For many music fans, February 3 is known as “the Day the Music Died”.

It is called that because on February 3, 1959 in the early morning hours there was a small plane crash that killed upcoming stars Buddy Holly, JP “The Big Bopper” Richardson, and Ritchie Valens just outside of Mason City, Iowa.  A snowy night, pilot Roger Peterson was not fully qualified to fly the plane in such conditions.

In 1972, award winning artist Don McLean released the song “American Pie” – a story song about the event.  The song topped the Billboard chart for four weeks.

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the song’s release, McLean is on tour. 

Playing to a sold out crowd, McLean performs at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa – the destination of Holly, Big Bopper, and Valens when the plane went down.

All three musicians were part of a big tour group making the rounds of venues in the Midwest.  Tommy Allsup and Waylon Jennings were also a part of the tour and had given up their seats on the plane.

McLean spoke on Holly saying, “Buddy Holly was only 22 years old when he died on February 3, 1959. By that time he had recorded something like 60 sides and every one of them was a hit song and most were hit records. Even the Beatles can not compare to the magnitude of this contribution. The music he made, he invented himself with very little help from others.”

McLean began the tour on January 28 and has added some dates to the North American portion of the tour.  Tickets are on sale now.

Don McLean tour dates:
Feb 3 at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, IA
Feb 5 at the Chester Fritz Auditorium in Grand Forks, ND
Feb 11 at the Sharon L. Morse Performing Arts Center in Lady Lake, FL
Feb 12 at the Ponte Verdra Concert Hall in Ponte Vedra, FL
Feb 14-18 on the Rock Legends Cruise out of Cape Canaveral, FL
Feb 19 at the Nancy and David Bilheimer Capitol Theatre in Clearwater, FL
Feb 24 at the Fox Theatre in Tucson, AZ
April 23 at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro, VT
April 24 at the Colonial Theatre in Laconia, NH
April 29 at the Uptown Theater in Kansas City, MO
May 1 at the Clowes Memorial Hall in Indianapolis, IN
May 7 at the John Bassett Theatre in Toronto, ON
May 12 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN
May 13 at Atlanta Symphony Hall in Atlanta, GA
May 19 at the Balance M. Touhill Performing Arts Center in St. Louis, MO
May 20 at the Gillioz Theatre in Springfield, MO
May 21 at the Oaklawn Event Center in Hot Springs, AR
June 2 at The Egg in Albany, NY
June 3 at the Boch Center in Boston, MA
June 4 at The Town Hall in New York City, NY
June 10 at the Ruby Amphitheater in Morgantown, WV
June 11 at The Lyric Theater in Baltimore, MD
June 12 at the Capital One Hall in Tysons, VA
June 17 at the DeVos Performance Hall in Grand Rapids, MI
June 18 at The Pabst Theatre in Milwaukee, WI
June 19 at the Big Top Chautauqua in Bayfield, WI
June 24 at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts in San Antonio, TX
June 25 at the Cullen Performance Hall in Houston, TX
June 26 at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, TX
July 1 at the Saban Theatre in Bevery Hills, CA
July 2 at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA
July 7 at the Paramount Theater in Denver, CO
July 8 at the Avalon Theatre in Grand Junction, CO
July 9 at the Orpheum Theatre in Phoenix, AZ
Sept 11 at St. Davids in Cardiff, UK
Sept 13 at the Ipswich Regent Theatre in Ipswich, UK
Sept 14 at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham, UK
Sept 16 at The Forum in Bath, UK
Sept 17 at the Princess Theatre in Torquay, UK
Sept 18 at the Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre in Bournemouth, UK
Sept 20 at the Brighton Dome Concert Hall in Brighton, UK
Sept 21 at the Cliffs Pavilion in – Southend-on-sea, UK
Sept 23 at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, UK
Sept 24 at the Sage Gateshead in Gateshead, UK
Sept 25 at The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow, UK
Sept 27 at Usher Hall in Edinburgh, UK
Sept 28 at the York Barbican in York, UK
Sept 30 at the DeMontfort Hall in Leicester, UK
Oct 1 at City Hall in Sheffield, UK
Oct 2 at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool, UK
Oct 4 at the London Palladium in London, UK
Oct 7 at the 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland
Oct 9 at the Concertgebouw de Vereeniging in Nijmegen, Netherlands
Oct 10 at the Koninklijk Theater Carré in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Oct 14 at the Peer Gynt Salen in Bergen, Norway
Oct 15 at the Stavanger Kuppelhallen in Stavanger, Norway
Oct 16 at the Sentrum Scene in Oslo, Norway
Oct 18 at the Lorensbergsteatern in Gotteborg, Sweden
Oct 20 at the Logomo in Turku, Finland
Oct 21 at the Kultuuritalo in Helsinki, Finland
Oct 23 at the Gota Lejon in Stockholm, Sweden
Oct 24 at the Palladium in Malmo, Sweden
Oct 25 at the Portalen in Greve, Denmark
Oct 27 at the Fabrik in Hamburg, Germany
Oct 28 at the Kulturkirche in Neuruppin, Germany
Oct 29 at the Admiralspalast in Berlin, Germany
Nov 1 at the De Singel in Antwerp, Belgium
Nov 3 at the Musikteatret in Holstebro, Denmark
Nov 11 at the Prinzregententheater in Munich, Germany
Nov 13 at the Posthof Zeikultur Am Hafen in Linz, Austria