In 2004, “Heaven” put Texas-based Los Lonely Boys on the map, hitting No. 1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts and paving the way for studio albums, a 2006 documentary and collaborations with Carlos Santana and Willie Nelson. The Grammy-winning band of brothers plays Leesburg’s Tally Ho Theater on Nov. 3.
Have the three of you performed together since you were children?
Being the band is basically second to just being musicians in the household. Growing up, music was every day with us. The formation of the band just happened because our dad taught us, and he had always been in bands growing up himself. We started as our father’s backup band.
Has sibling rivalry ever made it difficult to stay together?
I guess we were lucky enough to go through a lot of that as youngsters that it’s never really affected our adult life. We are brothers, and we do challenge each other, and we always have in everything we’ve done. But there’s not really any sibling rivalry. The truth of the matter is we really all feel that the three makes one.
Your music blends so many varied styles—how do you describe it?
It’s kind of a puzzle piece that doesn’t go with the rest of the puzzle. Maybe it’s its own entire puzzle because, for us, it was never about calling it rock and roll or country or pop. So when we found out that we had to be categorized in a sense in the business, we basically told everybody that if we couldn’t call it just music, we’re going to call it “Texican rock and roll” and start our own genre.
What is it like to work with Carlos Santana?
There’s really not words to describe how it makes you feel when you look up all of a sudden and see one of your heroes sitting on the other end of the receiving eye. It’s amazing.
Editor’s Note: This interview was conducted in September. In October, it was reported that JoJo Garza’s brother, Ringo, is under investigation for possible possession of child pornography. Ringo Garza did not perform at the Nov. 3 event.
