Buddy Holly’s wife has spoken about being reunited with her husband as a hologram – sixty years after the "Day the Music Died."
Maria Elena Holly, now 86, had only been married for six months when her 22-year-old husband’s plane crashed, in 1959.
She was later immortalised as the “widowed bride” in Don McLean’s American Pie.
Now her husband is coming back to life on a worldwide tour – although she admits it will be a tear-jerking moment seeing him again.
She told the Mirror: “I feel emotional every time I see a photo of Buddy, every time I hear his songs, I think about him every day.
"I miss him so much it hurts. It’s the simple things, how he smiled, and how tender and loving he was with everyone, especially me.”
She adds: “While it won’t be easy seeing Buddy because I miss him so, I do want to see him perform again, and I truly want to see his fans enjoying him in concert again.”
Maria, who remarried, but whose second husband has since died, says the hologram will “introduce him to a new generation of fans”.
As well as Peggy Sue star Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson, a.k.a. “the Big Bopper" also perished on the flight.
Maria says she first became of hologram technology several years ago.
She explains: “I became aware of the very first hologram experiences with Tupac at Coachella and the Michael Jackson hologram, and was intrigued by the technology.
"While we’ve been working on the idea of a Buddy Hologram show, it was only in the last year or so that we felt the technology and resources had reached a point that a successful tour could be mounted.”
The technology used for Buddy Holly is created by pioneers BASE Hologram.
Maria opened up about the first time they met – and how Buddy proposed just five hours into their first date.
She says: “I met Buddy at Peer Music in New York where I was working, on a day that I sat in for the receptionist who was out sick.Buddy flirted with me, and then asked me out to lunch with him and the Crickets.
"Over lunch, he asked me to dinner, and I told him I would go only if he could convince my Aunt – who also worked at Peer – to let me, and she didn’t like musicians, especially for me!
"Somehow Buddy convinced my Aunt, and the first day I met him he proposed at PJ Clarkes’ restaurant, that very evening.
"Our time together was unforgettable, living in that small apartment in the Village, listening to him compose music and touring with him – it was like a dream.”
The Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly Rock ’n' Roll Dream Tour takes place in the UK in October.
Tickets are available here or directly from venues.
