What city has bragging rights to the title, Birthplace of Rock & Roll? Lubbock, Texas might seem an unlikely place, but if you visited Lubbock’s Fair Park Coliseum in 1955, you might have witnessed two entertainers who altered the trajectory of American popular music. Twenty-year-old Elvis Presley, a year away from releasing a string of chart-topping hits that would make him the undisputed King of Rock & Roll, performed in Lubbock five times in 1955. Attending his first show—and later opening for Elvis during return engagements—was 18-year-old Lubbock native Buddy Holly, a bluegrass/country singer and musician who was inspired by Elvis. Within a few short years, Buddy Holly would become a Rock & Roll legend in his own right.