Name: Johnny Lopez III
Place of Origin: Laredo, TX
Instrument: Drums

What was your experience growing up on the border, and how has it molded you as a person and a musician?

The Texas/Mexican border has definitely molded me as a person and a musician.  As a person I think that it's given me a strong sense of my roots, I know exactly where I come from.  The richness of food, art and music tends to be very concentrated along the border as the result of two nations' integrated cultures, and you get the best of both with a little twist.  It has it’s perks…you learn Spanish and English (often spoken together as Spanglish!) and you get a quinceñera and a Sweet 16.  I consider myself lucky to have absorbed it all in and then communicate some of that experience through our music.

People on the border really like cumbia and polkas (corridos).  Cumbia was being played all the time on this side (US) and in el otro lado (Mexico).  It was always very prominent, but in those days I was a kid so I was learning how to play like Tommy Lee and John Bonham. I wanted to rock! Fast forward years later and now cumbia and other Mexican-American styles of border music are still very rich in my blood, plus the musical influences of contemporary American rock, jazz, blues, hip-hop, and most importantly, funk music.  All these styles paved the way for me to create my own unique approach to the drum set and to songwriting.

Best live show you ever saw and why?

Fishbone at the old Liberty Lunch in Austin in 1996.  Their energy was just amazing and I was exhausted just watching.  The best thing about the show was the drummer, Philip "Fish" Fisher.  His timing was so on. He set up with his back to the audience and never missed a beat or a cue.  It was awesome.

If you had unlimited funds and could spend a month in one place?

I would buy my own villa in Tuscany and chill there.  Or maybe space!

Johnny proudly endorses Vic Firth Drum Sticks

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