Opinion: Maybe, baby, Petty studios will live forever

Music royalty visited Clovis last week. Robert Plant stayed just long enough to remind us we still have one of the most iconic connections to rock and roll history hidden away on West Seventh Street.

Plant, lead singer for Led Zeppelin and performing in Lubbock last Thursday, tweeted his reasons for being here:

“76 shows into a mammoth tour, we reach Lubbock and why? Cos this is where one of the greatest influences of my singing life, kicked off a short meteoric career.

“Across the stateline to Clovis, NM ... Norman Petty’s famous studio which gave birth to the sound that changed the world ... NorVaJak — open to visits — it’s a remarkable trip not to be missed. Ask for Kenneth Broad.”

Plant, of course, was referencing Lubbock-born Buddy Holly, who recorded his 1950s hit records at Petty’s NorVaJak studio. That would be the studio that still looks like Holly or Roy Orbison or Waylon Jennings could walk in any time and start experimenting with funky, magical sounds.

Broad is the studio curator who became friends with Norman and Vi Petty in the 1980s. He promised Vi, who died in 1992, he’d keep Norm’s legacy alive.

“My part is fixing the roof and keeping the plumbing going and just maintaining the property,” Broad said.

That, of course, is quite a part on a 60-something-year-old building. He also gives tours of the studio. Call him — 575-356-6422 — and give him about two weeks notice and Broad will show off the place where Petty gave Holly that hiccup-y sound that will live forever. No admission is charged. Donations are accepted, but not always given.

Sometimes nobody tours the studio for weeks. Sometimes Broad said he’ll have 30 school children show up. And sometimes the likes of Robert Plant will drop in.

“He just walked through and then he went back to Lubbock,” Broad said. “They were playing there that night so they had to get back. He was here maybe 30 minutes.”

Broad said Plant and his new bandmates — the Sensational Space Shifters — were mostly impressed “because of the fact that we’re still here.”

Indeed it’s been almost 35 years since Norman Petty died, longer still since he recorded in the converted grocery store that stood next to his family home.

While the studio is world famous, the subject of countless news reports and documentaries because it still has its original equipment and tons of 1950s-era music memorabilia, it remains remarkably unknown as well.

Clovis’ David Bigham, a backup musician who worked for Petty and played with Holly and others at the studio, has said that nobody in Clovis “knew we were here,” when the hit records were being made.

West Seventh is not on everyone’s daily path today either.

So thanks, Robert Plant, for reminding us of the treasure in our midst.

Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the Clovis Media Inc. editorial board, which includes Editor David Stevens and Publisher Rob Langrell.