Waylon Arnold Jennings (June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American country singer-songwriter and guitarist. Jennings first became famous as a member of Buddy Holly's backing band. On February 3, 1959, while playing shows with Holly, he gave up his airplane seat J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. The airplane crashed after it took-off killing Richarson, Ritchie Valens and Buddy Holly. Jennings claimed that in the years afterward he felt severe guilt over the crash.