Robert Alan Lopez (born 1960),[2] better known by his stage name El Vez, is an American singer-songwriter and musician,[1] who performs and records original material and covers classic rock songs.

Mixing the styles of Elvis Presley and many other American rock artists with his own Latin-American heritage and music, he is known for expressing revolutionary views through the satire and humor in his songs.

"[5] He later described himself as a misfit in his youth, saying that he cried easily, did not have many friends, and "was a very, very chubby kid who had found his nest of salt in Warhol, Dalí, and the arts.

[7] His grandparents were born in Mexico, and he frequently traveled there as a youth, visiting its museums and Mesoamerican pyramids, experiences which would influence his later musical work.

[7][6] He would become more conscious and appreciative of his Mexican heritage later in life, but did not learn any Spanish until he took a few classes while attending Chula Vista High School.

[8] The PBS series An American Family was also an early influence on both his musical tastes and sexual identity: "That is where I was introduced to Lance Loud and Kristian Hoffman (both of whom would go on to form the NYC-based punk band the Mumps).

[13] Though only teenagers, the Zeros became regulars on the L.A. club scene, playing shows with bands such as the Dils, the Avengers, X, the Plugz, the Nerves, the Wipers, the Germs, Devo, and the Damned.

[15] He became a fan of the art of Gary Panter, the writings of Claude Bessy in Slash magazine and Craig Lee in LA Weekly, and performance artists such as the Kipper Kids and Johanna Went, and idolized Tomata du Plenty and his band the Screamers.

[9][10] "I loved the Ramones, so I didn't mind the title", Lopez later recalled; "But we thought our style was more New York Dolls and Velvet Underground; after all, we had guitar solos.

[22] That winter, he and Margot Olavarria, who had recently been dismissed from the Go-Go's, traveled to New York City, where Lopez stayed for a few months with friends who had transplanted from Los Angeles.

"[23] On his return to Los Angeles, he moved into an apartment just west of La Brea Avenue vacated by Screamers lyricist Gorilla Rose, and worked as a cashier at El Coyote Cafe.

[24] Settling into Los Angeles, Lopez joined a band called the Johnnies as well as the short-lived group Catholic Discipline, in which he played a Farfisa Combo Compact keyboard.

[4][14][25] Consisting of personalities from the L.A. punk scene, Catholic Discipline was fronted by Slash magazine editor Claude "Kickboy Face" Bessy and also included Phranc of Nervous Gender as well as Craig Lee, music writer for LA Weekly and guitarist in the Bags.

"[30] Initially his repertoire consisted merely of cover versions of Elvis songs with new lyrics, and the performances were, in Lopez's words, "very guerrilla theatre".

"[28] A turning point came when he reworked the Elvis song "In the Ghetto" into "En el Barrio", realizing that he could use his humorous act to make social commentary about the Mexican American experience: "The first stuff was just really silly ditties, like 'You Ain't Nothing but a Chihuahua'.

"[30] As he developed a cult following in Los Angeles, he assembled a full backing band ("the Memphis Mariachis"), added a team of female backing vocalists ("the Lovely Elvettes", with the stage names Priscillita, Lisa Maria, Gladyscita, and Que Linda Thompson, after Elvis' wife Priscilla Presley, daughter Lisa Marie Presley, mother Gladys Presley, and girlfriend Linda Thompson), incorporated increasingly elaborate costuming and staging, and developed songs that mixed politics and cultural commentary with tropes from rock and roll and pop music: "I took on the banner of heralding the Chicano experience, and once I got an agenda under my El Vez belt, the show kind of changed.

[33] Also in 1991, the original lineup of the Zeros—Lopez, Escovedo, Chanelle, and Penalosa—reunited to play a benefit show for Lopez's former Catholic Discipline bandmate Craig Lee.

Lopez continued releasing records as El Vez over the next few years: The EP Not Hispanic came out in 1992 through Spain's Munster Records, combining different mixes of songs from the prior two El Vez EPs with three new tracks: "Samba Para Elvis" (combining the music of the Santana instrumental "Samba Pa Ti" with the lyrics to Elvis' version of "Always on My Mind"), "Black Magic Woman" (mixing elements of the Santana version of the song with a sped-up take on the Stray Cats' 1981 rockabilly hit "Stray Cat Strut"); the title came from Lopez's reworked lyrics for the closing track, "Never Been to Spain" (inspired by Elvis' 1972 performance of the song as captured on As Recorded at Madison Square Garden).

[29] Music critic Kembrew McLeod later called the album "El Vez's best work, smoothly combining humor, social and political satire, and great rock & roll in one fell swoop.

"[36] A Christmas album, Merry MeX-mas, followed later that year, and El Vez began staging annual Christmas-themed performances that became big hits with his fans.

"[29] Also in 1994 Lopez reunited with the Zeros for the band's first full-length studio album, Knockin' Me Dead, which consisted of new recordings of their old material.

As Vince Guaraldi's theme music from the Peanuts cartoons played in the background, he decried racism in the Sunday comics with lines like, 'Hey Charlie, I'm brown/Por que no Latinos in your stinking town?'

It was released on compact disc the following year as Son of a Lad from Spain?, with some of the tracks from the original EP as well as added songs, radio performances, and other recordings.

[42][43][44] That November, El Vez released the gospel music-influenced studio album Boxing with God through Sympathy for the Record Industry, and in 2002 started his own label, Graciasland Records, through which he released a third Christmas album, Sno-Way José (its cover mimicking Bing Crosby's Merry Christmas).

[46] By the mid-2000s, El Vez had toured the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, and Australia, and had opened for such famous performers as David Bowie, Carlos Santana, and the B-52's.

"[18] Reviewing a 1995 performance, journalist Neil Strauss described the music as "a whirlwind of pop quotations, full of references to the music of David Bowie, José Feliciano, Patsy Cline, and the punk bands the Stooges and Public Image Ltd."[39] In developing the look of El Vez, Lopez took Elvis-inspired jumpsuits made of tight-fitting polyester and lamé which show off his slender frame, and added Mexican cultural clichés such as sequined images of Our Lady of Guadalupe, extravagantly embroidered bolero jackets, sombreros with ball fringe, pointed-toe boots, and elements of mariachi costuming.

An audience on any given night can be treated to half a dozen costume changes and might hear bits and pieces of at least 200 songs, not all of them Elvis recordings.

For instance, one of his medleys featured "You Ain't Nothing But a Chihuahua" and an instrumental version of the Beastie Boys' "Gratitude", mixed in with the lead guitar riff from Santana's "Black Magic Woman" laid underneath Rod Stewart's "Maggie May", which melded into "En el Barrio" (aka "In the Ghetto") and finished up with the mandolin line that concludes R.E.M.

However, he is not strictly an Elvis impersonator; on his recordings and in his live show, he covers many non-Mexican artists, such as David Bowie, Iggy Pop, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, T. Rex, Queen and the Beatles.

[1] El Vez was once a contestant on the game show To Tell the Truth and starred in Wes Hurley's cult comedy musical Waxie Moon in Fallen Jewel.