August 28, 2024 • 21 mins
In the early 90's, Maná became the most talked-about rock band in Mexico, even gaining traction outside their homeland. And like any good rock band riding the waves of success, there was drama! From members leaving in the middle of a tour, to love affairs with royalty, and hit song after hit song, Maná was set for life. Come with us as we uncover their journey to becoming one of the biggest bands in the Spanish-speaking world.
Lilliana Vazquez and Joseph Carrillo are the hosts of Becoming An Icon with production support by Nick Milanes, Santiago Sierra, Rodrigo Crespo, Evelyn Uribe and Edgar Esteban of Sonoro Media in partnership with iHeart Radio's My Cultura Podcast network.
If you want to support the podcast, please rate and review our show.
Follow Lilliana Vazquez on Instagram and Twitter @lillianavazquez
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Manal had finally done it. With the release of Falta
Mode in nineteen ninety. They became the most talked about
rock band in Mexico and started to gain traction outside
their homeland.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
They paid their dues in the underground, got dropped from
three separate labels, and had two bandmates call it quicks
before finally finding their home at Warner Music Mexico.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
The road had been long and bumpy. After a decade
of reduction, they were now in demand for concert bookings
and TV ad campaigns to the tune of millions of dollars.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Wow. Manna had gone this long without a manager, but
big deals meant big risks, and they needed someone to
make sure they got big rewards.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
And that's when another member of Mana decided.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
To leave the group to become the band's manager. Because
nobody in the right mind would dip after getting million dollar.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Offers, wouldn't you know it. The one to step away
from the artistic side of things was Gayerros, one of
the three founding brothers of Sombrero Verde, one of whom
had called it quits just before man Not popped off.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
This meant yet another lineup change, bringing my not down
to just two founding members, Ferrolvera and Juan Caerros. Yes, Joseph,
there's something we forgot to do last time.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Oh wait, you're right, Okay, you know it's different covering
a band, all right, Sometimes the lead guy isn't clear
till later. And we're talking, of course about fer Olvera
born December eighth, nineteen fifty nine.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
A sage son, the first one this season. Can you
believe the challenge for this sage is to seek their
own sense of authority, learning from the role models without
copying them.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Police exactly admire Sting, but don't try to be Sting.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
This is not a person who's here for the drama.
Trust is key, and respect comes before loyalty. But only
by staying true to who you are inside? Can you
be a leader who can send that trust flowing both
ways and set yourself up to do good for the world?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Fed on Veda's desire to do just that was clear
enough from the name of the band, mana good energy.
The bread that falls from heaven.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Maybe a bit cocky too, though, like where God's gift
to Earth, I mean.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
A little cocky, but still, if Manah was making bread,
listeners were eating it. The band would never stray musically
from that good vibes heal the world energy, making for
two of their biggest albums.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
But good vibes can't always cover up bad blood.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
I'm your host Lilianavosquez and I'm Joseph Carrio and this
is Becoming an icon a weekly podcast where we give
you the rundown on how today's most famous latinv stars
have shaped pop culture.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
And given the world an extra lebble.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Sit back and get comfortable.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Because we are going in the only way we know how,
with buenas bida, buenas riesas mchies, and a lot of
opinions as we relive their greatest achievements on our journey
to find out what makes them so iconic.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
So we're back to the early nineties. Lisi's the former guitarist,
is now managing the band, and in this place comes
Cessa and Vampidro Lopez, so named for his nocturnal sleeping pattern.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Vampido would sleep all day and wake up in the
late afternoon early evening and go straight to playing his guitar.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Big older brother who never leaves his room vibes.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
At first, Vambido was brought in to fill in at
a few concerts. When he was formally invited to join
the band, he hemmed and hawed.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
That's because Vampido had his own thing going on, a
band called Boleta.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Isn't it cute when musicians think they can do their
own thing.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Right, like join the band that's getting coin and do
your thing later.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
At first, Van Beetle did actually play in both bands,
but as Manak continued to blow up, got the sombretto
vert of the treatment.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Why are all these bands color coded? It's like giving
peewee football team.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Or Cela superhero. Oh anyway, Vombido became a fan favorite
band member. At live shows, Fair cued his fiery guitar
solos with the iconic shout atro.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
I was just telling you how you said it. Thank you.
But if any of the rock bands in the show
have taught us anything, it's that band members come and go.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Except for us, we're forever and ever and Yeah, don't
get too attached to Vampido or the new keyboards who
was brought in along with him, Ivan Gonzalez.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
I don't even really like rock, and I know not
to get attached to.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
The keyboardist Still, this lineup would be crystallized in Manna's
first album to debut in the Billboard Top ten, nineteen
ninety two's De Who Got On Those Ninos? Where Would
the Children Play?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
The titles giving Bleeding Heart, Sade Energy, and.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
This album gives bleeding Heart for the days.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
It's giving a heart that's getting transfusions in real time
just so it can keep on bleeding for its entire
fifty warm in net runs geez don. De Who Got
On Those Ninos was recorded at the late Great Devonshire
Sound Studio in Hollywood, and the artists who've recorded here
run the gamut from Billy Joel Bing, Crosby and the
Jackson's to Nirvana, Suicidal Tendencies, Green Day and Ozzy Osborne.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Uh I wonder where math Nah falls on this very
wide spectrum.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Well, look no further than the most iconic song on
the album, Oh Yeah Memore, an aching nineties power that
caused a phenomenon in Mexico.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Yo.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
If you were a teen girl in Mexico in the nineties,
someone at some point either sang you this song, gave
you a cassette tape of them singing it, or played
it outside your window.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Like John Cusack.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Basically, if you saw the Barbie movie, it was like
the song that all the Kens sing around the fire.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Oh my god, it is.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Pop quiz Joseph, damn you what? I hope you drank
your coffee and went on your run and did your
hot girl walk because your brain needs to be sharp
for this one. When was the first time you fell
in love with Oya maamore? And do you remember where
you were?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Oh my god, I was smoking a cigarette. I do
remember that. And I was at this place.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
It was called Barbadou in Houades, and I remember everybody
knew the song but me, and I felt so stupid
because it's so catchy.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
It's the catchiest, it's so catchy.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
And I just felt so stupid because then I felt
like I was so unfessa and I felt poor, ugly
and fat.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
That's all, okay, First all, you are none of those things.
You've never been any of those things. And I will
say this to you. One of my biggest regrets in
life is that you and I did not know each
other during your watt Is days, because we would have
had a time buff.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Like no, honestly, we would have had We used to
cut out little like boards and make them of our
hottest nights and just have like a board like I
guess how you would imagine a vision board like a
scrap book, but like posters of our outings and cigarette
butts and like Coria.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
And what was the cover art for on your on
your vision board?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
From what? I didn't?
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Dare you no? Because you know since since it was
made in ninety two. This is also like I think
I was in what is Like in ninety nine? So
so where were you?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
So I was not familiar with the song when it
came out because I think maybe a little different than you.
I didn't really listen to a lot of Mexican pop
rock or rock, and we're not going to get into
that argument. When I was in high school, I didn't
really listen to any Spanish music that was not driven
by my parents until I went to college. Oh wow,
(08:09):
so similar timeline. I heard the song in college. I
was in DuPont Circle in Washington, d C. At a
gay club, and yeah, and it came on and I was.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
At a straight club, so what the fuzz?
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I know, we should have such places and the crowd
went wild. Now this is also a club that had
a big Latino presence because DC is a super international city.
But you know, this song is really forever just one
of those guilty pleasures like I'm talking like drive by Incubus,
the reason by who was stank? I mean anything from
Matchbox twenty. It falls for me right in line with
(08:43):
those songs catchy and cute.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
But I'm not roud. Sorry, mind blown. I'm mind blown
with that comparison.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
But it's not to say that there was nothing on
the album to recall Mina's roots. The song moved They
would emerge as a soft nineties counterculture anthem where Alex
the drummer takes a mic to sing about wearing his
hair long and listening to what he likes to.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Listen to and checking that Sagittarius Box might not also
released vv T Scene Ida, an environmental anthem that asks
what would it be like to live in a world
where their air is unbreathable?
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Like tell me how I'm supposed to breathe with no air?
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Vv Scene Idea would earn the MTV Latino Video Music
Award for Video of the Year, and that was just
the tip of the iceberg.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Don Deinos would debut at number four on the Billboard
Latin chart and stay on the chart for ninety seven weeks.
Over the years, the album would sell ten million copies,
making it the best selling album in the history of
Spanish language rock and that.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
MTV Video Award winning video. It helped Mana break through
in Argentina and Spain, tool markets that are typically not
so friendly to outsiders, and two stops on Mana's biggest tour,
yette A two hundred and sixty eight night World Tour.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
I am tired just thinking of that.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Shiz Mana were officially a global force, well beyond the
confines in their home country and a far cry from
the repressed of CD bars of yr, but that didn't
mean they were beyond rock star Shenanigans or sudden bandmate exits.
(10:39):
In April and nineteen ninety four, A van Bidel decided
to disappear.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
In the middle of the world tour, and on top
of that, he said, I'm taking the keyboardings.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Why do you sound exactly like Jennifer Coolidge right? So
many skills?
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Vampido and the keyboardist Yvon Gonzalez demanded that they get
a share of the song raining credits and royalties from
the album that put Manna on top of the world.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Gossip shows also speculated that the two upstart bandmates were
just plain sick of fair Olvera the fame had got
into his head too, claims which at the time were hearsaide,
but which the guitarist would later back up. He said,
you spend so much time with people. You're young and
don't know how to set your limits, and any insignificant
(11:26):
thing becomes big. So there came a point where none
of us could stand each other and we needed a break.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
It's Santana all over again. Why can't these boys keep
it together?
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Olivea and drummer Alex Gonzalez refused to meet their bandmates demands,
and so in the middle of an international tour, Vampido
and Evonne split.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
So, for those keeping track, we've gone through a drummer,
a guitarist, another guitarist, and a keyboardist.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
To save the tour, the band would call in a
couple of favors from some old friends original so they're
the guitarists Gustavo Rosco and Shila Rios, the.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Lady rocker who linked the band with Beppa Hollywood. Together,
the quintet finished out the.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Tour but their old friends would be invited as permanent members.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
I'm sorry, wouldn't you want Hila in the band like
she made you? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:19):
But she could have had other things going on. Maybe
she was playing in another band, right.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
So Sheila left to continue playing with Naranka, Lambara or whatever,
and after the tour laps.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Fair, Alex and Juan launch a worldwide search for a
new guitarist. Over eighty guitarists from Mexico, Chile, Argentina and
the US audition, but none of them seem like the
right fit.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
So the band calls up who else, Beppa Hollywood, who
gets on the phone with Luis Miguel's guitarist, Quiko Cebrian.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
The guitarist Kiko Sebrian didn't know anyone offhand, but he
said some Mirando had just come by and dropped off
a cassette demo.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Maybe he's good, uh promising?
Speaker 1 (13:03):
So Geegle sends the tape to Beppa Hollywood, whose name
is Bepe Kindana by the way, in case anyone forgot,
We're just joking here, and Bepe listens in the car
on the way to work.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Cars had tape decks back then. See Liliana, I do
not about cars.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
By the way, you take ubers all the time. You
never ride the subway. Of course you know about cars. Okay,
back to the tape, Beppa Hollywood hears an extremely versatile
guitar is playing everything from bossa nova to heavy metal.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
He calls our leading man, fed Or Vetta and says,
do you know what that sound you've been looking for?
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Well, listen to this.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
He puts the phone up to the speaker and gives
Phair a listen, and Fair says.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Thanks, I hate it.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Brutal Bebbe, disappointed, takes the tape into his office and
tosses it in the slush pile, a box of rejected
demos that are ultimately bound for the dump truck.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Where they'll reenact the end of Toy Story three, but
with music in setatois.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Okay, wait stop, don't make me cry on the mic. Okay,
that's like not cool.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Sorry boo. Anyway, the search for the guitarist goes a
lot like their search for the drummer back in Simbreo
Veda the era.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Aka impossible demands make for a totally fruitless search, and
one day Fair calls up Bepan and says, screw it.
Let's go with the guy from the tape.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
FML and Bebba Hollywood has a full on panic attack.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
He rummages around the reject.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Box, digging through the trash.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
He does eighty on the mayback and races home to
turn his home office upside down looking for this damn tape.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
And finally he finds it, presumably after chucking the tape
in the rejects box. After showing it to Fair, he
had a moment of better judgment.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
This is the guy who went to bat form Na
in the first place. After all, Bebba Hollywood does have
an ear.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
And after Bebbe played the tape for other members of monot,
it was decided the band would welcome its new permanent guitarist,
sedjil Vai, and.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
In nineteen ninety five, the definitive Mana lineup debuted with
the album Guandoos Angeles Joran When Angels Cry.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Mana's third album with Warner Music Mexico was yet another
worldwide success, and it even led to their state side breakthrough.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
The band played seventeen sold out shows in Boston, d C, Atlanta, Chicago,
New York, Miami, and Moore. The anglosphere took notice.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
The Rolling Stone time, and people covered the tour extensively.
On top of that, Francis Ford Coppola tapped the band
for a film soundtrack of Smielski uh huh, and the
band was invited to play on the first tribute album
to led Zeppelin and Comium alongside several American artists.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Mana were Rock Royalty, which would soon put them in
contact with actual royalty.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Joseph, do you follow the royals?
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Yeah? Kind of, I too, well?
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Which royals I should probably specify? Do you follow like
the British royal.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
The British, the Spanish, the Danish?
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Okay, okay, got it okay, so said Japanese, all of
the royals.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
I do, every royal actually.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Except for the baseball team anyway. The Spanish royal family
is made up of King Philippe, the sixth, Queen Leticia
and their children Leonor and Infanta Sophia. But in nineteen
ninety seven, long before any of that royal biz, Leticia
was a journalist for CNN living in Guadalajara. Excuse me,
that is some compass. You were a reporter.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
I noticed story like I would do a story on
her because that's just so She has the best blow up.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
She is the original making marcoll that's all.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Wait, okay, okay, did she interview Mana?
Speaker 1 (17:05):
She did, indeed, back in the nineties. Fair in twenty
eleven recalled that Lithicia was a tough interviewer.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
I know one trusts me.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
So she began her sit down with the band smoking
a cig and Fair ticked her off by asking her
to put it out. After that, her questions became noticeably
tougher YO.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Don't know what to get between a bitch and her
nicoteen honey.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Not an endorsement for smoking, but facts. After the interview, however,
Lithicia and the band went out for a few threats, and,
unbeknownst to the public until many years later, she and
Fair had a brief relationship. But wait, that's not the
jusiest part.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
O my spe spell stell spell spell Okay.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
So years later, in two thousand and three, Lithicsia officially
became a part of the royal family with her marriage
to Felippe. And that's when the listening public took a
good hard look at the cover of Mana's nineteen ninety
seven albums Liquid Dreams Like the Otown song if you
(18:14):
know you know who I do know? All right, whatever,
Let's keep it moving featured a funny, in hindsight scandalous
at the time portrayal of a fore armed, topless mermaid
who looks suspiciously like Leticia lurs Rocslano, the now Queen
of Spain.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Dude, Like, but but does this proof?
Speaker 1 (18:38):
I mean, if you look at a side by side
of said woman on the cover, La Mermaid and Lidicia.
I'm just saying, there's a lot of similarity.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Wow, wow, wow, I'm kind of like that's juice.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Okay, And by the way, to settle the debate, the
woman depicted on the cover is in fact Leticia Ortiz,
but Waite Joseph. She did not get all nakey for
the cover. She didn't even.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Pose for it. Okay. Is this AI in the nineties?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Basically yes, but a little different. So the artist who
painted the cover was actually friends with Lithicia and used
her as a reference. After Lithsa's engagement to the Prince
of Astutias was announced, the painter shared that he had
gone through a bit of quote unquote Lathinmania and used
her as reference for several paintings.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
So the Queen of Spain didn't have a full Jack
and Rose driving like one of your mermaids. Moment was
fed and or this artist. But the relationship did happen, right,
it did, and it.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Goes to show you the prominence of Manna. By the
time we get to the late nineties early offs, the
band was a household name in the States, throughout Latin
America and in Europe. And they played with another icon
that we actually covered this season. In December of nineteen
ninety eight, Fair received a phone call. He picked up
up and a recognizable boy said to him, greeting's wayward traveler.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
I've extended my vibrations to you across the telephonic medium
as a form of invitation.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
I'd like you to join me in connecting the molecules
with the light nad Just kidding. It's Carlo Santana want
a jam.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Just to clarify, Carlos Santana didn't crank all the lead
singer of Mana, but farah Veda did think he was
being crank called and he hung up the phone.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
I would do.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Then Santana called him back to say, no, dude, like
I really am gardless Santana.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
And that's how Mana appeared on nineteen ninety nine Supernatural
on the track Guarason Espionavo, the.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Biggest fan of the Spanish speaking world, linked up with
a rock and roll legend on what remains one of
the best selling albums in history. Let's just say that
Manna were set for life.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Sure, except think about Santana.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
In the addo, his longtime fans heard radio friendly hits
like Smooth and Game Over Love and wondered whether this
was the same something out that rocked Woodstock and in.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Mexico, rock fans couldn't escape Oh Yemiamore and other ballads.
They saw tabloids filled with would be scandals with Spanish royalty,
and they had to ask, is my not really rock music?
On the next Becoming an Icon, we're taking a look
at what the haters have to say and whether Manang
(21:31):
has stayed in touch with their rock breeks. Becoming an
Icon is presented by Sonoo and Iheart's Michael Gurda podcast network.
Listen to Becoming an Icon on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Manal had finally done it. With the release of Falta
Mode in nineteen ninety. They became the most talked about
rock band in Mexico and started to gain traction outside
their homeland.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
They paid their dues in the underground, got dropped from
three separate labels, and had two bandmates call it quicks
before finally finding their home at Warner Music Mexico.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
The road had been long and bumpy. After a decade
of reduction, they were now in demand for concert bookings
and TV ad campaigns to the tune of millions of dollars.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Wow. Manna had gone this long without a manager, but
big deals meant big risks, and they needed someone to
make sure they got big rewards.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
And that's when another member of Mana decided.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
To leave the group to become the band's manager. Because
nobody in the right mind would dip after getting million dollar.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Offers, wouldn't you know it. The one to step away
from the artistic side of things was Gayerros, one of
the three founding brothers of Sombrero Verde, one of whom
had called it quits just before man Not popped off.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
This meant yet another lineup change, bringing my not down
to just two founding members, Ferrolvera and Juan Caerros. Yes, Joseph,
there's something we forgot to do last time.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Oh wait, you're right, Okay, you know it's different covering
a band, all right, Sometimes the lead guy isn't clear
till later. And we're talking, of course about fer Olvera
born December eighth, nineteen fifty nine.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
A sage son, the first one this season. Can you
believe the challenge for this sage is to seek their
own sense of authority, learning from the role models without
copying them.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Police exactly admire Sting, but don't try to be Sting.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
This is not a person who's here for the drama.
Trust is key, and respect comes before loyalty. But only
by staying true to who you are inside? Can you
be a leader who can send that trust flowing both
ways and set yourself up to do good for the world?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Fed on Veda's desire to do just that was clear
enough from the name of the band, mana good energy.
The bread that falls from heaven.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Maybe a bit cocky too, though, like where God's gift
to Earth, I mean.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
A little cocky, but still, if Manah was making bread,
listeners were eating it. The band would never stray musically
from that good vibes heal the world energy, making for
two of their biggest albums.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
But good vibes can't always cover up bad blood.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
I'm your host Lilianavosquez and I'm Joseph Carrio and this
is Becoming an icon a weekly podcast where we give
you the rundown on how today's most famous latinv stars
have shaped pop culture.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
And given the world an extra lebble.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Sit back and get comfortable.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Because we are going in the only way we know how,
with buenas bida, buenas riesas mchies, and a lot of
opinions as we relive their greatest achievements on our journey
to find out what makes them so iconic.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
So we're back to the early nineties. Lisi's the former guitarist,
is now managing the band, and in this place comes
Cessa and Vampidro Lopez, so named for his nocturnal sleeping pattern.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Vampido would sleep all day and wake up in the
late afternoon early evening and go straight to playing his guitar.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Big older brother who never leaves his room vibes.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
At first, Vambido was brought in to fill in at
a few concerts. When he was formally invited to join
the band, he hemmed and hawed.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
That's because Vampido had his own thing going on, a
band called Boleta.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Isn't it cute when musicians think they can do their
own thing.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Right, like join the band that's getting coin and do
your thing later.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
At first, Van Beetle did actually play in both bands,
but as Manak continued to blow up, got the sombretto
vert of the treatment.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Why are all these bands color coded? It's like giving
peewee football team.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Or Cela superhero. Oh anyway, Vombido became a fan favorite
band member. At live shows, Fair cued his fiery guitar
solos with the iconic shout atro.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
I was just telling you how you said it. Thank you.
But if any of the rock bands in the show
have taught us anything, it's that band members come and go.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Except for us, we're forever and ever and Yeah, don't
get too attached to Vampido or the new keyboards who
was brought in along with him, Ivan Gonzalez.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
I don't even really like rock, and I know not
to get attached to.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
The keyboardist Still, this lineup would be crystallized in Manna's
first album to debut in the Billboard Top ten, nineteen
ninety two's De Who Got On Those Ninos? Where Would
the Children Play?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
The titles giving Bleeding Heart, Sade Energy, and.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
This album gives bleeding Heart for the days.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
It's giving a heart that's getting transfusions in real time
just so it can keep on bleeding for its entire
fifty warm in net runs geez don. De Who Got
On Those Ninos was recorded at the late Great Devonshire
Sound Studio in Hollywood, and the artists who've recorded here
run the gamut from Billy Joel Bing, Crosby and the
Jackson's to Nirvana, Suicidal Tendencies, Green Day and Ozzy Osborne.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Uh I wonder where math Nah falls on this very
wide spectrum.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Well, look no further than the most iconic song on
the album, Oh Yeah Memore, an aching nineties power that
caused a phenomenon in Mexico.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Yo.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
If you were a teen girl in Mexico in the nineties,
someone at some point either sang you this song, gave
you a cassette tape of them singing it, or played
it outside your window.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Like John Cusack.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Basically, if you saw the Barbie movie, it was like
the song that all the Kens sing around the fire.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Oh my god, it is.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Pop quiz Joseph, damn you what? I hope you drank
your coffee and went on your run and did your
hot girl walk because your brain needs to be sharp
for this one. When was the first time you fell
in love with Oya maamore? And do you remember where
you were?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Oh my god, I was smoking a cigarette. I do
remember that. And I was at this place.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
It was called Barbadou in Houades, and I remember everybody
knew the song but me, and I felt so stupid
because it's so catchy.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
It's the catchiest, it's so catchy.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
And I just felt so stupid because then I felt
like I was so unfessa and I felt poor, ugly
and fat.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
That's all, okay, First all, you are none of those things.
You've never been any of those things. And I will
say this to you. One of my biggest regrets in
life is that you and I did not know each
other during your watt Is days, because we would have
had a time buff.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Like no, honestly, we would have had We used to
cut out little like boards and make them of our
hottest nights and just have like a board like I
guess how you would imagine a vision board like a
scrap book, but like posters of our outings and cigarette
butts and like Coria.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
And what was the cover art for on your on
your vision board?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
From what? I didn't?
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Dare you no? Because you know since since it was
made in ninety two. This is also like I think
I was in what is Like in ninety nine? So
so where were you?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
So I was not familiar with the song when it
came out because I think maybe a little different than you.
I didn't really listen to a lot of Mexican pop
rock or rock, and we're not going to get into
that argument. When I was in high school, I didn't
really listen to any Spanish music that was not driven
by my parents until I went to college. Oh wow,
(08:09):
so similar timeline. I heard the song in college. I
was in DuPont Circle in Washington, d C. At a
gay club, and yeah, and it came on and I was.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
At a straight club, so what the fuzz?
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I know, we should have such places and the crowd
went wild. Now this is also a club that had
a big Latino presence because DC is a super international city.
But you know, this song is really forever just one
of those guilty pleasures like I'm talking like drive by Incubus,
the reason by who was stank? I mean anything from
Matchbox twenty. It falls for me right in line with
(08:43):
those songs catchy and cute.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
But I'm not roud. Sorry, mind blown. I'm mind blown
with that comparison.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
But it's not to say that there was nothing on
the album to recall Mina's roots. The song moved They
would emerge as a soft nineties counterculture anthem where Alex
the drummer takes a mic to sing about wearing his
hair long and listening to what he likes to.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Listen to and checking that Sagittarius Box might not also
released vv T Scene Ida, an environmental anthem that asks
what would it be like to live in a world
where their air is unbreathable?
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Like tell me how I'm supposed to breathe with no air?
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Vv Scene Idea would earn the MTV Latino Video Music
Award for Video of the Year, and that was just
the tip of the iceberg.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Don Deinos would debut at number four on the Billboard
Latin chart and stay on the chart for ninety seven weeks.
Over the years, the album would sell ten million copies,
making it the best selling album in the history of
Spanish language rock and that.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
MTV Video Award winning video. It helped Mana break through
in Argentina and Spain, tool markets that are typically not
so friendly to outsiders, and two stops on Mana's biggest tour,
yette A two hundred and sixty eight night World Tour.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
I am tired just thinking of that.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Shiz Mana were officially a global force, well beyond the
confines in their home country and a far cry from
the repressed of CD bars of yr, but that didn't
mean they were beyond rock star Shenanigans or sudden bandmate exits.
(10:39):
In April and nineteen ninety four, A van Bidel decided
to disappear.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
In the middle of the world tour, and on top
of that, he said, I'm taking the keyboardings.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Why do you sound exactly like Jennifer Coolidge right? So
many skills?
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Vampido and the keyboardist Yvon Gonzalez demanded that they get
a share of the song raining credits and royalties from
the album that put Manna on top of the world.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Gossip shows also speculated that the two upstart bandmates were
just plain sick of fair Olvera the fame had got
into his head too, claims which at the time were hearsaide,
but which the guitarist would later back up. He said,
you spend so much time with people. You're young and
don't know how to set your limits, and any insignificant
(11:26):
thing becomes big. So there came a point where none
of us could stand each other and we needed a break.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
It's Santana all over again. Why can't these boys keep
it together?
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Olivea and drummer Alex Gonzalez refused to meet their bandmates demands,
and so in the middle of an international tour, Vampido
and Evonne split.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
So, for those keeping track, we've gone through a drummer,
a guitarist, another guitarist, and a keyboardist.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
To save the tour, the band would call in a
couple of favors from some old friends original so they're
the guitarists Gustavo Rosco and Shila Rios, the.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Lady rocker who linked the band with Beppa Hollywood. Together,
the quintet finished out the.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Tour but their old friends would be invited as permanent members.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
I'm sorry, wouldn't you want Hila in the band like
she made you? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:19):
But she could have had other things going on. Maybe
she was playing in another band, right.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
So Sheila left to continue playing with Naranka, Lambara or whatever,
and after the tour laps.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Fair, Alex and Juan launch a worldwide search for a
new guitarist. Over eighty guitarists from Mexico, Chile, Argentina and
the US audition, but none of them seem like the
right fit.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
So the band calls up who else, Beppa Hollywood, who
gets on the phone with Luis Miguel's guitarist, Quiko Cebrian.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
The guitarist Kiko Sebrian didn't know anyone offhand, but he
said some Mirando had just come by and dropped off
a cassette demo.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Maybe he's good, uh promising?
Speaker 1 (13:03):
So Geegle sends the tape to Beppa Hollywood, whose name
is Bepe Kindana by the way, in case anyone forgot,
We're just joking here, and Bepe listens in the car
on the way to work.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Cars had tape decks back then. See Liliana, I do
not about cars.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
By the way, you take ubers all the time. You
never ride the subway. Of course you know about cars. Okay,
back to the tape, Beppa Hollywood hears an extremely versatile
guitar is playing everything from bossa nova to heavy metal.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
He calls our leading man, fed Or Vetta and says,
do you know what that sound you've been looking for?
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Well, listen to this.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
He puts the phone up to the speaker and gives
Phair a listen, and Fair says.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Thanks, I hate it.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Brutal Bebbe, disappointed, takes the tape into his office and
tosses it in the slush pile, a box of rejected
demos that are ultimately bound for the dump truck.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Where they'll reenact the end of Toy Story three, but
with music in setatois.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Okay, wait stop, don't make me cry on the mic. Okay,
that's like not cool.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Sorry boo. Anyway, the search for the guitarist goes a
lot like their search for the drummer back in Simbreo
Veda the era.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Aka impossible demands make for a totally fruitless search, and
one day Fair calls up Bepan and says, screw it.
Let's go with the guy from the tape.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
FML and Bebba Hollywood has a full on panic attack.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
He rummages around the reject.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Box, digging through the trash.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
He does eighty on the mayback and races home to
turn his home office upside down looking for this damn tape.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
And finally he finds it, presumably after chucking the tape
in the rejects box. After showing it to Fair, he
had a moment of better judgment.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
This is the guy who went to bat form Na
in the first place. After all, Bebba Hollywood does have
an ear.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
And after Bebbe played the tape for other members of monot,
it was decided the band would welcome its new permanent guitarist,
sedjil Vai, and.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
In nineteen ninety five, the definitive Mana lineup debuted with
the album Guandoos Angeles Joran When Angels Cry.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Mana's third album with Warner Music Mexico was yet another
worldwide success, and it even led to their state side breakthrough.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
The band played seventeen sold out shows in Boston, d C, Atlanta, Chicago,
New York, Miami, and Moore. The anglosphere took notice.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
The Rolling Stone time, and people covered the tour extensively.
On top of that, Francis Ford Coppola tapped the band
for a film soundtrack of Smielski uh huh, and the
band was invited to play on the first tribute album
to led Zeppelin and Comium alongside several American artists.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Mana were Rock Royalty, which would soon put them in
contact with actual royalty.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Joseph, do you follow the royals?
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Yeah? Kind of, I too, well?
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Which royals I should probably specify? Do you follow like
the British royal.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
The British, the Spanish, the Danish?
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Okay, okay, got it okay, so said Japanese, all of
the royals.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
I do, every royal actually.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Except for the baseball team anyway. The Spanish royal family
is made up of King Philippe, the sixth, Queen Leticia
and their children Leonor and Infanta Sophia. But in nineteen
ninety seven, long before any of that royal biz, Leticia
was a journalist for CNN living in Guadalajara. Excuse me,
that is some compass. You were a reporter.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
I noticed story like I would do a story on
her because that's just so She has the best blow up.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
She is the original making marcoll that's all.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Wait, okay, okay, did she interview Mana?
Speaker 1 (17:05):
She did, indeed, back in the nineties. Fair in twenty
eleven recalled that Lithicia was a tough interviewer.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
I know one trusts me.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
So she began her sit down with the band smoking
a cig and Fair ticked her off by asking her
to put it out. After that, her questions became noticeably
tougher YO.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Don't know what to get between a bitch and her
nicoteen honey.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Not an endorsement for smoking, but facts. After the interview, however,
Lithicia and the band went out for a few threats, and,
unbeknownst to the public until many years later, she and
Fair had a brief relationship. But wait, that's not the
jusiest part.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
O my spe spell stell spell spell Okay.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
So years later, in two thousand and three, Lithicsia officially
became a part of the royal family with her marriage
to Felippe. And that's when the listening public took a
good hard look at the cover of Mana's nineteen ninety
seven albums Liquid Dreams Like the Otown song if you
(18:14):
know you know who I do know? All right, whatever,
Let's keep it moving featured a funny, in hindsight scandalous
at the time portrayal of a fore armed, topless mermaid
who looks suspiciously like Leticia lurs Rocslano, the now Queen
of Spain.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Dude, Like, but but does this proof?
Speaker 1 (18:38):
I mean, if you look at a side by side
of said woman on the cover, La Mermaid and Lidicia.
I'm just saying, there's a lot of similarity.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Wow, wow, wow, I'm kind of like that's juice.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Okay, And by the way, to settle the debate, the
woman depicted on the cover is in fact Leticia Ortiz,
but Waite Joseph. She did not get all nakey for
the cover. She didn't even.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Pose for it. Okay. Is this AI in the nineties?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Basically yes, but a little different. So the artist who
painted the cover was actually friends with Lithicia and used
her as a reference. After Lithsa's engagement to the Prince
of Astutias was announced, the painter shared that he had
gone through a bit of quote unquote Lathinmania and used
her as reference for several paintings.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
So the Queen of Spain didn't have a full Jack
and Rose driving like one of your mermaids. Moment was
fed and or this artist. But the relationship did happen, right,
it did, and it.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Goes to show you the prominence of Manna. By the
time we get to the late nineties early offs, the
band was a household name in the States, throughout Latin
America and in Europe. And they played with another icon
that we actually covered this season. In December of nineteen
ninety eight, Fair received a phone call. He picked up
up and a recognizable boy said to him, greeting's wayward traveler.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
I've extended my vibrations to you across the telephonic medium
as a form of invitation.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
I'd like you to join me in connecting the molecules
with the light nad Just kidding. It's Carlo Santana want
a jam.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Just to clarify, Carlos Santana didn't crank all the lead
singer of Mana, but farah Veda did think he was
being crank called and he hung up the phone.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
I would do.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Then Santana called him back to say, no, dude, like
I really am gardless Santana.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
And that's how Mana appeared on nineteen ninety nine Supernatural
on the track Guarason Espionavo, the.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Biggest fan of the Spanish speaking world, linked up with
a rock and roll legend on what remains one of
the best selling albums in history. Let's just say that
Manna were set for life.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Sure, except think about Santana.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
In the addo, his longtime fans heard radio friendly hits
like Smooth and Game Over Love and wondered whether this
was the same something out that rocked Woodstock and in.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Mexico, rock fans couldn't escape Oh Yemiamore and other ballads.
They saw tabloids filled with would be scandals with Spanish royalty,
and they had to ask, is my not really rock music?
On the next Becoming an Icon, we're taking a look
at what the haters have to say and whether Manang
(21:31):
has stayed in touch with their rock breeks. Becoming an
Icon is presented by Sonoo and Iheart's Michael Gurda podcast network.
Listen to Becoming an Icon on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hosts And Creators
Lilliana Vazquez
Joseph Carrillo
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