A COIN TOSS IN THE AIR… DECIDING WHO WOULD LIVE AND WHO WOULD BECOME LEGEND. That night in Iowa was bone-chillingly cold. The tour bus heater had broken, and Waylon Jennings gave up his seat on the plane to The Big Bopper, who was down with the flu. It was an act of kindness followed by an offhand joke: “I hope your old bus freezes up,” and the fateful retort: “Well, I hope your plane crashes.” They were just young men, exhausted and eager to get some sleep early. The tiny plane took off into the snowy night, carrying three of the brightest stars in music at the time. The resulting silence lasted for decades. Waylon Jennings lived the rest of his life haunted by that final jest. But few know about the leather wallet recovered from the crash site; inside, it still held an item proving they had a premonition about this journey…
The Coldest Night on the Tour Iowa in February does not forgive tired musicians. On the Winter Dance Party tour of 1959, the bus heater had died somewhere between frozen…