# Musical Texas Dopers - Who is/was Pepe Lopez? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [July 13, 2025, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-texas-dopers-who-is-was-pepe-lopez/1020812 "2025-07-13T14:16:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-texas-dopers-who-is-was-pepe-lopez/1020812/1 "2025-07-13T14:16:47Z")
Referenced in the second verse of the Old 97s song [“Desperate Times”](https://youtu.be/9k40fJ0Yim4?si=eklUYvtEmDS0jah1) (first verse references Abbie Hoffman. I know who he was.) > Last night I dreamt of you > Pepe Lopez strung out on the stage > It don’t even look like you > Smiling like a sawed off twenty gauge > I still remember > The Telecaster down around your knees > It’s late November > And I think I smell tequila on the breeze Old 97s are a band from the Dallas area. They’ve been around for 30 years - this song was from their debut album in 1995. I’m guessing Pepe Lopez was someone in a Dallas area band in the late 80s/early 90s? Any Dopers out there know who this guy was? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-texas-dopers-who-is-was-pepe-lopez/1020812/2 "2025-07-13T14:51:37Z")
More a spirit than a person… [![](https://atozbev.com/cdn/shop/products/pepe_500x500.jpg?v=1630126498) ](https://atozbev.com/cdn/shop/products/pepe_500x500.jpg?v=1630126498) ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-texas-dopers-who-is-was-pepe-lopez/1020812/3 "2025-07-13T15:51:58Z")
Makes sense as far as the tequila reference (I’m not a big tequila drinker so I didn’t recognize the name). And it’s not like the Old 97s don’t have plenty of songs about drinking. But the rest of the lyrics sound more like a person than the liquor. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-texas-dopers-who-is-was-pepe-lopez/1020812/4 "2025-07-13T19:43:46Z")
Is it the band in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epGgrjnNPNk&list=RDepGgrjnNPNk&start\_radio=1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epGgrjnNPNk&list=RDepGgrjnNPNk&start_radio=1) ? ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-texas-dopers-who-is-was-pepe-lopez/1020812/5 "2025-07-13T20:24:13Z")
Cool! I never heard of them before but that could be it. Rabbit hole, here I come! ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-texas-dopers-who-is-was-pepe-lopez/1020812/6 "2025-07-14T02:57:02Z")
It’s most likely a reference to the singer of the Loco Gringos, Pepe Lopez (stage name). He was a heroin addict who died in 1990. The Gringos weren’t exactly huge, but if you were in the Dallas music scene in the late 80s when Rhett Miller was starting out, you knew about the Loco Gringos. They were one of the best drunk rock bands. Their tour/show vehicle was an old hearse with a mohawk of liquor bottles glued to the top of it. If you’ve ever seen a shirt that said this on the back: FUCK YOU! WE’RE FROM TEXAS The people who made that shirt were saluting the Loco Gringos, who were the first use that. I still have one of those Gringos shirts running around the house that I have no hope of fitting into. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/5xOok9eam-k/maxresdefault.jpg "Nurture My Pig") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xOok9eam-k) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/nMEhcjyFsPM/hqdefault.jpg "Barry Kooda on Pepe of the Loco Gringos") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMEhcjyFsPM) [https://www.discogs.com/artist/744668-Loco-Gringos](https://www.discogs.com/artist/744668-Loco-Gringos) ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-texas-dopers-who-is-was-pepe-lopez/1020812/7 "2025-07-14T04:18:06Z")
Found a shot of the hearse: [![](https://media2.dallasobserver.com/dal/imager/a-look-back-at-the-loco-gringos/u/slideshow/6309601/2911621.0.webp?cb=1734588794) ](https://media2.dallasobserver.com/dal/imager/a-look-back-at-the-loco-gringos/u/slideshow/6309601/2911621.0.webp?cb=1734588794) And an article about the stuff Pepe and the Loco Gringos got up to. I met them a few times, they were some of the nicest folks you’d ever meet, and the band was pretty legendary. > **[Echoes and Reverberations: Loco Gringos Vivir Para Siempre en Nuestros Corazones](https://www.dallasobserver.com/music/echoes-and-reverberations-loco-gringos-vivir-para-siempre-en-nuestros-corazones-7053078)** > > For more photos, album art and show posters, check out our slideshow here.Dallas bands are usually judged within the context of their efforts and accomplishments. Some spend stupid money on hair care products and aspire to a label deal; other bands... > [@](#): > > Dallas bands are usually judged within the context of their efforts and accomplishments. Some spend stupid money on hair care products and aspire to a label deal; other bands actually rehearse and wanna make an important artistic statement. > > Then you had the Loco Gringos. They were here to make you feel good about being drunk. Born out of the ashes of The Devices, the Loco Gringos were brilliant because they were never trying to be anything other than what they already were. > > They belonged to us; we belonged to them. Our committed relationship was meaningful and real. > [@](#): > > **Chad Lovell (Course of Empire):** “What a blur: waking up on a lawn that had furniture in the front yard of the house, the hearse, etc. There was the infamous incident at Club Clearview: They wouldn’t let Pepe in for his show because he didn’t have any shoes on.” > > **Russell Turns (Trees sound engineer):** “Whitney, the first real door Nazi of Deep Ellum, was telling Pepe that he couldn’t come in without any shoes. Pepe went to his car and got two Shafer Beer boxes and came back with those duct taped to his feet and he managed to get in. The next time I saw him, he was wearing a barrel with two belts as suspenders, holding the barrel to his body like a hillbilly jumpsuit.” ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-texas-dopers-who-is-was-pepe-lopez/1020812/8 "2025-07-14T05:13:47Z")
Sorry about the serial posts. But if you want to see the man himself in action, here’s one of their appearances at the Fry Street Festival in Denton, TX (I’m not sure about the year, but it was assuredly at least a year before my time in Denton). I’m actually a little surprised I don’t recognize anyone in the crowd. I do remember all that hay, though. It was like a storm, you always ended up with hay in your mouth. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ynGDN58BYN8/hqdefault.jpg "Loco Gringos Fry Street Fair") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynGDN58BYN8) Thanks for asking this question. I hadn’t thought about the Gringos or Pepe in a few years, maybe more than a decade. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-texas-dopers-who-is-was-pepe-lopez/1020812/9 "2025-07-14T11:52:28Z")
Loco Gringos! I know them from the Rev Horton Heat song. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/V79c3ZBbYek/maxresdefault.jpg "Loco Gringos Like a Party") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V79c3ZBbYek) ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-texas-dopers-who-is-was-pepe-lopez/1020812/10 "2025-07-14T12:25:55Z")
Forgot to say thanks @scabpicker! It’s always nice to be able to connect some of these dots. One of the places I went to try to get more info was the Old 97s website. Back in the day, they used to have a message board and also a glossary with explanations of various references in their songs. And I’m sure that glossary had an entry for Pepe Lopez. But they revamped their website about 10 years ago and all that fun stuff went away. Now it’s just upcoming shows and a merch page mostly. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-texas-dopers-who-is-was-pepe-lopez/1020812/11 "2025-07-14T16:50:16Z")
Hehehe, that song goes through most of what I said. It mentions the hearse, and calls out Pepe by name. If anything, it’s underselling the madness. 😃 The Rev covered “Nurture My Pig”, as well. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/90kb5sqzUkE/maxresdefault.jpg "Nurture My Pig") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90kb5sqzUkE) Man, it does suck that the Old 97s shut down their message board. I suppose they felt it was probably being supplanted by social media, but it stinks they ditched a compendium of knowledge. Thanks again for the excuse to traipse down memory lane!