Crickets drummer dies at 82

Jerry Ivan Allison loved making music in Clovis.

“We just had an unbelievable time,” he said in a 2015 interview with Clovis News Journal reporter Brittney Cannon. “We met a lot of nice people in Clovis. It changed all of our lives … We just had a great time; it was a dream come true.”

Allison, the last living member of Buddy Holly’s original band, The Crickets, died Monday. He was 82.

Allison was the band’s drummer and one of Holly’s best friends.

His death was announced on the Buddy Holly Facebook page:

“JI was a musician ahead of his time, and undoubtedly his energy, ideas and exceptional skill contributed to both The Crickets, and rock n’ roll itself, becoming such a success,” the tribute read in part.

“Buddy is often heralded as the original singer-songwriter, but JI, too, wrote and inspired so many of the songs that would go on to be eternal classics. “

Allison and Holly co-wrote “That’ll Be the Day” and “Peggy Sue.” Peggy Gerron, the inspiration for “Peggy Sue,” was married to Allison for about six years.

The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal newspaper reported Allison was born in Hillsboro, Texas, but raised in Lubbock, where he met Holly and began performing with him in the 1950s.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012 along with fellow Crickets Joe Mauldin and Niki Sullivan. Sonny Curtis was also inducted as a member of The Crickets, joining the band a few months before Holly’s death in 1959.

Lubbock’s Buddy Holly Center released a brief statement reporting Allison was “a true trailblazer in the music industry” and “an innovator on the drums.”

Norman Petty Studios posted on its Facebook page:

“The end of an era: R.I.P. Jerry.”

Allison had public disagreements with Petty over finances, but he also had high praise for Clovis’ legendary music producer and the studio where Holly’s hits were recorded on West Seventh Street.

“He had good recording equipment and knew how to run it real well,” Allison said in the 2015 interview with CNJ. “He let us try different things and didn’t charge us like studios in New York City or Nashville would.

“He was very open and there was an apartment in the back where we could nap and record later.”

The late David Bigham, a member of The Roses, was close to all of the Crickets.

“They all had a little farm (near Nashville),” Bigham said in a 2015 interview. “They raised alfalfa, I think, more for a hobby than the production of it. They loved getting out on their tractors and cutting and baling.”

Allison told an interviewer for classicbands.com that he continued to perform with Curtis and Mauldin well into the 2000s. “We play enough so I can afford to farm,” he said.

Mauldin died in 2015, Sullivan in 2004. Curtis, 85, still lives in Texas, online records show. Curtis and Allison were childhood friends.

On Feb. 6, 2016, the anniversary of Holly’s death in a plane crash, Allison, Curtis and others performed at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, where Holly last performed. After the show, Allison said it was the group’s final performance.

Announcements about Allison’s death did not include where he died, but he was last known to be living about 45 miles outside Nashville.