My phone rang on Monday afternoon at 3:05 p.m. It was John Mueller. I tried not to let my enthusiasm make me sound like a fan. We exchanged pleasantries and I confessed my deep intererst with his song and his tribute to Buddy Holly. I told him I’d love to know more, but was not sure what there was to know. Fortunately, he did not treat me like I was a stalker. I was sure beginning to feel like one.
John was a real gentleman. I told him that I really didn’t know enough about him or my recent fascination with him, the musician he portrayed, or their music together, but I had an urge to write about it. But write what? I wasn’t sure. He seemed intrigued by my sudden and passionate interest.
I found him to be friendly and humble, but most importantly, not Buddy Holly. That was important to me. In the mid 1980s I met an Elvis impersonator who thought he was Elvis. Seriously. This guy believed he was Elvis Presley. It was weird. He never left character even off the stage. Compound that experience with the movie I’ve seen several times called Honeymoon in Vegas, starring Nicholas Cage. The entire backdrop of the movie is an Elvis impersonator convention, complete with the “Flying Elvis’s” parachute team. Some impersonating Elvis were black, some were Chinese, some fat, some skinny. You get the picture. Let’s just say I began this adventure with a bias against musical impersonators.
During our initial conversations John made it clear that he is an actor and a musician—and excellent at both—playing the role and music of Buddy Holly. I exhaled a sigh of relief that he was anchored in reality.
I also learned that John has had numerous roles on various stages, television shows, soaps, as well as an ongoing gig in a one-man show called The Wonder Bread Years. He has also recorded a couple of albums of his own music, which is quite unique and much different than Buddy Holly’s songs. John Mueller is secure in his own identity. We discussed my deep interest in Holly—sudden and utterly unexpected, but that is how these things work with me—and my desire to explore further the possibility of writing about it. We ended our conversation by agreeing to speak again and see where it all goes. I sent him a copy of my first book so he could get a better understanding of my writing style.
What makes John Mueller tick? What made Buddy Holly tick? What was making me tick in this new and unexpected direction? I wasn’t sure where my fascination lay and why. I just knew I couldn’t get that song—or Buddy Holly—out of my head.