Quotes by Henry Garza

“Dad started playing when he was 8. Ive been playing since I was 4 years old and started writing songs when I was about 5. Same thing with Jojo. He was 5 or 6 when he picked up the guitar.”

“They played all kinds of stuff, and we liked that. With us, anything that hits our ears and our hearts and sounds good is an influence, new or old. Music we gather true meaning from is that old school. Its an oldies-rule-forever kind of deal with us Lonely Boys.”

“We stood out. Me and my brother JoJo were the only two Mexicans in our whole school, and so was my little brother, in elementary school. We would have people come up to us and say, What are you? and we would say, Well, what are you? Were just human like you! They would just freak out. They thought we were Indians or Arabs or Iranians or something.”

“Who knew that he was gonna be a drummer? We just freaked out. Its weird, and its a blessing. ... He was the hyper guy of the family, and the baby, too. My dad said he needed ... something to use all that energy. The first 30 minutes he started playing, we knew it was meant to be.”

“Music has been in our family for generations,”

“You gotta have love for something in your life, ... Music is in our veins.”

“[So where is Garza these days? Back at that same auto-body repair shop - only now he and his brothers own it.] We buy old cars and fix them up, ... Its something we like to do to get our minds off everything.”

“[That kicked off quite a run for Los Lonely Boys. Their accessible, earthy brand of Latin-tinged rock earned rave reviews, with Henry Garza drawing favorable comparisons to Carlos Santana.] Heaven ... a dream come true.”

“Weve worked really hard our whole lives to be where were at today, ... Its not like something that we really wanted - we just wanted to be happy. Music was just survival. It was the way our family got through, and paid the phone bill and the light bill and got shoes for someone.”

“We used to be invited on stage with our fathers band to sing that song when we were children,”

“In Jesuss name we pray, In God we trust, and in La Familia we believe.”

“I got down on my knees and started crying and started praying, and the good Lord told me to start writing it down.[Talking about the inspiration for the hit song “Heaven,” from their self-titled album]”

“All of a sudden Ill get a call from JoJo, Hey man, check this out! Or you know, like a month later, two months later, sometimes a year later. Its pretty tough when those songs dont wanna come out. Cause when you want them to, they wont and when you dont want them to, they will. So its better to not want to write a song cause theyll just come, you know?”

“Music is in our blood. It’s a family tradition. We got so much from our father. He taught us, and we just learned by listening to him. We can’t read music and we can’t read notes. Everything we play is by ear and by heart.”

“We try to give a taste of all different flavors. Because when you have a burrito, you dont want just meat -- you want onions and peppers too!”

“I did go through a period of not knowing who I was, and just settling with being a Stevie Ray or Hendrix clone. You know what, though? I realized that all of them were in me. And those guys wouldnt want me to just copy them. They were sharing their gift with me.”

“That’s why it feels so good right now to receive these blessings that we’ve been blessed with, which is the people really digging the music, dude, because that’s what it’s about for us. It’s not about trying to, not even make records or make money or be stars or anything like. We just want to play music and give it to the world. You give, you shall receive.”

“First off our father was our biggest influence. He showed us all the songs that we needed, that we learned from. He played us every Beatles tune, every Elvis Presley tune Richie Valens,Ronny Millsap, Willie Nelson Anything that you can name ...Everything old, nothing new. Everything was old, about the only thing new I can think of is like, you know, probably like Stevie Ray and Santana and stuff. You know, theyre old but they came later.”

“Our music isnt black or white or brown. It comes from the heart, which beats red.”

“I bought myself a pickup truck, a big one, four doors, with a DVD player for the kids. And Im proud of it, because to be able to purchase something like that, its just something weve never been able to do in our family, for generations. But when I bought it, man, I felt like I was stealing something.”