Pepeu Gomes was born February 7, 1952, and had contact with music from an early age because his father played in a dance orchestra and his mother taught piano lessons.

At 11 years old, Gomes, interested in the style of Jovem Guarda, formed his first band, "Los Gatos" ("The Cats"), in which he played the upright bass.

After recording the first album of Novos Baianos, Gomes deeply studied the rhythms of many kinds of Brazilian music including samba, frevo, choro, and maracatu; he also learned to play bandolim.

Recording in the U.S. introduced him to the composer Ronnie Foster and musicians such as Paulinho da Costa, Jerry Hey, Garry Grant, Airto Moreira, and John Robinson.

In the late 1980s, he returned to instrumental music dedicating himself to his guitar playing, covering old hits such as the chorinhos "Brasileirinho" (Waldir Azevedo) and "Noites Cariocas" (Jacob do Bandolim), artists who were present at the beginning of his career and helped him become famous as a virtuoso.

[6] Gomes later admitted in an interview hosted by MTV in 2011 that he turned down the invitation because he would be a hired musician and that he would only leave Brazil to be a member of a permanent band and not as an employee.

In 1993 Gomes released a new album which obtained a deal of success, driven by the song "Sexy Yemanjá" which was the sound track of the soap opera Mulheres de Areia on TV Globo.

In 2004 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his solo career he released a CD and DVD called De espírito em paz – Ao Vivo.

In 2011, Gomes re-released a part of his remastered discography on the CD On the Road, that received some extra tracks and he approved the release of an unpublished album, titled Eu Não Procuro o Som, recorded live in 1979.