Fifty-six years ago this Tuesday night, February 3, Buddy Holly’s plane crashed. He perished, and some say the music died along with him. Local Holly fans should know there’s a significant event here that night in San Antonio. The very music-filled "Buddy Holly Story" is coming to the Tobin Center, and Todd Meredith plays Buddy.
“It’ll be really cool to do it on the Anniversary there," he said. Meredith has always been a big Beatles fan and he explains 'That’ll Be The Day' was the first song the Beatles ever recorded, "they [Buddy Holly and the Crickets] were just such a huge influence on them.”
Being young enough to play Holly, Meredith had no real exposure to his music, and had to research him.
“I really, really gained a lot of respect for Buddy, and fell in love with his music.”
Originally a country artist, Holly saw Elvis perform live and that changed everything.
“And he really kind of broke the mold because Elvis didn’t really write his own stuff, but Buddy was one of the first to start writing his own music and playing it himself.”
I asked him “So how much fun do you have night-to-night?”
“Oh man, it’s a blast, man. It’s the best job in the world. We have a lot of fun up there!”
We’ve more on the Tobin’s Buddy Holly Story here.
And we've more on Meredith's other endeavor that honors Buddy Holly here.