Adelita’s Way(phoner) – Andrea Leigh
Chances are that if you watch WWE, Monday night Football or if you have even seen trailers for the new movie The Losers, then you have heard of Adelita’s Way. Their song, Invincible, has been turning up everywhere for a good part of the last year. Adelita’s Way has been touring for a quite a while now and stays busy with back to back dates, but front-man Rick DeJesus was able to take a few minutes out of his day to speak with me. We instantly found a rather important connection.

Cover: Hi Rick, How are you doing?
Rick DeJesus: I’m very good, how are you?
Cover: I’m good, thanks for asking.
Rick: I’m much better now that I see a Quizno’s near us.
Cover: I understand that. I’m a Chipotle freak myself so that’s what makes me happy.
Rick: See, I chipotle’d myself to death in the beginning.
Cover: I understand. There are times when I need to take a break and try something else for a while.
Rick: Yeah, Sometimes you have to do that Chipotle break, because I went for like a year and a half eating it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Cover: Yeah, I just slammed on some earlier in the day.
Rick: I like it a lot. I’m a Chipotle fan so we’re on the same page here.
Cover: I do appreciate you taking some time out today, I know you’re busy right now and you have a lot of tour dates going on.
Rick: it’s fine you know… it’s what we do. We rock out live, we travel and we talk to awesome people.
Cover: And you have been touring quite a bit, I was just running down your tour dates and you’ve been playing with a lot of great bands lately.
Rick: Oh man, it’s been a dream here. It’s been unbelievable.

Cover: It has probably been quite a ride. As far as your debut album, did you ever expect that you would do so well coming out of the gate like this?
Rick: Well, I feel like for other people it seems like we’re shooting out of the gate, but man we’ve been plugging away for some time now. The band has been around for about five years and we’ve been on tour for almost two years straight with no break. I want to say we had about four weeks off for Christmas, if that, so we’ve been really, really working hard. The success we’re having is just something you dream of. When you start a band you can only imagine that you would get the opportunity to play with some of the bands we’ve been playing with, and to do the things that we’ve been doing. The whole experience has been unreal for us.

Cover: You came from a rough part of Phillie and then went out to LA. How did the band come together from there?
Rick: Philadelphia was a really tough place for me. A lot of my friends were getting into drugs, going to jail and passing away so I had to get out of there. I tried LA and I only lasted there for about three weeks because it’s so expensive to live there and it’s a very different lifestyle. So I ended up in Las Vegas and did a little pit stop there. I really loved the city. I loved Las Vegas and thought it was amazing and I didn’t want to leave. Okay, so you mean the band, how did we get together?
Cover: Yeah, how did that start?
Rick: I met Trevor through a mutual friend of ours so he is one of the founding fathers with me. We started it a few years back and we grinded really hard and we worked really hard. We would demo songs and travel all over the country. We would try to get our demo to any person we could. I remember taping our demos all over Linkin Park’s tour bus. We did funny things like that. In a band it’s hard to get guys that are hard working and dedicated to the music. It’s not a glamorous lifestyle here, it’s really hard work. We drive twenty hours between cities. We play every night or every other night. It’s just as hard to find guys who understand the life they’re about to live because everyone thinks you’re in a bus. Everyone thinks you’re in a private jet and that you’re millionaires right out of the gate and that is not the case. You have to be ready to dedicate a lot of time and work hard and be ready for that. So, me and Trevor had to find members who knew what it was like to tour and knew what it was like to play in a band and be ready for it. Through mutual friends we met Derek and then we met Keith and these guys have just been so hard working and the bond that we have made together on the road has been unbelievable. We’ve been on the road together for almost two years now and I know everything about these guys. Imagine being with someone every single day, twenty four hours a day and that’s what it is.

Cover: I think it’s important you mention that a lot of people don’t understand the hard work and the touring. I have so much respect for the bands that are out there consistently touring. There are a lot of bands out there trying to make a name for themselves, but they aren’t willing to put all the work in.
Rick: It’s such hard work to do what we do and it takes a special kind of person to do it and things have changed so much. Everything I do is because I love music. You have to be ready to sacrifice a lot. You leave your families, we eat our dinner at gas stations, we’re on the road, and we have to hurry everywhere. We’re playing tonight so we have to get back on the road and we have another show tomorrow so we have to get going, this is what every day is like.

Cover: You have been touring with some great bands like Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace and Puddle of Mudd. Do you have any bands that you’re excited to meet or see when you’re at ROTR this weekend?
Rick: There’s a ton. When we got the Three Days Grace Tour I couldn’t believe it because I used to stand in line to buy their albums. When we landed that tour it was surreal to me. There are so many bands I can’t wait to see at ROTR. The Deftones, I can’t wait to watch those guys. This year has been a dream year for us; Shinedown, Papa Roach, Breaking Benjamin. I used to stand in line at Wal-mart to get their new records and now I’m hanging out with Jacoby backstage. He’s in our dressing room and I’m working with him on a song for the new album that we’re doing. I co-wrote a song with Tyler from Theory of a Deadman. I’m hanging out with people whose albums I wanted to buy when I was younger.

Cover: The funny thing is that when you’re younger you are standing in line waiting to buy that album and then you get to a point where you meet them and hang out with them and you realize they’re normal guys too, they’re just doing what they do.
Rick: Exactly and it’s funny too because some of them just really love music. I was excited to meet Ben from Breaking Benjamin. I looked up in the rafters every night and Ben would watch our set. He would stand in the rafters and just watch us play. To me that was just so cool.

Cover: Are you looking forward to getting some studio time in?
Rick: We’ve got a lot of work to do with this last album. I want to take this album to the next level. We’ve got another single coming out. We’re going to the top forty with our last single “Last Stand”, so I’m really excited about that. I feel like this album has another single or two left in it, but I really am excited to get back in the studio and do another record. We’ve been writing and have about six or seven songs done that we are going to start pumping out. We’re in the process of picking out a producer for the new record. I just want to stay busy, stay on the road and keep working. We’re going to keep touring while we’re writing.I’m hoping that in the next two or three months we’ll start adding another two or three songs to the last set.

Cover: I have to tell you, I’m really excited to see your live show. There are a lot of bands that I can’t wait to see at ROTR, but I really enjoy seeing the bands who are out there touring on a regular basis. Some don’t tour as much, but you can always tell who the really strong, dedicated touring bands are.
Rick: That is one thing I will tell you, our reputation is a live band and that reputation keeps growing. When you see us live you’re going to walk away and go “Wow! Those guys have fun and they throw down.” I take a lot of pride in our live show because every day I wake up and I feel very fortunate that we get to do it and I never take a show for granted so I always go out there and I have a blast.
Cover: Which is good, because the fans know that and they feed off of that energy and they have a great time being there, they’re jumping around, screaming, singing along with every word.
Rick: It’s one of our stronger assets, the live show. It’s one of our strong points.

Cover: There is one thing I’ve been dying to find out about ever since I read this. As far as the name Adelita’s Way, I understand it came out of an unexpected stop at a Tijuana Brothel. Is there a big amazing story that goes along with that?
Rick: No big amazing story. We were supposed to be in San Diego and somehow we ended up in Tijuana. I got arrested by the cops, they robbed us. When I was in this bar called Adelita’s I met a young girl. She was probably about sixteen or seventeen years old. She was a very beautiful girl and as we started talking I got to learn a little more about her. Her story was that to support her brothers, sisters, and mom and dad she had been a prostitute since she was very young. She was really beautiful and her story really touched me so when I went back to the United States I realized everything I took for granted. At the time I was living in a car while we were trying to get a record deal. We couldn’t catch a break and I felt bad for myself. When I went back after meeting this girl, I was like “dude, I’m never going to feel bad for myself again.” There are people out there who have it way harder than I have it and I’m just grateful for everything I have.

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