re: Endless Sleep - The Obituary Thread

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Allsup, who was touring with Holly after the two met during a recording session in 1958, was initially supposed to be on the ill-fated, Holly-charted flight from Mason City, Iowa to Fargo, North Dakota. However, Valens, who suffered from a fear of flying, asked Allsup if he could take his spot on the plane.

"[Valens] asked me four or five times could he fly in my place. For some reason, I pulled a half dollar out of my pocket and flipped it. He said 'heads' and it came up heads," Allsup recalled of the February 2nd, 1959 flight. "So I went out to the station wagon and told Buddy. I said, 'I'm not going. Me and Ritchie flipped a coin. He's going in my place.' Buddy said, 'Cool.'"

Waylon Jennings also avoided the plane crash after giving his seat to J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson.

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