Buddy's first manager was "Hi Pockets" Duncan, a local D.J. who got those first important dates that set the eager Texan on the road to stardom. A true gentleman, he promised Buddy that as soon as his career took off, he would step down in favour of a more experienced person. Of course the rest is history, because Buddy's career did take off and he did meet someone who was more experienced in the music business but at a later date I'm sure that he regretted his decision to change managers.

Remember in the last article I said Buddy regretted "Hi Pockets" decision to forego his managership of The Crickets, well here is probably the reason why. Buddy and the group drove to Clovis, New Mexico to record at Norman Petty's modern (for a small town) studio where Norman and his wife Vi created a very relaxed but businesslike working atmosphere and on the surface were very encouraging towards the talented musicians. However Petty insisted that he took not only a percentage off the top of the gross takings, he also took 33% of the co-writing royalties and a share in the publishing rights! When Buddy got wise to this he wanted to end his association with Norman Petty and stay in New York with his new wife Maria Elena, however as soon as Petty knew this he persuaded J.I. and Joe B. that he could "starve Buddy to death" or at least force him back to Clovis to rejoin the group. Clearly Buddy had other thoughts in mind when, with the help of his beautiful young wife, he began planning his future. Maria got Bruno, (a renowned photographer) to take new professional shots of Buddy instead of the amateurish photographs that Petty had done. Buddy started attending acting school, possibly with a view of going into movies. However all Buddy's money was in the control of his former svengali and by the end of '58 he was running out of funds quickly. Phil Everly recalls the last time he saw Buddy he was coming out of his lawyers office and the texan told Phil that he was having problems getting his money out of Petty.

Buddy and Bob recruited Larry Welborn, a young bass player, to "star" in their slot on Radio KDAV "Sunday Party", this was the show that "Hi Pockets" Duncan and "Pappy" Dave Stone's version of a Sunday variety show that was split into half-hour segments . "The Buddy and Bob Show" was allocated one of these 30 minute slots and Duncan said "I could see right away that Buddy had it...........a lot of grit and determination........he just had more drive than the other youngsters there. Sure he had a lot of talent but everybody has some sort of talent, he just the determination to develop that talent". The radio show meant that they were at least employable in the vicinity of Lubbock, Texas and the three youngsters picked up gigs when and where they could, but their exposure was at low-key venues such as the opening of automobile dealerships and state fairs.

On their first tour after "That'll Be the Day" had charted one of the venues was the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, New York and because there had been a Doo-Wop group called The Crickets the mainly black audience gave the "new" Crickets a pretty rough welcome. However as soon as the group got down to business which of course was rockin' the joint the four soon won the audience's approval. By the way Dig Those Suits!
 

When Buddy met Don and Phil Everly they immediately hit it off as friends, and the Kentuckian Duo immediately took Buddy and the Crickets to the tailor's shop to get new stage clothes to replace what Phil saw as "unstylish hick clothes" that Petty had approved. Phil was especially impressed by of Buddy's generosity in terms of songwriting. The Texan had written several songs including "Wishing" with the Everly's in mind but because of contractual difficulties with their music publishers they were unable to use his material. On a later visit to New York the Everly's gave Buddy a beautiful ballad written by their Acuff Rose songwriters Felice and Boudleaux Bryant which was called "Raining In My Heart".