Keaton, meet Buddy: Actor who looks like iconic singer immersed in starring musical role

Some things are meant to be.

For example, Lubbock native Charles Holley having a teacher named Miss Keeton.

Many years later, it's Keaton Eckhoff portraying the singer the world got to know as Buddy Holly.

"I was like 'how funny,'" Eckhoff said of the link. "What a coincidence. Miss Keeton, unbelievable."

Eckhoff has become a big fan of the singer from the South Plains who gave us the hits "That'll Be the Day," "Peggy Sue," "Maybe Baby," "Oh, Boy!" and "True Love Ways."

The 27-year-old performer from Ohio said the impact of his research and performance as Holly has made him a fan for life. Pre-pandemic, he even took a four-hour road trip with a cast member from Wisconsin to Clearlake, Iowa, where Holly, the Big Bopper and Richie Valens died in a plane crash Feb. 3, 1959.

"His gravesite is so powerful," he said.

The day, it has been said and sung, the music died.

"But February made me shiver

With every paper I'd deliver

Bad news on the doorstep

I couldn't take one more step

I can't remember if I cried

When I read about his widowed bride

Something touched me deep inside

The day the music died."

- "American Pie," by Don McLean

Eckhoff and the cast of "The Buddy Holly Show" will be in Lubbock Oct. 5 and 6 for performances at the Buddy Holly Hall.

For Eckhoff, it was 78 weeks off the stage.

That drought was to end earlier this month, when the tour resumed in Stillwater, Okla.

"We are just so excited to be back," he said. "We all know this year has been a hootenanny."

Welcome back, Broadway.

You look like Buddy Holly. Who?

Here's another thing about Eckoff playing Buddy Holly.

He sort of looks him. 

"Just with red hair," he said, laughing.

Eckhoff is the son of two performers. Mark and Elizabeth Eckhoff met in the industry, he said.

"The nut doesn't fall too far from the tree," he said of following his parents into the profession.

He grew up in Fairfield, Ohio, and knew by age 15 or so that he wanted to be on stage, too. He began working professionally at 17.

He was doing summer stock while in college when he first heard about the Buddy Holly musical.

A local actor told Eckhoff that he looked like the singer but the teen never dreamed he'd get a chance to audition for, much less win the part, in a touring production.

Besides, he responded to the compliment, who's Buddy Holly?

"I never heard of the guy," Eckhoff said.

A couple of year later, an equity theater production of "My Fair Lady" was being followed by "The Buddy Holly Story."

Again, he was told he looked like the slender Texan with trademark black-framed glasses.

"I said, 'Yeah, I've been told that before,' and I looked him up," he said. "And I kinda do."

He was chosen to understudy the role. 

The bassist in that show, Noah Berry, played the drums as Cricket Jerry Allison in the national tour of the show. 

"He said, 'The tour is looking for a Buddy, would you want to submit?'" Eckhoff said. 

He did and this time, he won the part. He was 25 — Holly was 22 when he died. 

Then came the pandemic. The day the touring died.

Now a big fan

After beginning with "Who's Buddy Holly?" Eckhoff began to absorb the singer's story.

Now, he's even familiar with the Picks, the trio of backup singers who recorded background vocals for hits such as "Oh, Boy!" and "Maybe Baby." That trio included the late Bob Lapham, a former entertainment writer with the Reporter-News.

"They sound like horns. They have a great sound," said Eckhoff, who read Ellis Amburn's biography on Holly.

Eckhoff said it's an honor to portray the music icon.

"It's like that Spider-man quote, 'With great power there must also come great responsibility,'" the actor said. "It's such an amazing role but you have such a weight on your shoulders you need to fulfill. I love learning so much about this man."

Eckhoff said the stage musical focuses on the life of Buddy Holly with which the public is most familiar. 

"The sort of goofy, goofball fun-loving guy ... and he definitely was such a kind human being," Eckhoff said. "But he was a guy who had a lot of darkness in him, as well."

Eckhoff noted Holly had to deal with painful ulcers, and "a bit of drinking problem, in my opinion." The show doesn't go into that, the actor said.

What shines through is the music, he said. 

"In terms of music, it's raw. You can just feel the virility in it. The sheer energy of wanting to break out of the country and western scene," Eckhoff said. It's when Elvis Presley performed in Lubbock and the two singers did a couple of sets that "Buddy was like, 'I want to rock. I see what this is doing to young people and I want to share this with people.'"

He has heard the comment from older music fans that, back in the day, he or she preferred Buddy to Elvis.

"He had such a wide variety of sounds. He could rock and really get gritty like on 'Ready Teddy' or 'Rock Around With Ollie Vee.' It makes you tap those toes and nod your head a bunch."

That contrasts with subtlety of "True Love Ways."

This in just seven years.

"It's amazing how much he was able to do in such a short amount of time," Eckhoff said.

Will Eckhoff stay a fan?

"There's no doubt about it," he said. "This guy has changed my life."

'Rave on' guitar

Eckhoff spent some of his down time learning how to play the guitar better, working with teachers from Cal-Berkeley that he had met.

"They taught me so much over the quarantine season," he said of using his down time well.

He had learned to play in college, living with a guitar player "who was way better than me at the time and he really taught me a lot," said Eckhoff, who continued to learn on his own.

"Singing, acting and playing guitar in the same show is amazing. Three of my passions all in one," he said. 

Speaking of downtime, Eckhoff said he was on unemployment for a month during the pandemic before he got restless.

He took a job back in Ohio with Bob's Discount Furniture, a chain of 150 stores.

"It was really amazing. I became like No. 1 salesman," he said, laughing.

Who wouldn't buy a sofa from Buddy Holly? No maybe, baby, about it.

"I loved that job," he said. "I was still able to study and practice and work on my own music, because I'm also a songwriter, too."

Eckhoff thus appreciated Holly's talents.

"The man was genius," he said. "His lyrics were so insanely catchy and good. The hooks are so catchy. They stay in your head a long time."

Nothing like being on stage

The cast arrived in Stillwater three days before its opening show, and Eckhoff and others were able to lead master's classes at Oklahoma State University.

"Giving back to the kids is so nice. I feels so good to help young, aspiring artists," Eckhoff said.

On Oct. 5-6, the show will play at the new, 218,000-square-foot Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts and Sciences in Lubbock, the largest performance venue in West Texas.

Eckhoff plans to see the Buddy Holly Center and other local sites.

He said he was nervous when he first took the stage as Buddy, having just understudied it.

"After I had done it a couple of times on the road, I was like, 'OK, I can do this,'" he said.

"It's one of the best shows I've ever been in. This is my favorite role I've ever played."

But having performed about a month and a half before the shutdown, he is more eager to get back to work.

"It's more like, 'Is this really happening?'" he said of flying to Stillwater to prepare to start the tour. The biggest concern is seeing the tour through, he said.

Eckhoff said the cast is taking great care to stay healthy as it travels city to city. 

"The virus still is very, very apparent," he said. He's not worried about a nationwide shutdown but a castmate falling ill. "That can be a stall in the tour. The rest is in God's hands.

"I know I put in my work in the role. I've been studying and practicing a lot. I'm really ready to share with a live audience again. I thank God every single day for this blessing."