RENEGADE
Renegade is an American rock n' roll band composed of Luis Cardenas, Kenny Marquez and Tony De La Rosa. Former members are David Flores, Daryl Sanches and Steve Mercado Although all the band members hail from the United States, the band is widely recognized as being the first Hispanic "Chicano rock" band to gain acceptance in the United States. Throughout Latin America, the band is known as Los Renegados.
Renegade was formed by drummer Luis Cardenas. Deney Terrio, host of Dance Fever, introduced Renegade in what is believed to be their first national television appearance as being from "Whittier, California". The band members were unusual in being ethnic Hispanics playing rock music, and this proved to be a barrier for Renegade during their early years.Their Manager, a music industry veteran, was unable to get the band booked at local Los Angeles clubs as a result of their skin color and a perception that a group of "Mexicans" would bring in spray cans and knives. He told Performance magazine:
Renegade was the Saturday night headline attraction for the Los Angeles Street Scene Festival in both 1985 and 1986, with audiences of 150,000 in attendance.The band released one album: Rock n' Roll Crazy, The band sold well in Mexico, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom and locally in California, but did not enjoy the same level of success throughout the United States as they did internationally. In the United States, Renegade was widely viewed as teen idols, appearing in Tiger Beat, 16 Magazine, Bop and on television programs, such as Dance Fever. The band played music festivals alongside bands such as 38 Special, Foreigner, Journey and Night Ranger, and was popular enough in the late 1980s to be asked by Kenny Rogers to appear on the Texas-New Mexico Border with Lionel Richie and Lee Greenwood to support Rogers' Hands Across America effort. In 1990, the band was featured in a 98-minute television special aired on MTV International, entitled Renegade MTV Special.The band was honored in August 2001 at a David Hasselhoff-hosted event at the Conga Room in Los Angeles for record sales worldwide.
In 2001 Renegade reformed and headlined a performance at the Los Angeles Staples Center for Infinity Broadcasting shortly after the September 11 attacks to raise funds for victims.In 2002, the band announced another charity concert at the Hollywood House of Blues to benefit the Music Cares effort to put music back into schools. Renegade invited a number of their industry friends, such as Vivian Campbell (Def Leppard), Mike Pinera (Iron Butterfly, Blues Image, Alice Cooper) and Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac) to join them. The show was filmed and released on DVD.
In an interview with the band in April 2001 Ritmo Beat magazine described Renegade as the first Latin rock band, calling them "Chicano Rock-Gods".
