Carl Bunch was born November 24, 1939, in Big Springs, Texas. He is best known as drummer for Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Roy Orbison and Hank Williams Jr.



Carl Bunch was enlisted by Buddy Holly to join him on the tour when the original Crickets broke with Buddy Holly. Carl, then 19, thought of the tour as an audition for a permanent position with the band.



Carl Bunch joined the tour weeks before the tour bus broke down on February 1, 1959, in a Wisconsin snowstorm, and he ended up with frostbitten feet.



That's why Carl was in the hospital with frostbite when Holly and other members of the Winter Dance Party Tour were killed in a 1959 plane crash near Clear Lake.



The drummer rejoined the tour for its final days and then joined the Army.



Carl Bunch died of complications from diabetes at Antelope Valley Hospital on March 26, 2011. He was 71 years old.