After learning how to sing and play the saxophone, Gómez started his own band at 14, and later joined "Tavares", a local group of brothers who shared his Cape Verdean heritage, and with whom he would go on to tour in North America and Europe.
In Paris, Elton John invited him to play the sax on Social Disease, a song on his 1973 classic album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
In Paris he met Nicolas Skorsky and Jean Manuel de Scarano, songwriters who had launched their own label with the aim of producing artists who would record their compositions.
Santa Esmeralda was born of their collaboration, and the album Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, with Gómez on lead vocals, debuted on the independent French label, Fauves Puma.
[2] Essentially a studio act, Gómez was eager to perform, and a touring group was put together including a troupe of dancers, one of whom, by the name of Tequila, would appear on several album and single cover photos and ultimately become his wife.