# 18 Part 1 Tommy Allsup recalls events with Buddy Holly, leading to Buddy Dying in a plane crash

Part 1 of a 4 part interview series where Oklahoma Music Maker, Tommy Allsup, recalls, in his own words, his Historical Account, of the Events, with Buddy Holly, leading to Buddy, Richie Valens, J.P. Richardson aka The Big Bopper and the pilot, being killed together, in a plane crash. 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Okay,

Speaker 2: 0:00

welcomed Oklahoma music legends. I'm your host Tommy Hinshaw. In November of 2008 Claremore Oklahoma Zone, Tommy Allsup, a very talented Oklahoma music maker, visited a local radio station for a sit down interview to talk about the time he spent with rock and roll. Legend Buddy Holly. If you're not familiar with Tommy Allsup, let me suggest you take a listen to our podcast number five that's dedicated to him. This interview was lost until a short time ago. While the interviewer's questions are missing, we are sure you'll know exactly what was asked of him. We are presenting this interview in a series of four separate podcasts, each available one after the other. We are honored to have this recording entrusted to us and proud to bring you this very special podcast event and historical account of the events leading up to what's been called the day the music died. We hope you enjoy the last interview and now for Tommy Allsup, one buddy holly in his own words.

Speaker 1: 1:25

Yeah. The way I met buddy holly. I got a call one time from a Clovis New Mexico. I was playing in a nightclub in Lawton, Oklahoma, a place called the southern club. And uh, I got this call and a guy named Jim Ed stir wanting to know if I'd come out and play on a session it norman petty's and I said, yes, I'd be glad to come out there. So I went out and we recorded a trio from Portallis one night, then the pharmacy, can you hang around tomorrow night and play with the bowman brothers who were on Columbia records at the time with the Norman petty trio. And I recorded with them. And then the third night it was a boy from a, uh, Albuquerque came in and uh, I recorded with him and then buddy came back from England about that time and he had heard some of the stuff I'd been playing on and asked me to stay around and join him on some records. And I said I'd love to. And uh, that's when we recorded a, uh, it's so easy. And uh, so probably a couple, three weeks went by and I came back to Oklahoma and I got a call from buddy and he said, Tommy, they're fixing release, it's so easy and I can't play your guitar Solo, can you go on a summer tour with us? And I said, yeah. So I agreed to do that. And then as we got little more closer to the tour, he will know if I could put together a dance band to, to record or to play some dance music in between the shows, which we did. And uh, I had uh, some guys, Mo Columbia city, there's three horns and uh, uh, it was pretty good little blues band and uh, so that was the first hurrah and that's how I got to meet buddy. Then I stayed around and the record a lot more stuff with him after that. Yeah, yeah. Then we took a tour again with them in the fall, after a first started recording with him. I made all of his tours after that, which was three, you know, and so it sounded a lot different than what he had originally sounded like a, just for that reason because we did have of the voice as you know. And uh, yeah, that was a, that was a big tour that fall tour. And uh, and uh, uh, we, you know, we did a, we did all of his other stuff. They did the roses. Ed Sang on a lot of his stuff up to that point, you know, and uh, it was a little different sound. It really was in the summer tour, you know, so, yeah, it was great. Uh, he was, uh, over Clovis one afternoon we were in studio and he said, I've been talking to the everly brothers and I got to song I need to put down for them. And so a Clark was there. He was a studio drummer and, and, uh, George Atwood was a studio base player and uh, he asked enormously of can we get those guys to, to play all these songs? And Norman said, yeah. So that's, that's how that came about. They just happened to be there and you know, and those were demos for the everly brothers, but they ended up being buddy holly records. Y'All let us made a fool of users have been good, you know? Yeah, we do that a lot. You know, I have this signer with me, Johnny Rogers, he's from Chicago and that's one of the big songs we do, you know, we'll do that and people say, man, I'd forgot all about that song. I love it. So that's in all of our shows. You. No, not really. Not like it was in England. There's, England's had a better run of his records in the United States. Has kind of sad, but yeah. Well yeah, we talked a little bit on the uh, terror, you know, he said that I'm going to be moving up in New York City and I don't know if j I n job is going to come with me or not. He said there's, there are thing about staying at Norman petty's not an test. Same time I had a western band playing in a club at Odessa, Texas. So it didn't matter to me, you know, whether I wouldn't go get paid, he said I was going to be down there playing in my band, so, and he said, I'll be touring, I'll be hollering at you. So that's kind of how that started and ended up, well, you know, he was Kinda, he was kinda disappointed that they didn't stay with him because he, he was just wanting to improve on his music. Why, why he went to New York and the main reason we went to New York because that's where Maria Elena was from and she lived at her with her aunt and they got an apartment and uh, he thought he'd have a better chance with his riding, which uh, he wrote a lot of stuff for in a short period of time. But by moving to New York, he thought he could further his career and he was right. I think he was writing, doing that because he had done a lot from Norman petty studio and it was time he won't make a change in his music. Yeah. He had, you know, he told me one time he was going to do a Christmas album with Neal Hefti and uh, who, by the way, we lost neal hefti about two months ago. He was a great arranger in that time period and they were going to do a Christmas album and they had talked about it and they're just going to call that deck the halls with hefty holly, you know, get both ems name into it. And that would, that was his first project. Yeah. He wanted to, he wanted to record with Ray Charles. He said, man, I'd love to record a Ray Charles, you know, he was, he was right on the verge of just doing some really big things, you know, uh, he did it because, uh, he had, he thought he had a lot of money in clovis in the bank and he found out it wasn't much out there. And then he found out that what any out there. And uh, he needed money and uh, he was wanting to sign with Irvin fail to be his manager. At that time, Irvin failed, managed Paul Anka and Clyde mcphatter and he owned GAC booking agency in New York and they were booking all the rock and roll shows. So buddy would have been like a, had a, had a manager that would have really done a lot of things with him and I think he was looking forward to that it because they had us a European tour working when we were on that tour or you know, uh, who's going to be off a couple of weeks and it was going to come like six weeks over into Europe and that was all working and buddy just thought to that would be, would be good for his career to have somebody like Irvin fell back in him, you know, have been his manager into guidance career, which she had done a super job at that point with Clyde mcphatter. And, and of course Paul Anka was just starting out, but he was also doing a good job with Paul Anka. Well, you know, Norman Norman was good in the studio. Uh, norman was responsible for bringing these tapes to New York. Let people hear him. But I think buddy probably felt like at that point, Norman had done all he could do, you know, for his career. And uh, they were, they were, this buddy was wanting his money, you know, and at that point, but he had never written a check on his own and Norman controlled the money and I think buddy was, was wanting to get loose from all that stuff, you know. And uh, I think that's one of the big reasons you plus the fact that he wanted her and fail to be his manager. He didn't feel like Norman was his manager as much as his partner at that point in his career because he was one of them deals, you know, uh, you know, we'll do everything 50 slash 50 with patty and I think buddy thought of him more as a, as a partner then, uh, the manager, you know, such a, he, he probably didn't realize it until after the fact, you know, probably not. Probably not will. It was a rough winter up there. But when he called me to, well he, you know what, he came down, Odessa was playing in a nightclub there. He came down here the night before, New Year's eve in 1958 going into 59. It was telling me about the winter dance party and that's when he, he said, I've heard wayland to play bass. And uh, I needed a drummer and that's when we thought about Carl Bunch and uh, he had re rush with him at that time and uh, they came in and uh, you know, Moon Mollica was playing piano there to club with me and he buddy it was. But mine was buddy's favorite piano player and he's the guy, Jerry Lee Lewis there, all them guys copied. And uh, our drummer couldn't make it that night. He was a, he had been in El Paso and who's going to be late getting back. And a buddy said, well, I'll play drums.

Speaker 3: 9:13

This concludes part one of the Tommy also interview series. Part two of four is available next.