Clovis music legend remembered as 'grateful'

CLOVIS -- He sang with Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly and Buddy Knox on multiple hit records. He provided backup vocals at Norman Petty’s studio from 1957 to 1959 when it produced 12 Billboard magazine Top-40 singles. In December 2000, he was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame for his career as a member of The Roses trio.

But David Bigham’s legacy might not be his musical contributions alongside rock legends. Longtime friends and those who had only brief encounters with him as he led tours around the Petty studio next to his home on Clovis’ West Seventh Street say they will instead remember his storytelling ability, his kindness, his humble but engaging personality.

Bigham, one of Clovis’ last direct links to Orbison, Holly and Petty, died Wednesday after a months-long struggle with pneumonia. He was 84.

“My heart is broken at this news,” Richard Upston wrote on the Petty studio’s Facebook page last week. “David was the most wonderful person and a true friend who put up with all the stupid questions that 2 Buddy Holly fanatics and 3 musicians from Sydney Australia asked him. He will remain strong in our memory, deep in our hearts and foremost in our prayers. God bless you … peaceful soul.”

Dozens of similar tributes were recorded on the social media site from music fans around the world who only knew Bigham from their brief conversations touring the historic studio with him.

Those who knew him outside the music world also expressed warm memories at his passing.

“God made David Bigham special,” said Clovis’ Randal Crowder, now a state representative who employed Bigham as a home builder in the mid-1990s. “He was one of the kindest people, his work ethic, his attitude … I have never met anyone like him.

“We’d be working together and I’d think about something we’d need and I’d look down and David would have it in his hand. He was always looking ahead. Everything about him was special.

“When he quit (after 15 years), my office manager wept. She said she wasn’t sure there could ever be another man like him.”

Crowder said the humble Bigham worked with him for more than a year before Crowder learned about the ties to Petty and the rock stars.

Maryline Bigham said she was married to her husband for 15 years before she found out.

“I came in and he was on the phone. I asked him who he was talking to and he said it was Robert Linville, his singing partner,” she said. “That’s how I found out about the music.”

A rock-and-roll fan herself, she said she began peppering him with questions, as thousands of others have done since.

Most of those questions usually revolved around Petty and Holly, both men for whom David Bigham expressed admiration.

“(Buddy Holly) was fun to be around, but he was more goal-driven than most people at that age,” Bigham told a reporter in 2009 on the 50th anniversary of Holly’s death in a plane crash.

“The more I was around Buddy, the more I knew he was one of those people who would make his mark in the music industry because he was so driven and so versatile. But his notoriety and popularity hadn’t gone to his head so he didn’t have any airs about him. All those guys – Roy Orbison, Buddy Knox, Buddy Holly, they were all just regular people.”

Petty, he said, “was a very private person and he didn’t like flaunting his musical success to anybody. Of course the people who came here to record were not from Clovis. And all of the recordings were done at night. So really, the citizens of Clovis had no idea what was going on out there (in the Seventh Street studio).”

Bigham often told studio visitors he particularly admired the work ethic of Holly and Petty. After recording sessions, the studio musicians and Holly’s band, the Crickets, would go out and ride motorcycles or enjoy some other activity together. But Petty and Holly would huddle up for hours and try to fine tune the music they’d just made.

Bigham was always quick to dispute any claims that Petty and Holly were at odds over money at the time of Holly’s death as some have alleged. Bigham said the pair were talking about opening a music studio in Lubbock just days before Holly was killed.

‘Instant friendship’

Maryline said she was a waitress at Sam’s Lounge in Odessa, Texas, when David walked in with a friend in 1972. “That’s how we met and seven days later we were married,” she said.

“It just seemed like instant friendship. We realized we had a lot of the same interests so we just started talking.”

David was manager of an Odessa Whataburger at the time. Later he went to work for Walmart in Odessa. Walmart moved him to Clovis – where he’d made music in his early 20s -- in 1996, where he was the lawn and garden manager, then the household chemical manager. He even sang with a Walmart employees choir before retiring and going to work for Crowder.

Music was not a big part of Bigham’s life as the 1960s turned into the disco ’70s. The Roses had stopped performing together and he had lost touch with mates Linville and Ray Rush. But in the mid-1980s, Linville was involved in creating the annual Clovis Music Festival and began telling reporters he was interested in tracking down his old singing partners.

“David Bigham’s daughter read his story in an Amarillo newspaper (in 2001) and got the two reunited after 30+ years,” according to the Petty studio website’s history of The Roses.

The three never performed together again, but Bigham sang with both men – with Rush in Lubbock in 2004 and several times with Linville, including at the Grand Ole Opry in April 2001.

Linville died late in 2001 in Clovis. Rush died in 2020 at a nursing home near Houston.

Maryline Bigham, who often participated in the studio tours with her husband of 49 years, said David never boasted about his musical career, but loved to tell the stories when asked.

“He was so happy to talk about those days because they were such a sweet and special time in his life,” she said. “He felt so honored to have met Norman. He was just so grateful for it all and loved every minute.”

Memories of The Rose

Here are some of the tributes that came in last week for David Bigham, one of Clovis’ last direct link to rock-and-roll history:

Kenneth Broad, the curator of the Petty studio, was friends with Bigham for four decades.

“He was a kind gentleman who really loved the fans that gathered around,” Broad said.

“I think it made his last years so meaningful. People showed their appreciation for him and he didn’t take it for granted. When he would do an autograph, it was with real pride. He was gracious and kind and always thinking, ‘Can I do a little more for you?’”

* Jamey Karr, a longtime Amarillo radio personality, said Wednesday night he was heartbroken by the news.

“David was a wonderful and generous host for all things Buddy Holly,” Karr said. “I went on a couple of Clovis and studio tours with Dave. When ‘Think it Over’ would be played in the studio, David would sing his old part, amazing everyone. The man was part of rock and roll history.

“He was a wonderful, modest and sweet man. I’ll never forget him. I’m glad I knew him.”

* More than 70 tributes to Bigham from around the world had been posted on the Norman Petty Studios / Nor-Va-Jak Music Facebook page by Friday afternoon. A sampling:

“Very sad to hear this news,” wrote Michael Slater of Brisbane, Australia. “I spent a very enjoyable afternoon with David and Kenneth (Broad the studio curator) about 10 years ago. The three of us sat at the table for about 3 to 4 hours and talked about the music and all the world’s troubles. It was a day I'll never forget.”

From Marc A. Hermann, of Brooklyn, N.Y.: “I will never, ever forget standing in the control room in 2017, and harmonizing along with him to ‘It’s So Easy.” Thank you for the music, David.”

From Paul Garden, of Edinburgh, United Kingdom: “I am so sorry to hear this news. I was fortunate to meet and speak with David when I visited the studio on a road trip. His willingness to share stories and the joy you see he had for those days was there for all to see. Rest in peace.”