By Ramón Hernández

This year’s Tejano Music Awards show featured four tributes, a tribute to Laura Canales, Elsa García, the Quintanilla Family, La Mafia and Latin Breed. And the latter is where Roger Velásquez comes in.

The 48-year old vocalist not only played guitar with the Tejano Music Awards All-Stars Band led by Bob Gallarza, but Velásquez, Adalberto Gallegos, Jay Pérez and Pee Wee all performed a Breed song.

"I started following the Breed in 1973," Velásquez said during an interview at the Hispanic Entertainment Archives.

In 1981, when La Paz was the house band at the Other Place and the Breed was performing as Fantasia at the Latin Corner – both being less than two miles from each other, Velásquez would often go there, sit in, jam with the Breed and study them slowly building up a friendship and a bond with Gilbert "Gibby" Escobedo. However, Velasquez’s musical history goes back to his pre-school days; and this is his condensed story.

"My father, Guillermo "Willie" Velásquez sang with Piel Canela and was about to embark on a professional career, but then, me and my brothers were born and he had to set his career aside to concentrate on raising a family," he revealed in regard to the man who planned his musical seed.

"I was born with it. They tell me stories that when I was a baby, I would pull out all the pots and pans and bang on them. Later I would take out two or three different sized metal trash can and flip them upside down because each one had a different tone. I would also use the lids as cymbals. And when my father saw this, he said, ‘This guerco wants to play drums’ and he bought me a set of drums.

"Growing up, every day I heard my dad sing in the shower and I would copy his tone, his vibrato and the way he did everything – plus imitate everything I heard on KTSA and KCOR at my abuelitas house."

Therefore it was no surprise Velásquez went on to play drums in Harlandale Middle and High School, where he learned to read music and play percussion and various types of drums.

"By the time I was ten, I had already explored rhythms and beat on my own. And I was also trying to build my own guitar with a board I put screws on and strung with wire from window screens I unraveled," Velásquez continued.

In 1973, he and his brother Edmund took a group of middle school band mates and formed Indian War Child and won their first talent contest. A year later they changed their name to Sky’s the Limit and Velásquez was selected to step up to the mike as the lead vocalist. In addition, their school band director, Charles McKinney, took a personal interest in the band and took one day out of the week to teach them music theory.

"When I became a high school freshman, I could not be hanging around with younger kids, so my brother and I formed Extacy. Next I joined the George Rivas Band, which went head-to-head with Blue Harmony (featuring Patsy Torres and Hugo Moreno) and Monsanto when they were the best and hottest bands in town until we came along and took over."

By 1978, the former junior high school first string offensive left tackle football player was six feet tall and had a husky built. However, he had a baby face and grew a mustache, which he kept until 1996, when he shaved it off to now look younger.

When Velásquez quit, most of Rivas’ musicians followed him to form River City Band, but that was short-lived and he joined Jorge Alejandro y La Paz, who in 1983 became the opening band for La Mafia and they toured all over Texas.

The turning point for the vocalist born under the sign of Aries occurred on Friday, November 28, 1983 following a Thanksgiving Day gig in McAllen, Texas when he was a passenger in a car driven by Bobby Solís and the drummer fell asleep at the wheel. The car rolled over near Three Rivers, Texas and Solís died instantly. Velásquez’s left leg was broken in three places and his face was so swollen, it was beyond recognition.

After being laid up and while still in a cast, Velásquez resurfaced as Looker, a rock band.

"Pete Ojeda taught me about the fundamentals of jazz and Bugs Garza taught me about jazz fusion. Pete had worked with my hero, guitarist Steve Velásquez, and also with Joe Posada and George Morín of Momentus – all jazz players. And we played rock, but we would also study jazz.

The only problem is that they couldn’t make a living as a rock band. Furthermore, Velásquez would not go back to Tejano because of his near-death experience. His uncle Jesse Quintero had long been trying to get Velásquez to read the Bible. Then as fate would have it, twin brothers Anselmo and Felipe Leal Jr., two childhood friends and band mates, said the Lord had told them to find Velásquez and it all came together.

"As I began to look at all the similarities that unite us all as a people, I believe Jesus was the prophet in all religions. I believe all writings were inspired by one God and that we all worship the same God."

Meanwhile, he never stopped writing songs – now in the hundreds and many of them Christian songs. Education-wise, after he received his Associate in Arts degree and later enrolled at UTSA.

In 2000, after a seven year absence, Escobedo regrouped the Breed and asked Velásquez to rejoin. Velásquez chose to continue his education and Adalberto came back as lead singer.

Almost immediately after obtaining his Bachelor’s Degree in business administration in 2005, Velásquez received a telephone call from Gallarza asking him if he wanted to perform in Las Vegas.

After we got hired to do our first gig there, just as Dr. Rex was about to introduce us, he turned around and said, ‘what’s the name of the band?’ We still didn’t have a name. Then he took one look at the musicians and said, ‘you have nothing but legends here, how about the Latin Legends?’ So he’s the one who named us."

Sixteen years after recording with Latin Breed, with the exception of recording three tunes he wrote for a Ram Herrera album, Elizabeth Hernández became the executive producer of Velásquez’s first solo album, "Bob Gallarza Presents …"

This year Velásquez and his wife Teresa formed V Discos with his brother Gabriel Quintero Velásquez and his wife Jennifer, and then they released "Toma Mi Corazón."