The death of Jesus Sanzbetter known as “Chepas”, guitarist and essential member of the hard rock band Lust. The cause was cancer
The guitarist went to the hospital for severe back pain that turned out to be very advanced cancer. The news was announced through the social networks of Lujuria and Óscar Sancho, vocalist of the hard rock group born in Segovia. Jesús Sanz was a member of the band since the formation was consolidated in 1990 and became one of the most beloved rhythm guitarists on the Spanish scene.
Sanz was part of the group during the group’s more than thirty-five years of history and this same year the group had started a new tour that once again underlined its role in the world of hard rock – with sexual overtones – in our country.
On the Lujuria page, the group has posted this long statement:
“Until we meet again, dear Chepas. Jesus. Your mother and father called you Jesus because you were born on Christmas, your friends called you Chepas because they are lazy, but they adore you. From Jesús you became Chesy, Chus was very visible and you have always been unique. From Chesy to Chepas our laziness, sorry. You deserved a better nickname but you already know that God does not give “full equipment” to anyone and you already had a lot of things Well, no one in the world looked like yours without using hairspray, not even fucking Nikki Sixx. After a thousand nights of rocking after a concert, waking up next to you was like starting the day smiling. You raised both hands towards your black hair, you gave them two or three quick turns and your good morning was “alas!” peinao, let’s have breakfast Ojquitar.” That was on the days when we woke up because there were nights when we didn’t touch the bed.
I still laugh when I remember that mythical night in Barcelona, when we were rushing to the hotel “to pick these guys up” and we ran into a huge queue at the door of a cinema. “It’s a casting for a singing program” they told us. “Shall we sign up for Ojquitar?” “Well, of course Chepas.” Damn what laughs with the crowd warming up their voices. “Aren’t you warming up?” “Ah yes damn, take Ojquitar a ciga, give me a fire.” According to you, they didn’t catch us close, exactly about two meters short of entering, because they kicked us out earlier. How you laughed on the way to the hotel. “Fuck Ojquitar, it’s not that they haven’t caught you for not singing well, it’s that they haven’t even let you try, put it on your resume because that’s rockandroula.” That was the closest time we have tried to carry out an “operation” to achieve “triumph” Chepas. The rest has always been free and we have lived incredible adventures in these 36 years of fucking rock and roll.
We became brothers, we loved each other to death, we hated each other some days, we lived the most surreal, funniest, most amazing things we could dream of. We passed them, this goes for Julito, “more whores than the one who swallowed the trivets” at times. We have eaten shit, we have always shitted flowers, we have laughed at everything and we have taken very seriously what had to be taken seriously, we have knocked on the gates of hell, but we never set foot inside and we have pounded on the sky and they never wanted to open it to us, “we don’t care” overall, heaven must be so boring… We have shared everything, we have fought against gigantic windmills without being crazy, we knew well that they were windmills, but we also knew that we had to fight that fight, although their blades knocked us down a thousand times, the same ones that we got up, shook off the dust and plugged the guitars back into the amps to sing about the utopia of being freer than an eagle having born sparrows.
In the blessed hour that you said yes when we went looking for you to be the guitarist of the fucking Lust, Chepas, blessed hour. My friend, my soul brother, my toxic twin (there was a time when we were crazy about that brotherhood of Steven Tyler and Joe Perry) my partner, my half, without you I am not complete, my sanity in madness, my madness in sanity, you are in me, you are in each of us who are Lust, you will always be, you are in every second of these 36 years together and you will be in every second of what I have left, of what we have left.
You always told me that, deep down, I was a softie. Well not anymore. I have you to be strong and strong I continue without you, I continue for you. I continue because there are still windmills, Chepas, and I believe that I am going to attack them, once again. It will be hard to turn your head and not see the black Gibson, the fucking Van Halen 5150 amp, “there is no other that sounds the same”, the handkerchief in the back pocket, the bottle of Jack Daniels to give “your chicks” a drink and never again hear “shut up and sing, old bitch” but “in our struggles we never think about surrender.”
A true rocker does not retire from rock, he just waits for life to put him to rest. Rest in peace, my Chepas. I will continue fighting until I see you again and you say “Yes” to me again while you think “No way, again with the old bitch and with an eternity ahead of me… Give me something that makes me sick and kills me.”
…and I like nothing more than making songs. It’s coming for you, Wild Horse.
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