You get to save ONE person

I think of Holly and he was kind of on the same plane (no pun intended) as Chet Atkins with the Nashville sound.

 

You're right about that. With our clear hindsight (hindhearing?) you can hear how the sound could take on a very different character.

Maybe the innovative aspects of Holly's music from the bones out scared them. I hear Les Paul in Holly's musical DNA as well as percussion and bass lines associated with very early R&B and Tejano styles.

Sidebar: Paul's influence is also evident in Peter Frampton's work.

 

For the record, Holly did have a Les Paul early on but got famous with a Strat. He probably got it at Gruhn's on Broadway.

 

While I stick with Buffett, I also offer:
Ronnie Van Zant
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Duane Allman

 

Still remember where I was when I heard that Stevie Ray died. It was my last day of summer vacation and I was leaving a friend's house to walk home. I was too young to see him live (I had just turned 14). Hell, I managed to miss him on The Tonight Show with Johnny Cars0n because the Trailblazers-Pistons NBA Finals game went to overtime.

 

Oh and I'd save Bill Hicks.

 

Answering the original question is easy for me. Eddie Vedder. I'd save all of Pearl Jam if I could, preferably frozen in time around 1998 when Matt Cameron joined the band.

 

I still remember my Mom on the verge of tears in the theater when they did the coin flip scene at the airport in La Bamba.

Apparently, the Valenzuela family had made arrangements to visit the studio and by pure coincidence. came to the set on the day that they filmed the coin flip scene. His mother and sister got extremely emotional while watching the filming of that scene.

 

Oh, and to answer the original question, either Rowdy Roddy Piper or Eddie Guerrero.

 

As for the Iowa plane crash, I hate it for the boys onboard, but whatever transpired that night kept Waylon around, so OK.

 

JFK and Jimi Hendrix. Both were still producing at a high level when they died and likely could have continued for a few more years. Maybe everything today would be the same if they had lived, they certainly were icons of their age. Kennedy’s assassination gave the world a fascinating topic to read and talk about for decades and possibly made him more famous than he would have been had he lived. Hard to make a firm judgement on that.
In a large way EVH, and later SRV, kept‘Hendrix’ alive. Jimi probably does a few more years at his extraordinary high level of inventiveness then starts a new path for blues music, writing some and covering some obscure old blues. Probably forms a supergroup or two.

 

I'd have a difficult time choosing between Buffett, SRV, Roberto Clemente, Dolly, Jerry Garcia and JFK.