EP 42 - Wasted Days & Wasted Nights: The Freddy Fender Story

Freddy Fender rose from poverty to musical success, battled addiction, and found peace through religion.Fame can be amazing. However, many famous people get caught in the trappings of addiction.

Tammy Lorraine Huerta Fender tells the gospel truth about her father, Freddy Fender. Known as the King of Tex-Mex, Freddy wanted the whole truth of his life to be honestly shared.

Freddy was a Mexican-American singer who rose from the depths of poverty, breaking free from a life spent picking cotton and rising to a life spent picking guitar. In his youth, in 1956, he was the first to record and sing Spanish rock and roll; he was known as the “Mexican Elvis” and called “El Bebop Kid.” In the mid-1970s, Fender would become famous literally overnight as a rock ‘n’ country megastar with his first two monster hits “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” and “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights.”

Instantaneously, his records crossed over the Billboard country charts into the rock and pop charts, each rising to No. 1. He was given a Country Music Association award for “Single of the Year” and an Academy of Country Music award as “Most Promising Male Artist” in 1975. His voice and charismatic personality also made him a nationwide television celebrity in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

During his last 21 years of sobriety, Freddy sought spiritual redemption, practiced forgiveness and made amends in his daily life; he came to lead by example with the aid of his higher power Jesus Christ. Freddy Fender was known to millions of people across the world as “an ordinary man who had extraordinary God-given talents.”

Listen as Tammy joins Dr. Bond to share her memories of her father’s life of adversity and redemption.