Los Palominos took to social media to address false rumors the band was a no-show for their scheduled performance with Joe Lopez on Dec. 21 in Palmview, Texas.
It appears there was a disagreement backstage between the Grammy-winning group with the management of Lopez, who is on a much-anticipated, much-publicized Freedom Tour, since being paroled from prison in March 2018.
One of Tejano music’s top bands, Los Palominos, led by brothers Johnny and James Arreola, arrived for a planned concert Saturday, Dec. 21, 2019, at Buchanan’s Music Hall, but ultimately, did not perform. In videos posted to social media, both sides tell their story, but it was fans who suffered in the end when they did not get to see the full line-up the show promised.
According to a video posted on social media Saturday night by Johnny Arreola, who apologized profusely to fans for the group’s absence from the stage, the group arrived in Palmview, a city in the Rio Grande Valley near McAllen, after traveling several hours for the performance, only to have their request for equipment to be moved so the small stage could accommodate the group denied by management of Lopez. This failure to cooperate forced Los Palominos to cancel their performance.
In a video from, Ben “Bam Bam” Ramos, musical director for Joe Lopez, he says he never was made aware of any stage accommodation requests by Los Palominos. He did say there were “a number of technical difficulties” with the sound system at the venue in Palmview.
“I was never communicated from anyone in (Los Palominos) crew or their management of their technical needs nor was Sandra Vallejo (Lopez’ management) at that time while we were there in person at the same venue,” Ramos said.
“I was never communicated or given the opportunity to even accommodate their needs,” Ramos added. “I never got the chance to even go to the negotiation table and talk to them and say, ‘Hey, let’s work this out.'”
In another video on social media posted Sunday, Dec. 22, by Guero Lopez, who served as DJ for the Dec. 21 show, discussed the incident and confirms that Los Palominos were in no way no-shows for the concert and did arrive as he spoke to them live at the venue. However, due to reasons beyond his knowledge, he said, the group did not end up performing. Guero Lopez also said he was denied an interview with Joe Lopez nor was any post-show fan interaction allowed with Joe Lopez, as is normally the custom at Buchanan’s.
“(Los Palominos) are so humble and so easygoing,” Guero Lopez said. “In my opinion, for (Los Palominos) to get upset and not do the show…I’m basically guessing some harsh words must have been exchanged or something to that effect to where it would upset Los Palominos.”
Hopefully, the rest of Joe Lopez’ tour, which was met at the outset by criticism from victims’ advocates, will continue smoothly without further issues as fans seem genuinely excited by the singer’s return and Joe Lopez has brought much publicity with his comeback.
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