The family soon moved back and forth between Clovis (KICA), Lubbock (KFYO and KSEL) and Houston (KTRH and KPRC), performing with and meeting many other professional musicians over the years.
Bill became a disc jockey for KLLL in Lubbock and was the first DJ to play Buddy Holly’s first Decca solo release, "Blue Days, Black Nights".
Upon agreeing to this arrangement, John called his friend and fellow Texas Tech student Bob Lapham and the "Picks" trio was formed.
On July 13, 1957, Norman Petty decided to show the Picks a couple of tracks from Buddy Holly, who had recorded them as solos (backed by the instrumental Crickets) at the studio ten days prior.
After Buddy’s tragic death in a plane crash, the Picks quietly settled down outside the celebrity lifestyle and Bob Lapham became a successful newspaper editor.
John and Bill (The Pickering Brothers) regrouped at Houston in 1969–1970 and released Nashville-recorded turntable hits for Pete Drake's Stop Records.
At first comatose, blind, and unable to sing for a long time afterwards, Bill Pickering survived, regained his vision, and recovered his high tenor voice prior to 1984.
Bob Lapham is an author with several books to his credit, including a novel (fiction with some facts) called Meet Me at the River Buddy Holly.
He occasionally did some back-up singing produced by his son, John Mark Lapham, who has had a long association with England's musical group The Earlies.
These recordings slowly made their way to the public on privately pressed albums like The Original Chirping Sound and Buddy Holly Not Fade Away.
He hit a brick wall when MCA made it clear that Pickering did not have proper legal clearance to release such recordings.
Given the reported volume of sales of such albums it may seem surprising that MCA chose not to take legal action to stop the unauthorised use of their masters.