Finalist for The Indie Book Awards, for General Non-Fiction and Memoir, 2011

He was just a kid from Lubbock, Texas, sporting black horn-rimmed glasses, blue jeans, a white T-shirt, white socks, and loafers. And he changed the course of music history. Today, more than five decades after his tragic death, Buddy Holly still affects lives around the world.

Critically acclaimed author Gary W. Moore was not a fan of rock music. He was familiar with Buddy's name and thought he was dead, but he couldn't name even a single song Buddy had written or performed. In a single evening all that changed when the late great Buddy Holly reached out from a stage in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and seized Gary's heart and soul through a song - not a song written or performed by Buddy, but a song about Buddy performed by musician John Mueller. Even Buddy's closest friends say John is Buddy reincarnated, and his resemblance and music will take your breath away.

Hey Buddy is a warm and intimate chronicle of the author's personal journey to discover more about the young man from Lubbock, his music, his influence, and the times in which he lived. Join Gary as he meets Buddy's personal friends, celebrities, and everyday Buddy enthusiasts. Their unique stories will make you laugh, smile, cry, and think all the while, What if? What if Buddy had lived instead of perishing in that terrible plane crash in Clear Lake, Iowa, on that winter night in 1959? What if Buddy had continued to write music into the 1960s and '70s? What if...

Along the way Gary discovers the darker side behind Buddy's last hours. The doomed Dwyer Flying Service charter flight took off in deteriorating weather with an inexperienced 21-year-old pilot who was not instrument-rated. The Dwyers claim they have the plane wreckage in which Buddy, Ritchie Valens, "Big Bopper" Richardson, and the pilot died and told Gary "the truth has never been told about what happened on that flight".