While in town for a few weeks to play guitar in 1958, Allsup met Buddy Holly at Norman Petty's legendary studio in Clovis, N.M. He played guitar on about 10 of Holly's songs (he can't remember the exact number), including the classic "It's So Easy." A lost coin toss kept Allsup off the plane that rook Holly's life in 1959. It's a moment that has been portrayed on stage in Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story and on film in La Bamba.