A lifetime playing Buddy Holly
Feb. 1—ROCHESTER — "The day the music died never happened" — at least for just one night in Rochester.
The Winter Dance Party tour, featuring the music of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper, hits the Civic Center stage Saturday night.
Of course, the musicians are all impersonators. But some of them have been doing their song-and-dance longer than the originals themselves.
John Mueller, who's been called the best Buddy Holly impersonator in the world, has been donning the Texan's pompadour and horn-rimmed glasses for 23 years — longer than Buddy Holly was alive.
It never quite gets old, Mueller said.
It all started decades back, during a musical called "Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story." Mueller, an actor and musician, played the lead but found reviews disappointing. The musical only really got good, the writers said, in the last 45 minutes — during a recreation of the "Winter Dance Party," Holly's last tour with J.P. Richardson (The Big Bopper) and Valens. The three died in a plane crash Feb. 3, 1959, in an Iowa field.
In 1999, during the 40th anniversary of that tour, Mueller decided to pull the best talent he could find from L.A. and the show, and
recreate the tour — "just to feel what happened, what they went through."
The original route was better in theory than in execution, he recalled.
"It was kind of an insane thing because some of those drives were eight, nine hours, and it was terrible routing," he said. "We didn't know if anybody would show up."
After "like a thousand" people showed up for a Monday night performance in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the tour morphed into a yearly, then year-round occupation.
"The reason I haven't stopped or anything is because the demand still seems to be there and people still seem to really enjoy the music," Mueller said. Here, Mueller discusses favorite tour memories, dancing with Mrs. Holly, and the legacy of '50s rock.
Why do you think Buddy Holly and these other rockers' music holds up so well in the 2020s?
I think one of the keys is, that '50s music was before rock-and-roll got politicized, or lyrics became deeper. But I think this music was more — it's post-World War II, people just wanted happy, fun things. And that's what this music was. I think that's why it's so popular today.
Have to ask — you and the other musicians are all working with limited setlists for more than two decades straight. How do you keep it fresh, night after night, and year after year?
Well, we'll mix up the setlist, we'll do all the artists' rare material or stuff that the public will not know as well. We'll throw in a few of those songs. And then I do an original song of mine called "Hey, Buddy." I put that towards the end of the show and people seem to enjoy that.
We mix up the personnel a little bit, I've got two different drummers and two different guitar players. And it's kind of just based on the audience's response. It never seems to get old for us because when the audience is really into the show, so that really helps us a lot, too.
What's your favorite reaction or experience since you started?
One year we had. Maria Elena Holly, who was Buddy's wife, as a special guest. She came out on stage in Green Bay, at the original Riverside Ballroom that they played on the second night of the tour. She came out during "True Love Ways," which is a beautiful ballad. And she started dancing with me during the solo section, where I wasn't singing. The audience loved it, they went bananas. But then she whispered up in my ear, and she said, "You have two left feet... just like Buddy." That was a special moment for me.
What do you hope people take away from this show?
My mantra or goal in my life is to bring joy to people.I hope that for two hours, we take their minds off (their troubles) and just make them feel joyous. And also, a lot of people tell us that we make them feel like they're teenagers again. So that's always great to hear.
What: John Mueller's Winter Dance Party
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 5
Where: Mayo Civic Center, 30 Civic Center Drive SE, Rochester
Cost: $33,