't as fancy in those days) and instead arranged for a small airplane to fly them to the last stop on the tour.

The plane was a four-seater only. Waylon gave up his seat to someone else, and chose to ride the bus instead. It was the most significant decision of his young life. The small plane crashed in a snowy, frozen cornfield, killing Buddy Holly at age 22, as well as the pilot and two other musicians.

Waylon would go on to become one of the biggest names in country music, with a rough-and-tumble image and lifestyle that set him apart as much as his music did.

Though it was decades apart and under far different circumstances, the month of February eventually saw the end of Waylon Jennings, just as February was the month of Buddy Holly's fatal flight. Both of these musicians are legends in their own right and have influenced scores of other performers. It's worth noting that their careers crossed paths.

Wikipedia has a good article about each of them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waylon_Jennings

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddy_Holly

More music connections: Don McLean's classic folk-rock anthem, "American Pie" , also known as "The Day the Music Died" was inspired by Buddy Holly's tragic death. McLean also gives a nod to the month in his lyrics, with a line of "February made me shiver...."

[DixieRoss]

I knew about that, but I never thought to post it for all the other waylon fans to read on here! Something else I know is that it really effected Waylon, he felt like Buddy Holly's death was his falt, I think he kindda felt that way till the day he died. I miss both of them!!!!!