Hi folks,
here is an old international rocker, currently living in Germany.
I have been singing Buddy's stuff since 1959 and for some time in the early 60's I had the guitar monster and good friend Albert Lee (later: Crickets) playing guitar in my band...
I have recorded a few of Buddy's great songs over the years and have been in the old Norman Petty Studios a few times.
Pictures and soundsamples on request!

Rock on!

I've been coming to this site for a while, but only registered and started posting recently... I was born in 1959 and grew up in Texas, listening to and requesting Buddy Holly songs on the radio. I was hiccupping to "Peggy Sue" by the time I was 3 years old, and I was buying and listening to Buddy's demo tracks when they were still being bootlegged on vinyl.

I was especially interested to learn, as a kid, that Buddy's real first and middle names were Charles Hardin---from then on I felt a kind of kinship to him because my first and middle names are Charles Austin (downhome Texans used to name their kids after imposing characters from Texas history, you see. I had an uncle named Sam Houston. It's a Texas thing.)

Over the years I've read just about everything written regarding Buddy Holly and seen just about every screen tribute to him---but I'm smart enough to realize that a great deal of it is pure bullcrap. The Columbia Pictures film, "The Buddy Holly Story," for instance, is so terribly wrong and off the mark in so many ways, I'm ashamed to think that some people base their "knowledge" of Buddy Holly on that movie alone.

I've made pilgrimages to the Holy Land (Lubbock) a few times over the decades, but I have to admit that those visits were among the most depressing in my life. There's nothing magical about Lubbock, folks, believe me---the fact that Buddy came from Lubbock was but an accident of birth. It's not the sort of place that naturally cultivates genius.

About 25 years ago, I drove through Clovis, New Mexico, stopped in front of Norman Petty's old recording studio, got out and stood on the curb and shot the finger...steadily...for at least a couple of minutes in silence, then got in my car and drove away. I'm one of those who thinks, with good reason, that Norman Petty screwed Buddy and the Crickets out of a lot of money, before and AFTER Buddy died, and I just don't have a very high opinion of the guy.

Anyways, I don't want to spew all my venom in one introduction. I just want to observe that this is one classy website, and I intend to frequent it more often...If you'll have me.

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Originally posted by Charles Austin:
I've made pilgrimages to the Holy Land (Lubbock) a few times over the decades, but I have to admit that those visits were among the most depressing in my life. There's nothing magical about Lubbock, folks, believe me---the fact that Buddy came from Lubbock was but an accident of birth. It's not the sort of place that naturally cultivates genius.

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The fact that Buddy Holly hailed from Lubbock has nothing to do with his music. It's more that he comes from West Texas that has to do with his music, and the joke around there is that there isn't much to do around Lubbock except play music and hope to get out of that God forsaken town (though it is the buckle of the Bible belt).
Welcome to the board.I was born thrity years and two months after Buddy's death, and although music is and always has been a big thing in my house, Buddy's music wasn't. It was because of an English project I came to know the music and the man, and came to love the music and the man.