Griggs, Bill 2010-10-21
This interview goes into the back story of Bill Griggs. He founded the Buddy Holly fan club. He talks about his various jobs, and how he came to be a good family friend of the Holly’s
General Interview Information
Interviewee Name: Bill Griggs
Additional Parties Recorded:
Date: October 21, 2010
Location: Lubbock, Texas
Interviewer: Andy Wilkinson
Length: 01:04:31
Abstract
Parents, Mom- Keyboardist, Played with the last big band Hartford, CT had, Dad- Trumpet player, Vacation trumpeter, There was always music in the house, One tape recording of 1955 of the three of them “Jamming”, Before drum lessons, Rock n roll, Found his era, Listened to the radio a lot, Allan Free, Never played a cover record, You would listen to radio stations based on, What the disc jockey played, Joey Reynolds, May 29 th, He was famous for prank calls, Pre rock n roll, Theresa Brewer, Frankie Lineman, Why do fools fall in love, Transition, The 40’s blues shouters, The Rock n roll show, Rock a billy- up tempo, Integrated in the 50’s before the government told them to, In the 60’s, More so in the North, And more so with the younger generations in the South, Crickets- that will be the day, Buddy Holly and the Crickets, That’s how he found out who Buddy Holly was, The Buddy Holly Memorial Society, He was disgusted, He wasn’t hearing Buddy Holly playing on the radio, He started a fan club, He became a repository, 1976-member ship became official, School, Studied to be an astronomer, University of Connecticut, Did not graduate, 1967-68, The psycadellic movement drove him away, He taught a driving school, Bought a service station, Mechanic, Had a race car, National champ- drag racing, 56 Chevrolet wagon, Baby v8’s, His car was named “the cheater beater”, AHRA, American Hot Rod Association, 1971- Got out of the station, No more free parts, All ways had to be moving, Sputnik, Short radio, Operation moon watch, Professor Brown, Sputnik 2- examined where they were, 3 hours later they saw another one, Griggs was the last one to see Sputnik 1 before it fell, Out of orbit, Mayflower Replica, Tried to get a hold of NBC New York, He called the operator and told them, Radios, Moscow, Chile, Met a secret service guy, under circumstances we cannot know, There is an FBI file on him, Stage 4 cancer, He has cancer, He is not scared to die, Afraid of dying, There is a difference, Lubbock, 1979, Had a son, about to have a baby girl, Been visiting Lubbock since 68, He knew the history of Buddy Holly was still in Lubbock, Reception to Holly family:, Mrs. Holly- Matriarch of the family, Buddy- Gentleman of rock n roll, She was Bill’s surrogate grandmother, Publisher, Had flash back pages, Convention, The real Buddy Holly story was debuted at his convention, The crickets played at that show, Wayland Jennings came up to play for a little bit as well, Children, William, Holly, They are brain washed by their mom, his first wife, William studied Journalism, Holly is named after Buddy Holly, A cool story, His dad takes him to meet Gene Crupper
Access Information
Original Recording Format:
Recording Format Notes:
Transcript: No transcript available
Thank you for your interest in this oral history interview. Our oral history collection is available to patrons in the Southwest Collection's Reading Room, located on the campus of Texas Tech University. For reading room hours, visit our website. Please contact Reference Staff at least one week prior to your visit to ensure the oral history you are interested in will be available. Due to copyright issues, duplications of our oral histories can only be made for family members. If an oral history transcript has been made available online, the link will be provided on this page. More information on accessing our oral histories is located here. Preferred citation style can be found here.
