Just got into Lubbock and rehearsed with my rhythm section. Of course, being in Lubbock, I threw a couple of Buddy Holly songs into the set. Bass player Jonathan Smither told the story of his grandmother, who was a local seamstress, turning down Buddy Holly and the Crickets when they approached her to get stage suits made. “She said they were teenage hoodlums.” (We all laughed.) Then Brian Tate, the drummer, told a story about his father-in-law playing drums for Buddy Holly, pre-Jerry Allison! Apparently his father-in-law and Jerry were such good friends, though, he harbored no resentment when Jerry started playing with Buddy, and eventually even named his son Jerry in honor of his friend.
That’s what I love about doing this thing that I do, traveling all over the country. It’s amazing to me how we can idolize people like Buddy Holly and the Crickets, almost like storybook characters, but if you go to their hometown and listen to the stories, you realize that they were, at heart, just local boys. Sitting down to play music with these guys, and hearing their local connection to Buddy Holly and the Crickets, reminded me of why I started doing this in the first place.
Looking forward to the show tomorrow, in the Crickets theater at the Buddy Holly Hall—ain’t that something? Big thanks to Roger Landes for booking me here, it’s going to be great! Oh, and we rehearsed inside Tarpley Music Store, serving Lubbock since 1927!
Check out part 2 of Deke’s Lubbock post for many photos taken around town! “I had a super fun morning driving around town with J Frank Kiker (Sean Mencher put J Frank in touch with me, thanks Sean!) in his 1965 Ford pickup truck. We went around and saw lots of Lubbock sites, including the inside of Lubbock High School (J Frank’s wife Amy works there, so we got the opportunity to go inside and see Buddy’s homeroom, as well as the auditorium where he played several times during his high school years), the Fairgrounds where Elvis played with Buddy opening in 1955 and 1956, Lawson’s Roller Rink where Buddy played many early gigs, and of course, Buddy’s grave on the east side of town. We grabbed some great Mexican food and then he took me to see the site of the original Stubb’s BBQ, where guys like Stevie Ray Vaughn and Joe Ely cut their teeth in their early careers. What a great day, thanks so much, J Frank, and thanks to Amy Kiker for getting us in the school!”
