Some of the biggest names in the music industry have tragically lost their lives in plane crashes. Legends of rock and roll, country, soul, and pop have all met their maker when the plane that they were occupants in or piloting crashed. Ironically, one had recorded what would become his greatest hit just three days prior to his death in a plane crash, and one had been taught to fly by the same instructor who also tutored the pilot of a plane that crashed and killed another huge music star less than a year earlier. Here are seven singers from the music world that were killed in plane crashes.
Buddy Holly was a rock and roll pioneer, with hits like “That’ll Be the Day” and “Oh Boy” topping the charts. Holly was killed on February 3rd, 1959, along with Richie Valens and J.P. Richardson, also called “The Big Bopper”, when his chartered Beechwood Bonanza crashed minutes after take-off from Clear Lake, Iowa while en route to Fargo, North Dakota. Pilot error was the ultimate decision by the authorities on the cause of the tragedy. Holly was only 22 years old at the time of his death; Waylon Jennings, who would also go on to become a country music icon, gave up his seat on the plane to Richardson. Holly joked to Jennings that he hoped the bus he would have to ride on to the next gig would freeze up, and Jennings shot back that he wished the plane would crash, an exchange that haunted him for the rest of his life.
Patsy Cline was the biggest female star of her time, a country singer that could also cross over to put pop songs on the charts. Two of her biggest hits were “I Fall to Pieces” and “Crazy”, and she was revered in the music industry as few others have been since. Cline, who had been feeling a sense of foreboding for weeks before her death, died when the Piper Comanche she was a passenger on crashed into a forest after a refueling stop on a flight from Kansas City to Nashville in 1963. Cline was only thirty years old. On her grave is a plaque that reads “Death Cannot Kill What Never Dies: Love”, and country great George Jones once said of her “All Patsy Cline had to do was sing somebody else’s song and her version would outsell theirs because it would be so good!”
Jim Reeves, a country/pop stalwart, died the very next year in a plane crash as well, weeks short of his 40th birthday. Songs like “Welcome to My World” and “He’ll Have to Go” brought Reeves to the top of the country scene. He was piloting a Beechwood Debonair on a business trip when he flew into a thunderstorm, became disoriented, and wound up upside down. His attempt to raise the plane over the maelstrom actually resulted in bringing it straight into the ground. Reeves and his business partner were instantly killed; he and the man that had been the pilot of Cline’s plane had been trained by the same flight instructor.
Otis Redding was an African-American soul singer who wrote most of his own songs. His career was already in full swing by the age of 25 in December of 1967 when the plane he was on crashed into a Wisconsin lake, killing him and all but one member of his back-up band. Redding had only three days prior recorded the song that he would always be associated with most. “The Dock of the Bay” would be released a month later and go to number one.
Jim Croce became a huge name in the states with songs like “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown”, “Time in a Bottle”, and “Operator.” He was 30 when he and three others, including the pilot, died as their plane failed to clear a stand of trees at the end of a runway in Natchitoches, Louisiana on a flight to Sherman, Texas on September 20th, 1973. Some believe that the pilot, who had a history of heart problems, suffered a heart attack as he was taking off. Some songs released after his death became hits as well; “”I Got a Name” was one and “I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song” was another.
Ricky Nelson had 30 songs in the top 40 between 1957 and 1962, with only Elvis Presley having more during that span. Nelson was one of the first teen idols in this country, and he became a television star on “The Ozzie and Harriet Show.” Songs like “Travelin Man” and I’m Walkin” were mega-hits when they came out, and Nelson was a rock and roll and rockabilly icon for a while. His last hit was 1972’s “Garden Party.” Nelson was killed on New Year’s Eve of 1985 at the age of 45 when the plane he was on experienced mechanical problems and crashed in Texas.
John Denver was a folk-rock singer/songwriter who skyrocketed to fame with songs such as “Sunshine On My Shoulders”, “Annie’s Song”, and “Rocky Mountain High.” Denver became a staple on television and even starred opposite George Burns in the film “Oh, God!” Denver was an experienced pilot with almost 3,000 hours in the air, but he died when an experimental plane, a Long E-Z that he was piloting solo, crashed off the California coast on October 12th, 2007.
