but at the very end of the performance, there was a coin toss between tommy and richie vallance, andchie won. in fact, some of the last words richie was reported to have said as he was going and getting in the car to go to the airport was that he had never won anything in his life. unfortunately, after that performance, buddy, richie vallance, and jp richardson, the big bopper, and the pilot of the plane, a very young 21-year-old roger peterson, took off from the mason city airport, only to crash minutes later in an iowa cornfield. after buddy's passing, his body was returned here to lubbock and on february 7, 1959, a funeral was held for him and his family church, tabernacle baptist church. and he is buried in the city of lubbock cemetery. while buddy's career was not very long, his influence spans decades. going back to the early 1960's -- the beatles, the stones, the hollies -- if you are a beatles fan and you listen to some of their early interviews or listen to some of the things in print from their anthology, both paul mccartney homage toennon pay buddy. the cite him as being i

a this tour, there was also up-and-coming, very vibrant young gentleman by the name of richie vallancehe was 17 at the time. j.p. richardson, who was better known to fans as the big butler, was also on the tour. weretraveled on buses that not well maintained, would break down frequently, buddy was a little fed up riding the bus. so he chartered flight for him and his family, which at that point would have been waylon jennings and tommy, so that they could leave that night and fly to fargo. the bus would arrive the next morning and take them on to minnesota which was to be there next performance on february 3. during the course of the evening's performances, the big bopper who was suffering from the flu at the time approached waylon jennings and asked if he his seat on the and heith waylon indicated that if it was ok, with buddy, it was fine with him. place, the big bopper throughout the evening, richie persistent in his asking tommy to trade with him his seat on the plane for the seat on the bus. tommy was persistent, he was not going to give up his place. however, at the very end of t