Interesting interview with Los Lonely Boys, check it out.

http://www.vh1.com/artists/interview/1486730/04030004/los_lonely_boys.jhtml

-Dave

PSST - Dave - my firewall here blocked the site. Can you give me the reader's digest version? What made it "interesting"?

T-minus 2 days and counting until not one, but two Los Lonely Boys concerts here at City Stages.

JD

I found it interesting to read about how they started and to see a bit of their personalities. Here is the article, minus video clips -


Los Lonely Boys aren't shy when it comes to explaining themselves. "Is there anything you want to ask us before we interrupt?" laughs the band's Henry Garza as their interview starts.

One can only imagine what it must be like on the tour bus with this rising trio of motor mouths. The three Chicano brothers share jokes, burst into snatches of songs, and bubble over with enthusiasm when describing their distinctive Tex-Mex - or as they like to call it "Texican" - rock ‘n' roll.

But onstage and on disc, longhaired guitarist-singer Henry, burly drummer Ringo, and mild-mannered bassist JoJo let that music do the talking. "Heaven," the first single, flaunts their strengths - incisive guitar work, dead-on harmonies, and an uplifting vibe. On their self-titled debut disc, there are bluesy struts, feisty Latin rock songs, and a barnstorming instrumental workout that shows off their chops. These guys can play.

They had a good education. The Garzas backed their father in bars around the Southwest before they were teens, then struck out on their own after hearing Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble. Before long, they were cutting tracks at Willie Nelson's studio, with Nelson himself sitting in. VH1 sat back and listened to them explain their barroom childhood, their relationship with Willie, and their Mexican Burrito Theory.

VH1: How did you get the name?

Henry: Our dad wrote this song called, [all sing] "I'm just a lonely, lonely boy."

Ringo: We were doing this show in a restaurant. We weren't like a real band with a drummer and stuff. Our sisters were with us. We were outside before we went on and played, and our dad was like, "Hijos, if we're gonna do this ..." - "Hijos" is "sons" in Spanish - "Sons, if we're gonna do this, we gotta have a band name." We were all thinking.

JoJo: "The Aces!"

Henry: "The Horny Toads!"

Ringo: Then I remembered this song [sings] "I'm just a lonely, lonely boy." At the time I was learning a little bit of Spanish, and I knew that "Los" meant "The." I was like, "The Lonely Boys ... Los Lonely Boys!" My dad went, "Hijos, that's it!" It stuck and it's still sticking! [Watch Clip]

VH1: How did you become your dad's backing band?

Henry: Our mother and father split up when we were young. I was a little bit older, so I went with my dad. That's when I got the feel of playing in little bars. When my brothers came back to live with us, we started doing the same thing, playing in all these little local cantinas.

Ringo: [We were] playing in every local bar, just to pay the rent, to get the food, to live. That's the way we live. We were [given] the gift of music at a real young age, and that's what we used to live on, since we were little guys. We weren't going around stealing or doing stuff like that, y'know?

Henry: I was like six or seven when I hit my first bar. Being younger, we wanted to play anywhere. It felt cool to go into a bar and just sing Richie Valens' "La Bamba." The people's reaction gave us encouragement to keep going.

VH1: When did you decide to ditch dad and become a trio?

Ringo: Henry had received a tape of Stevie Ray Vaughan. That opened our eyes. We were like, "We don't want to play this any more, Daddy. We want to play this." He was cool on it, too, and we started jamming really hard and he was like, [pretends to play guitar, looking around wildly], "Hijos, where do I go?" [Laughs]

Henry: We started writing our own stuff. Our dad opened the cage and said, "The sky's the limit, man." He's been behind this ever since. It just kind of happened. It was freaky, too. We didn't [know what to do when we first were] getting up on stage.

Ringo: When he left, we were kind of lost on stage.

Henry: [whispering to JoJo] "Dude, what are we going to do next?"

JoJo: I'd go to the mic, walk up and go [mouths silently] and walk away.

Ringo: We hadn't worked it out!

VH1: What kind of effect did hearing Stevie Ray Vaughan have on you?

Henry: The first song I ever heard by Stevie Ray was "Texas Flood." I didn't know who it was. There was a friend of mine who gave me this tape and said, "Man, the way you're playing, you're going to like the way this guy plays." I was about 14 or 15. Stevie had already passed on, and I didn't know. I kept playing and I was like, "Whoa!" I was picturing some old fat guy, like an old dude! I was like, "This is some old stuff, yo!" I kept listening. I found out this guy was from Texas. He wore a big old black hat and he played like tomorrow was never going to come. He helped me learn to be free with music in general.

Ringo: He came and showed me and JoJo, and we were like, "Dude! Let's play this, man!" Right away, we learned every single song on that tape.

Henry: The first song we learned was "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

VH1: The Stevie Ray Vaughan version.

Henry: Well, we tried. Somebody came up to us sometime one time when we were playing in a bar ...

Ringo: [Interrupting] Don't tell him!

JoJo: We have to tell him.

Henry: We were playing in a bar. It was before we had ever heard of Stevie Ray or Buddy Guy or of the song called "Mary Had a Little Lamb." Some guy came up to us and says "Hey, you guys know 'Mary Had a Little Lamb'? We looked at him, real funny.

Ringo: We were like, "Why do you want us to play ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb'?"

Henry: So we started to play [Begins singing traditional version of "Mary Had a Little Lamb."] It was funny. Nobody had us sing "Mary Had a Little Lamb" before.

JoJo: They came and told us, "Cut. You don't have to play it anymore." [Watch Clip]

VH1: What's the Mexican Burrito Theory?

Henry: We got this theory that we're like a tortilla, and we fill this tortilla with all the knowledge we got from the greats from the Stevie Rays to the Santanas to the Willie Nelsons ...

Ringo: ... the Ronnie Milsaps ...

Henry: ... the Everly Brothers ...

Ringo: ... Los Lobos ...

JoJo: ... Richie Valens ...

Henry: Buddy Hollys. We put our own little emotions and a little bit of spices in there and we fold it up.

Ringo: We feed it to the world and hopefully they'll come back for seconds.

JoJo: No napkin. They don't need a napkin. It doesn't drip. [Watch Clip]

VH1: Is it difficult being brothers in a band together?

Ringo: Yes! No, it's that much better being with my brothers.

Henry: We're like one dude. That's what makes us strong, because we know who we are. Familia is the most important thing.

JoJo: It's always been that way. We're not going to say, "You sang six songs on the album and I sang three!"

Henry: "How come you always write all the songs? I want all the credit! It's about me! [Adopts English accent] Because I'm a rock star and I don't care about nobody." We're not like that.

VH1: How did you hook up with Willie Nelson?

Henry: We recorded some stuff; our manager took it to him, and came back saying "Willie wants to come and see you guys play." Then we were doing this show at Momo's in Austin, Texas...

JoJo: It wasn't the kind of place where you thought Willie would show up. It's a nice place, but small.

Henry: It was hard to believe that Willie would stop being Willie to come see three Chicano brothers from San Angelo, Texas. In walks the man himself, with his wife and his nephew. We were onstage fixing to start, when we saw him walk in and sit down.

Ringo: "It's Willie over there dude!"

Henry: We're freaking out! We were like, "Willie, we're big fans. Thank you for being here." He's like a godfather.

Ringo: He's like Yoda.

VH1: Tell me about the single "Heaven."

Henry: "Heaven" is a prayer, man. It's an actual prayer that I made. Just like everybody, we have hard times and you look for a way out. Our way's praying. And music, too. I went into the room and I got into a corner. I closed the door. I got down on my knees. There was a pen and paper there. I started praying, crying and feeling pretty low. When I was praying, something said to write this down. Before you know it, I took it out to my brothers and they immediately were like -

Ringo: "No, you gotta change everything!" [Laughs]

JoJo: "It's not working." So we got together and made what you hear today! No, just kidding. [Watch Clip]

VH1: Is that why you decided to shoot the video in the church?

Henry: That place is a church in our town in San Angelo. We got friends and family that go to that church. It's an old mission. It's like a museum kind of place. It was spiritual, dude. It was cool to be there.

VH1: Inside the album cover there's a picture of two chains, one with a musical note and one with a cross.

Henry: That's what it's about. It isn't about who we are. It's about the bigger source. It's about our belief in God. We can't even explain how we know or do what we do. That "Heaven" is the song coming out, that's like a rock 'n' roll prayer being answered. That's cool.