Waylon Jennings lived most of his life with the story of the plane seat he gave away in February 1959. But in a 1998 interview with writer DJ Johnson for the music site Cosmik Debris, he said there was only one time he came close to feeling truly guilty about it: the day the Big Bopper’s son walked onto his tour bus and asked him to talk about his father.
The boy who was born after the crash
Jiles Perry “J.P.” Richardson, the Texas disc jockey the world knew as the Big Bopper, died on February 3, 1959, in the plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, that also killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and pilot Roger Peterson. He was 28. His wife, Adrianne, was pregnant at the time.
Their son, Jay Perry Richardson, was born in April 1959, roughly 80 days after the crash. He never knew his father. But as he grew up, he came to know one hard fact: the seat his father died in had been meant for Waylon Jennings.
The seat Waylon gave away
On the Winter Dance Party tour, Waylon was the young bass player in Buddy Holly’s band. After the show at the Surf Ballroom, Holly chartered a small plane to fly ahead to the next stop. J.P. Richardson had the flu and could not get any rest on the freezing tour bus, so he asked Waylon if he could take his place. Waylon told him it was fine with him if it was fine with Buddy.
Waylon later admitted he had another reason for not minding the bus. The musicians had been shooting dice on it, and he had been winning. He wanted to keep that streak going.
Shortly after takeoff, the plane went down in a snowy field. Waylon, then 21, said that for a long time afterward he felt that somehow, without knowing how, he had caused it.
“Tell me about my daddy”
Waylon did not give a year for the meeting. What he remembered was how hard it should have been. In those days, he said, getting onto his bus was about like trying to get into the White House. His people kept almost everyone out. Jay Richardson got in anyway, walked up to him and introduced himself:
“Hi, I’m Big Bopper, Jr., and I want you to tell me about my daddy.”
Waylon’s mind went straight to the seat. He was sure the young man knew the story. What he did not know was what Jay thought of it. Did he blame him? Waylon also knew that Jay’s mother had not let her son come out to some of his shows, and he could not tell whether she held that night against him. You never really know how people think, he said.
A dice game and a good ol’ boy
Waylon did not answer with the crash. He answered with the man. He told Jay that his daddy was one of the best crap shooters he had ever seen in his life, and a good ol’ boy. Coming from a man who had spent that same tour shooting dice on the bus, it was no small compliment.
Then, in pure Waylon fashion, he asked the young man how on earth he had managed to get himself onto that bus.
The friendship that followed
They became friends after that day. Waylon said the two of them talked several times over the years. When the interviewer asked whether Jay had ever blamed him, Waylon said no. He did not think the young man ever had a thought like that.
Waylon Jennings died on February 13, 2002. Jay Perry Richardson went on to perform his father’s songs around the world as the Big Bopper, Jr., keeping “Chantilly Lace” alive for audiences who never got to see the original. He died on August 21, 2013, at the age of 54.
Did you ever get to see the Big Bopper, Jr. bring his father’s songs back to the stage?