María Elena Holly

This week, we've got the second matchup in the Gone Too Soon division.

It is the Buddy Holly story taking on Elvis.

Jen, talk to me about the Buddy Holly story.

Whoa.

I mean, this week's going to be interesting because we have these two icons of rock and roll and two stories told in very, very different ways.

So for Buddy Holly's story, I'm taking us back in the Wayback Machine.

This movie came out in 1978 and was a groundbreaking star turn for Gary Busey.

Before he went completely off the rails, he wowed audiences playing Buddy Holly.

Speaking of which, there's one buzzing over my house right now.

And then Maria Elena, Buddy's wife, she had apparently been having terrible nightmares and premonitions about him dying in a small plane crash leading up to the beginning of the tour.

And finally, there is the very, very sad piece of information that when Waylon Jennings gave up his seat to the Big Bopper, who was really sick with the flu, Buddy jokingly told his friend Waylon, hey, I hope your old bus freezes up.

And Waylon responded, well, I hope your old plane crashes.

I think the same was true for all three of them, so for the other twos as well.

And I think that's also why this is still talked about and still such a topic today.

So when Buddy and Maria Elena were living in Greenwich Village, Buddy used a tape recorder and his guitar to create a number of recordings.

These were very early drafts of melodies that he was working on and, you know, his versions of a couple of different songs.

The Big Bopper, who had a few hits on the radio, including Chantilly Lace.

JP has been happily married to his wife, Tietze, for almost seven years, and they have a five-year-old daughter at home.

Tietze is also expecting their second child when JP decides to join the winter dance party tour.

He wants to make some more money for the upcoming birth of his second child, and he also has big plans to build a recording studio in his home.

But there's a problem.

He's not receiving royalties from Norman Petty, the manager.

He was newly married after a whirlwind romance with his wife Maria Elena and there was a baby on the way and Buddy realizes the best way to get some money for his firstborn, you know, as well as for his own home studio, is to get back on the road and collect the payments himself.

His usual band is not with him on this tour, but he's got drummer Carl Bunch, bass player Waylon Jennings and guitar player Tommy Elsap as his backup band.