In the mid 1980’s I worked as an art director for an ad agency in Irving, Texas. One of our clients was the Park Suite Hotel in Dallas.

Rick Nelson was scheduled to play a New Year’s Eve concert at the hotel on December 31, 1985, and I designed the tickets and managed the printing of the tickets and posters for the show. Sadly, Rick Nelson and his entourage died in a plane crash in east Texas that very evening en route to Dallas, leaving me with this poignant souvenir.

Rick Nelson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio in 1987. In August of 2010 I donated this ticket to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame where it will be part of the Rick Nelson exhibit.