Entertainment Affair

Chris Perez: All About Selena

by Lydia Aquino | May 9, 2012

Music paved the way that guided Chris Pérez to find his soulmate and after losing the biggest love of his life, music was his comfort.  When the queen of tex-mex music, Selena, passed away in 1995, her husband, Chris, became the most famous widower in the entertainment industry.  Soon after the news of Selena’s tragic murder by the president of her fan club, Yolanda Saldívar, were made public, the media frenzy started.  We watched closely how the case against Saldívar unraveled, how her family was grieving and how Selena’s music was making the crossover to the United States.  But Chris Perez kept quiet, very quiet.  He decided to concentrate in his other passion, music.  After 17 years, Chris is no longer the widower, but an accomplished guitarist with his own band, Chris Perez Band and a Grammy under his arm.  Now he is ready to speak about Selena on his own terms, on his book To Selena, with love.  And if you think everything about Selena has been said, think again.  Selena’s family knows her as a daughter or as a sister, her fans know her as a star, but only Chris knows her as a wife.  That is exactly the Selena he shares with us, not the designer, not the singer, not the victim, but the woman that he loved.  He goes into details about how they met, their first intimate moment and the issues with his father-in-law.  This is not a book about secrets, this is a book celebrating a love that lasted a lifetime.

EA: What made you write this book?
Chris:
It’s been 17 years now... and you know what’s funny? I ask myself that question all the time.   After the response from the fans and how amazing they’ve been through all this years, I started communicating with them through the internet and I wanted to give them something back.  I started thinking about it.   I started at one time earlier in 2011, but I stopped.  It didn’t feel right.  In October, I started again and I finished it.  It wasn’t difficult, I wasn’t creating anything, I was just reliving my life.  This was something the public didn’t know.  They don’t know this side of Selena, the person off stage.  I hadn’t said anything, so her fans did not know her from my perspective.  I am excited about it.  I am happy I did.  I was joking earlier why it took me so long.

EA: How was the writing process like?
Chris:
One of my aunts read all the books published about Selena, some that I considered good, some that I consider not quite good.  I read the catalog that has been put out there before writing anything.  I needed to understand what has been already put out and if there was anything I needed to straighten out or that really bugged me, I could address it in my book.  Not everything, because I could write a whole book about rumors and lies, but I didn’t want the book to be about that.

EA:  Did you feel the need to tell your side of the story?
Chris:
Yes.  It is a catch 22 being an entertainer.  I don’t have anything against the press, but I know they have an agenda.  When I do interviews and TV shows, they get to put a spin on it.  For example, I can do an interview for 30 minutes and it is an upbeat interview, but the reporter asks me a sad question about my past and that’s the only thing they choose to air and they slow the footage down and they add a sad song, they say I am about to cry, when I am not.  So, I knew that with the book I was able to take my time and show people things from my perspective and the kind of relationship that we had.

EA: Do you think it marks the end of your healing process?
Chris:
  I think it did.  It is still a process that I am still learning.  When the book came out I was very nervous because I did it with my heart and soul into it and I don’t have a thick skin and if I would have had a bad review or people didn’t get my intentions that would have really messed me up.  Fortunately, it’s been the opposite.  I’ve been getting positive feedback.  One thing that changed about me since the release of the book is that I used to downplay the whole Selena thing.  I didn’t want people to think that I was using her to further my career in any way.  But now, I find myself talking about her a lot and coming to accept the fact that she is always going to be part of my life and accept the fact of how everybody else was going to look at me.  The book has helped me out in that way.

EA:  Is it easier to talk about your love for Selena now that you are divorced?
Chris: 
No.  That didn’t have anything to do with it.  It was just difficult, period because of the trauma.  We had to rebuild our lives again and that is obviously something that she would've wanted us to do.  We’ re doing the best we can.  She still remains the glue that holds us together.

EA: What was the purpose of exposing such intimate moments between you two?
Chris:
It’s just to show her in a different way. Believe me, I showed my restrain.  I didn’t want the book to be a juicy tell-all.  I am sure it shocks certain people.  I am not that quite young anymore, but I am sure young people can relate perfectly how we felt back in the days.

EA:  Your former father in law’s disapproval of your relationship with Selena was highly publicized.  How is the relationship between you two now?
Chris: 
I talked to him before writing this book and I got his approval.  His words were that it was my life and if I wanted to do it, I should do it.  It’s got to be difficult for him reliving things from the past.  I understand him now, he was the last one to know about us, everybody in the band knew.  We never came to him to tell him, but in the end there is a lot of positivity in the book and he sees that and that’s what it makes it all ok.  I handled it with dignity and respect.

EA: After having your own band and winning a Grammy, you played the guitar for Selena’s brother’s band, the Kumbia Kings.  Do you think Selena and the Quintanilla family played an important part in your successful music career?
Chris:
  Oh yes! Everything that I know as far as the music business, I owe to them.  I was able to trust them fully because they were family.  I had a gentle introduction to it and I learned a lot from them.  They are a huge part of where I am today.

EA: If Selena were still alive, would Jennifer Lopez be the star that she is today?
Chris:
  Hmmm... I think so... yeah... You have to be a star in your own right.  You don’t get to be where she is at or accomplished what she has just for one role.  I think she did a great job. I think a lot of people owe their success to a road that somebody else has paved.  I think that Selena’s passing, the tragedy, and her story lit the fuse to what became the latin music explosion in 1999 with JLo, Ricky Martin with La vida loca, Mark Anthony with I need to know.  I was living the moment and I was also doing my CD.  That’s how I see it.  That was her impact.

EA: You are going to be playing in Los Angeles in a week.  What can we expect from the show?
Chris: 
My band, Chris Perez Project, will be playing new music, alternative rock and three songs from the album Resurrection.  It’s going to be fun.

Chris Perez will be presenting his book “To Selena, with love” on Saturday, May 12th 6:00pm at Los Angeles Convention Center.  He will be performing with Chris Perez Project the same day at 11pm at the Grammy Museum.

 

 

LEAVE YOUR COMMENT