José Luis Rodríguez, 'El Puma', Turns 80 And Does Not Think About Retirement

Established as an important figure in Latin music, the Venezuelan singer Jose Luis Rodriguez, ‘The Puma’, turns 80 this Saturday January 14 grateful “more than ever” for the double lung transplant who in 2017 gave him a second life and without thinking of saying goodbye to his career.

Five years ago El Puma thought that he could not continue in music or even in life. Now He has no retirement plans. The idea does not even cross his mind, he said so from Uruguay, where he will spend his birthday, as confirmed by his representative in an interview.

Another subject:

“He who is born to chicharra dies singing. That is carried in the blood,” said Rodríguez, who was born in Caracas on January 14, 1943 and began his artistic career at the age of 17 in a group created by him, The Zeppies.

The story of his nickname

The nickname of El Puma -with which he became known in the world of music- he earned it for having played a character of that name in the soap opera ‘A girl called Milagros’. Acting is another of Rodríguez’s artistic facets, who has also been a presenter and recently a jury member of a musical talent contest in Argentina.

(Another subject: The incredible return of Maneskin).

José Luis Rodríguez, 'El Puma', turns 80 and does not think about retirement 2

The singer has recorded more than 30 albums and has had a career on television.

With over 30 albums to his credit and iconic songs like ‘Pavo Peacock’, ‘Owner of Nothing’ and ‘Hold Hands’ and his own style of combing, singing and dancing that drove his fans crazy, Rodríguez significantly gave his most recent album the title of ‘Grateful’ (2019).

The complex double lung transplant operation to which he underwent in Miami in December 2017 meant a lot to an artist who was always in favor with the public, but for whom a rampant pulmonary fibromatosis kept him away from the stage for years and put him in the spotlight. brink of death

(Another subject: Lisa Marie Presley: between her father’s fame and four failed marriages).

“I never tire of thanking God, the doctors and obviously the donor,” the singer stressed then. He even now he continues to show his gratitude. “I still have a way to go, there are some things that I still feel I have to do and among them is my gratitude to God and the go find the people and the public again“, he explained to the Uruguayan newspaper El Observador on the eve of his birthday.

I still have a ways to go, there are some things I still feel I have to do

Three of those eight decades have been spent in Miami, where he married his second wife, the Cuban model Carolina Pérez, with whom he had his youngest daughter Génesis and of whom he never tires of repeating: “After God, I owe him the life to her.” Genesis, who is part of the cast of the hit Netflix series “Umbrella Academy” said that his father has taught him that “as long as there is life, you have to live intensely.”

“I really thought that I would never see him on stage again, what to say, I thought that I would not have it anymore. And he never gives up and here he is, with strength and vitality,” he added. He was previously married to the Venezuelan artist Lila Morillo, with whom he had two daughters. Liliana and Lilibeth Rodríguez Morillowith which it does not deal.

The 80s will find the Puma on the beaches of Uruguay, where he will extinguish the candles with great gratitude, many dreams, including taking his life to a bioseries, making more music and staying “connected with the public” until the end.

EFE