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AN OPEN LETTER & CHALLENGE TO DION
By: Tommy Allsup

Dion, to end all your lies about flipping the coin with Ritchie Valens, and to
end all your vicious character assassination of all the parties involved, people
you NEVER knew to begin with, I officially challenge you to meet me in Clear
Lake, Iowa and submit to a polygraph test...NOW. If you are telling the "truth"
as you profess, you should be a man and step up to the challenge. This challenge
is backed up with the full support of Bob Hale, (MC of the Surf Ballroom WDP
show in `59) Barb and Jerry Dwyer (owners of the flight service as well as
friends and employers of the late Roger Peterson) and Connie Lemos (Ritchie
Valens' sister) who represents the Valens family. It is equally backed up by my
legions of friends in the music business, fans and family.

Buddy Holly chartered that plane for himself, me, and Waylon Jennings. You never
had a thing to do with this. In fact, Buddy barely spoke to you so he certainly
wouldn't have offered you a seat on the plane! You brag about how you were on a
previous tour with him in the fall which is supposed to make us think you really
knew him. Well I was his friend for the last year of his life and toured with
him and I played on some of his songs! You were never in any "closed room" with
Buddy for a meeting about the plane trip. You never flipped any coin. Bob Hale
took Buddy in to Carroll Anderson's office to call Jerry Dwyer's Flight Service.
And Bob Hale saw me flip that coin with Ritchie Valens...and he's still alive to
confirm that. Are you calling him a liar as well? Frankie Sardo, who was also
there that night, has also publicly stated that he witnessed the Big Bopper
negotiating to get Waylon's seat on the plane. Frank is still around to confirm
this as well. Waylon Jennings has also stated in numerous documentaries that he
gave his seat up to the Big Bopper. Do you really think Buddy would invite one
of his band mates, Waylon, and not me? Buddy was my friend and he was also
Waylon's friend. He invited us on the tour with him and he felt responsible for
us. Do you really believe, with his drummer Carl Bunch in the hospital, Buddy
would disregard his closest friends and band mates and the hell we were going
through on that bus and get in a "closed room" with you and invite you instead??
That makes absolutely no sense. How convenient also
that you bring all this up in the past year leading up to your new book release
this coming April. All this controversy ought to drum up sales, right? Yes, too
bad none of it is true. It's interesting how in your previous biography, you
didn't mention being in a closed room alone with Buddy, Ritchie and J.P. and
flipping a coin for the seat. Why not? You would think that would be important
enough to mention, no? You didn't mention it because you had yet to make it up
in your own clouded mind.

Frankie Sardo and Bob Hale are two people alive today that witnessed me and
Waylon give up our seats to Ritchie and J.P. These were our seats to give up! Do
you have any witnesses? Do you have anybody that even comes close to backing
your story up? Nope, I didn't think so. We lost four young souls that day and we
can never get them back and it makes me sick to see someone just come out of the
blue with NO facts and rewrite history to make a quick buck, disturb the
families of the victims, and maybe grab one last moment in the spotlight.

Before you filmed your interview about the Winter Dance Party tour with the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame, you also made several calls to Sevan Garabedian and Jim
McCool, respected documentary filmmakers on the Winter Dance Party tour and
asked them several questions about the Winter Dance Party tour. Why are you
asking them about the tour? You were there, weren't you? Well, it makes sense to
ask researchers like them for information, especially if you barely remember any
of the things that transpired on the tour. Sevan and Jim have filmed interviews
with 6 of the surviving musicians from the Winter Dance Party tour (including
myself) and every one of them has heard what you had to say and had a nice
chuckle about it. They certainly didn't agree with anything you had to say in
their interviews -and these are 6 musicians that were on the tour!!! The
evidence is out there Dion, and it's creeping up on you faster and faster.

I want you to know my true feelings about you. I backed you and The Belmonts for
a month in 1959; the Belmonts were good; but watching YOU play guitar on just 3
open chords doesn't make YOU a musician. Ritchie Valens and Buddy Holly...now
THEY were fine guitar players. I can still, at age
79, back-up my playing and singing, can you? Now that's a laugh! You got lucky
on a mere few records in the 1960's; but then again, fast forward, and so did
Milli Vanilli!!! But the public wised up and they were exposed for all their
lies...just as your lies will be exposed. Buddy's music and his kindness will
live forever; as will Ritchie Valens' fine guitar playing as well as La Bamba,
and The Big Bopper's Chantilly Lace...but I think
Runaround Sue ran out the door long ago and The Wanderer wandered off into a
drug haze!

I am not nor have I ever been a liar; my solid Christian values, and my
integrity and valor are the threads of my foundation. If Maria-Elena Holly says
"Dion knows the truth," so be it. But come on, are we really supposed to take
the word of a woman who didn't even ATTEND her own husband's funeral as truth?
And her "claims" of pregnancy.....read MY book Dion about the
truth concerning that as well. I'm sure you'll purchase it and can do so at
tommyallsup.net. WHY have you never, ever contacted Buddy's brothers (and
family) in Lubbock if you shared such a "tragic moment" with Buddy? They
will also tell you the truth about Maria-Elena. Heck, the entire Buddy Holly
community knows the truth about Maria Elena. Having her on your side hurts you
more than helps you!

I was VERY close to Buddy; I know what he said and did during that tour; you do
not. Buddy BARELY spoke to you at all. And now you're trying to make a dime off
of lies about those who should be left to rest in peace? And you spew these lies
yet profess yourself to be a CHRISTIAN? You and past televangelists have a lot
in common, don't you? You should be very afraid of your judgment in front of
God, for all the lies you've told about fine and upright people; all for the
sake of reclaiming another 15 minutes of fame. You stated something about
planting seeds in your DVD; you best watch what you say as those "seeds" will
eventually grow and devour you.

My future will not change by not getting into the Rock Hall of Fame. Nor will it
change if the present management of the Surf Ballroom backs your lies as truth
for the sole purpose of trying to get you to finally come to the Surf, something
they have been desperately trying to do for years now. You keep recirculating
and reposting The Surf's letter to you on your Facebook as if to "convince"
people that your lies are truth. But they were not there in 1959....I was there
and yes, so were you, and so were the rest of the musicians who in Sevan and
Jim's documentary have a laugh about what you claim to be the truth. And to
discredit Roger Peterson's ability as a pilot? You say in your DVD that he was
kicked out of many flight schools.
That simply isn't a fact. Did you look that up? Of course not. But you did
however break the hearts of Roger Peterson's friends and family by spewing these
lies 52 years later. Haven't they suffered enough, Dion? You also claim that
Jerry Dwyer hired Roger out of pity. Also not a fact. In fact, Jerry's business
partner and wife Barb Dwyer hired Roger (and not Jerry as you claim) because he
was an extremely competent pilot. Jerry happens to be one of the most respected
and decorated pilots in the country. Who are you? Are you an expert in aviation?
You were actually caught in 2 lies with those statements alone. Shame on you.
What do YOU know about Roger Peterson? And you made Ritchie Valens' sister cry
in disgust after watching all the lies you told in your DVD, which happened this
past Feb. at the Surf. Ritchie's sister said her mother and brother would be
ashamed of you right now.
Ritchie's sister approached the president of the Surf Ballroom in tears after
seeing your DVD and asked him how could they show that, with all the lies? You
have a clearly evil and devious soul. In fact, as far as the Rock Hall goes, if
they're backing your lies, then I don't ever want in. After all, we ARE judged
by the company we keep.

My guitar work is already deeply embedded in rock n' roll history; my guitar
licks are heralded by everyone, including Sir Paul McCartney...can YOU say that?
I didn't think so. So come out from under that silly beret and sunglasses you've
been hiding behind for the past 50 years, be a MAN and take the
polygraph....PROVE you're telling the truth! By NOT accepting this challenge,
the whole world will finally see you for the liar and devious "person" you are.
If you're going to make a sad attempt to re-rewrite ROCK & ROLL HISTORY, the
least you could do is sit down with a polygraph and prove the things you are
saying are true. I'm willing to do it. Is the "King of the New York Streets" a
cowardly liar or a real man who will accept this
challenge?

- TOMMY ALLSUP
BUDDY HOLLY'S LEAD GUITAR PLAYER

Dion, below are only a few of the many discrepancies in the Winter Dance Party
tall tales that you've been saying and a few other facts as well:

*.. You claim after you heard about the crash, you got back on the bus and
Buddy's guitar was laying there for you to look at. FACT: Buddy's guitar along
with Waylon Jennings' bass and my guitar were stored in the luggage rack....OUT
OF SIGHT.

*.. You never sat next to Buddy; not one time...on the bus. He barely spoke to
you! Either Waylon Jennings or myself were always with him.

*.. Why was MY WALLET found at the crash site, in Buddy's possessions? Because
since I lost the coin flip with Ritchie at the last minute and Ritchie was
flying, Buddy took my I.D. so he could pick up mail awaiting me in Fargo!

*.. You cannot dispute Jerry Dwyer's knowledge of pilot Roger Peterson. Jerry
was at that time one the most respected men in aviation history and still is
today. He was also Roger's employer and friend. Roger's aviation record is
available for everyone to research. The things you said about him are fantasy
and lies. Just based on the things you said about him, your credibility is shot.

Tommy is the man....

Quote
loog droog
Tommy is the man....

So is Dion.

I think he (Tommy) is being a bit silly over all this.

At least he's setting the record straight if his version is correct.

That is one very angry man - I never knew that such a venomous disagreement over the facts even existed, and I'd be interested to hear what Dion actually said or wrote to upset him so much. (Didn't know there was an upcoming book either).

Very angry indeed... I don't know who has the truth and who doesn't but it sounds to me that, truth or lies, Tommy needs to "let it go" or at least find some blood pressure medicine.

And to think, we thought that people on this board made a big deal out of inaccuracies that they found in Keith's book. Wow! Tommy is seriously ticked off.

I didn't know about Dion's book but will admit that I'm going to try and track it down. Even if it does have some inaccuracies in it, this is a man who was around for the begining and I'd love to hear him tell his version of his story. The day I met him (over 20 years ago) he seemed like a really nice, humble, "normal" person. Nothing gave him away as a celebrity that day for sure, even though I was working on his guitar hours before he was scheduled to go on stage.

Also, here's hoping that Dion will release more of his accoustic blues albums. I've really enjoyed his "Bronx In Blue" & "Son of Skip James" albums that have come out in the past few years.

Peace,
Mr DJA

Quote
mr_dja
Very angry indeed... I don't know who has the truth and who doesn't but it sounds to me that, truth or lies, Tommy needs to "let it go" or at least find some blood pressure medicine.

My thoughts exactly. To quote Buddy Holly, "It doesn't matter anymore".