The Tejano Music Awards announced this week that Joe Lopez will no longer receive the Lifetime Achievement Award or perform at the 43rd edition of the awards show this weekend in San Antonio, Texas. The Texas Talent Musicians Association, producers of the annual event, made the decision after public outcry over the recognition of the singer, who was convicted in 2006 of sexually assaulting a family member. Many fans and Tejano stars support Joe Lopez receiving the honor including Siggno frontman Jesse Turner.
The Latin Grammy-winning artist shared his opinion in an interview with The Bo Corona Show on Thursday afternoon.
“I think that he should have received it in my personal opinion,” Turner voiced to Bo Corona. “Later on, they’re gonna want to give him a lifetime award after he leaves Earth and after he leaves this place and that’s gonna be too late. Whatever he did, it’s people have to learn to forgive. We all have somebody in our family that we need to forgive, or we do forgive. We all make mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes and everybody pays for their mistakes. If those mistakes are paid for, then it’s time to move on and recognize the art and the art that has been created over the course of the years. Because of him, many bands were inspired, many souls and many people wanted to make music and he inspired a generation of Tejano music. So why not?”
The concerns over Lopez are due to the singer’s 2006 conviction for multiple sex offenses involving his 13-year-old niece in 2004. He was paroled in March 2018 after he served 12 years of his 20-year prison sentence. The 73-year-old has always maintained his innocence.
TTMA vice president Frank Salazar told the San Antonio Express-News, “It was a hard decision to make. But we listened to what everybody was saying, what everybody was writing, and decided this was the right thing to do.”
Turner added Tejano fans and organizations need to stop being negative and forgive Lopez for his mistakes that he has paid for, including serving 12 years in prison.
“The more negative that you give into something, the further people want to get away from it, it’s very discouraging to people,” said Turner. “So I would advise everybody, you know what, just love and forgive and appreciate the art and the stuff that was created and look beyond people’s mistakes and try to look for the good in them because, underneath our mistakes, there’s a, a good, gentle person underneath everybody.”
Jesse Turner and Siggno are scheduled to perform at the 43rd Tejano Music Awards at the Boeing Center at Tech Port Arena on Saturday, October 21.
Listen to the full interview with Jesse Turner of Grupo Siggno on The Bo Corona Show below:
The Bo Corona Show is heard on many radio stations across Texas, including weekday mornings on Z93 FM in Laredo, Texas, and weekday afternoons on Fierro HD in Dallas and Houston, Tejano 95.7/103.3 FM in San Antonio, and KLUB Tejano 106.9 in Victoria, Texas.
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