Jose Saladbar

Well where should I start, my name is Jose, I’m a pretty average guy that likes his Heinekens cold and likes his metal heavy. I'm a metalhead and I play bass , here's my story....
I was born in a small town in Mexico called “Iguala, Guerrero”, I grew up in a typical Mexican upbringing.
Born to a mostly Catholic society, people down there take their religion very seriously! Daily activities, town festivities and basically everything else fell around the church.
Needless to say I was a bit of an outcast, I had a million questions about everything but no answers. My father was an immigrant to the U.S.A which was both cool and sad, sad because I only got to see him once or twice a year. I can remember one of the first times I ever heard of this “Heavy Metal” music was when my dad came home one year, as a kid one of the first things I would do is go through his bags to see what he had brought from “El Norte”.
On this particular occasion he had a bunch of cassette tapes. Among them there was one that caught my attention.
It was Led Zeppelin’s first album!
I hadn’t heard anything like that before!! Zeppelin was my introduction to hard rock and it would eventually open the door for me to become a metalhead.
Later on during my teen years I started to get a boner for moving to the U.S.
I did so and it was not easy, I didn’t speak a word of English, I only had $20 in my pocket that my dad gave me before I arrived and oddly enough I used it to buy my first cd ever! Metallica’s “…..And Justice For All”
It was around this time that I started to get introduced to all froms of heavy metal. In due time I met up with a coupl of guys that had a band, even though they were a lot older than me, I loved it! I played my first lie show in a small bar in Elgin, IL, I actually had a friend of mine sneak me trough the back door ‘cause I was underage! LOL
Ever since that day I developed a passion for playing live. Music is a way of expressing your self through this artform. People can judge me by my musical taste but in all honesty I don’t really care. I can’t live my life trying to please everybody. It might sound kind of selfish but I can only please myself and do what meakes me happy, and that’s all that matters.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Recently I’ve had the pleasure to join the crew of Chicagosrock.com as a contributing reporter, my friend Mario Salazar has done an excellent job in helping to keep the rock scene alive and kicking in Chicago. Reviews are done for the most part on a weekly basis so check it out!