A concert tour called the "Winter Dance Party" was enjoying big successes through the US Midwest, despite the frigid temperatures and poor travelling schedules. Featuring a very popular lineup of up-and-coming musicians, it included Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, J.P. Richardson (aka "The Big Bopper") and Dion & The Belmonts. The cold weather may not have been affecting the attendance, but it was creating havoc on the artists' tour bus, causing malfunctions in its heating system. Frostbite and illness were starting to afflict much of the traveling crew. When an extra show was added to the schedule in Clear Lake, Iowa, band members, especially Buddy Holly, succumbed to their frustrations with the malfunctioning bus and looked for other means of transportation. Holly, needing to get fresh laundry before the next performance, made arrangements with local pilot Roger Peterson to fly three people to Minnesota for $36 each.
J.P. Richardson had the flu, so he urged Waylon Jennings to let him fly instead of anguishing in an ice-cold bus, to which Jennings agreed. Richie Valens wished to fly as well, and won a coin toss with one of Holly's bandmates. Dion DiMucci from Dion & The Belmonts couldn't afford the cost of the flight. When the plane took off, it carried the pilot Peterson, Holly, Valens and Richardson. It never made it to Minnesota.
The plane crash cost the lives of everyone on board, and was the first high-profile music celebrity crash. Every artist was under the age of 30, Richardson being 29, Holly was 22, and Valens was only 18. The tragedy devastated the music industry and shattered the illusion that popular artists, at times worshipped and idolized, were invincible demi-gods. It was a loss of innocence, a loss of talent, and a loss of out-of-touch reality. The incident has been cause for creation, however, as seen in Don McLean's famous 1971 song, "American Pie".
If only this crash was the only one to claim the lives of talented artists, but there have been more. Here are some other famous musicians to have tragically lost their lives in aviation accidents.
Patsy Cline: March 5, 1963. Patsy, famous for her hit "Crazy", was killed along with artists Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins and Cline's manager when their plane crashed in a forest during bad weather conditions outside Camden, Tennessee.
Otis Redding: December 10, 1967. Three days after recording "Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay", his best-known hit, Otis, along with four members of his Bar-Kays band, were killed when their plane crashed in Lake Monoma near Madison, Wisconsin.
Jim Croce: September 20, 1973. "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" was skyrocketing Jim to the top when he crashed into a tree while failing to take off in Louisiana.
Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines and Cassie Gaines of Lynyrd Skynyrd: October 20, 1977. A pilot's error of miscalculating the amount of fuel in the plane caused the crash that killed many members of the immensely popular band just outside Gillsburg, Mississippi.
Randy Rhoads: March 19, 1982. The seemingly infinitely talented Rhoads, playing in Ozzy Osbourne's band, was killed along with two others when the plane he was riding in clipped Ozzy's tour bus during a botched "bus buzz".
John Denver: October 12, 1997. While flying his own experimental plane near Monterrey, California, Denver made a pilot error causing his own demise.
Aaliyah: August 25, 2001. Instead of celebrating my birthday, Aaliyah was killed after leaving a video shoot in the Bahamas. The plane she was in was overloaded and the pilot had traces of cocaine and alcohol in his system.
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