{"id":2192553,"date":"2025-12-09T16:53:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T16:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2192553"},"modified":"2025-12-09T16:53:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T16:53:13","slug":"raul-malo-the-soulful-tenor-and-frontman-of-the-mavericks-has-died-at-age-60","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/raul-malo-the-soulful-tenor-and-frontman-of-the-mavericks-has-died-at-age-60\/","title":{"rendered":"Raul Malo, the soulful tenor and frontman of The Mavericks, has died at age 60"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2025%2F12%2F117041652.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Raul Malo, the soulful tenor and frontman of the genre-defying, Grammy-winning band The Mavericks, has died. He was 60.<\/p>\n<p>Malo died Monday night, his wife, Betty Malo, posted on his Facebook page. He had been battling cancer. The frontman of The Mavericks had documented his health journey on social media since he disclosed in June 2024 that he was receiving treatment for colon cancer.<\/p>\n<p>In September 2025, Malo said on Instagram that he was battling LMD, or leptomeningeal disease, a rare complication when cancer spreads to membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Raul Malo and The Mavericks perform in boston on July 4, 2024. <span class=\"credit\">AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The diagnosis forced The Mavericks to cancel dates with Dwight Yoakam in the middle of a joint tour. Malo left home in Nashville, Tennessee, to seek treatment in Houston, keeping his fans updated along his health journey.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was called to do another gig \u2014 this time in the sky \u2014 and he\u2019s flying high like an eagle,\u201d Betty Malo wrote. \u201cNo one embodied life and love, joy and passion, family, friends, music, and adventure the way our beloved Raul did. Now he will look down on us with all that heaven will allow, lighting the way and reminding us to savor every moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Raul Malo performs in 1998 with The Mavericks. <span class=\"credit\">\/ Shutterstock<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Malo\u2019s band praised his deep commitment to the \u201cpreservation of the multilingual American musical repertoire\u201d and his steadfast championing of \u201cmusic education as an inspiration for every child across America and throughout the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Born Raul Francisco Mart\u00ednez-Malo Jr. in Miami to Cuban parents, he co-founded The Mavericks in 1989 with drummer Paul Deakin and bass guitarist Robert Reynolds. Their self-titled debut album was released the following year on the independent, Miami-based label Y&amp;T Music.<\/p>\n<p>Some call the band alt-country. Others describe it as Americana, roots, Latin, Tejano or swing. It\u2019s all of the above and more, driven by songs written by Malo, his expansive guitar style and his broad vocal range, from a soaring, velvety baritone to operatic high notes.<\/p>\n<p>His musical prowess was in the blend, also incorporating rock, traditional country and surf. In the early days in Miami, The Mavericks played punk and rock clubs to get their sound out there.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Raul Malo stands with The Mavericks in 2013. <span class=\"credit\">Dan Himbrechts\/EPA \/ Shutterstock<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI grew up in a household where we listened to all kinds of music,\u201d Malo said in a 2020 NPR interview. \u201cI just remember it was a celebration of all these cultures.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At that time, The Mavericks had just released an all-Spanish album, \u201cEn Espa\u00f1ol,\u201d featuring original songs and classic Latin American standards. In 2002, Malo released an all-Spanish album for children, \u201cel Cancionero de la Familia Volume 1,\u201d featuring vocals from his sister, Carol, wife, Betty, and mother, Norma, along with other guests.<\/p>\n<p>The band has taken on various iterations over the years as some members came and went. The Mavericks also disbanded a couple of times. Malo put out a dozen or so solo albums and collaboration projects as well, including his instrumental \u201cSay Less,\u201d \u201cYou\u2019re Only Lonely\u201d and \u201cSinners &amp; Saints.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Mavericks released their 13th studio album, \u201cMoon &amp; Stars,\u201d in 2024. Between that and their debut, the band received a Grammy, two Country Music Association awards and three Academy of Country Music Awards.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Musician Raul Malo performs in May 2024. He passed away after a battle with cancer. <span class=\"credit\">SCOTT MOORE \/ Shutterstock<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Raul has a BMI award for songwriting, for \u201cAll You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down,\u201d and was nominated for several solo Grammys, including one for his album \u201cLucky One\u201d and another for his work with the Latin supergroup \u201cLos Super Seven.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He is survived by his wife of 34 years, Betty; sons Dino, Victor, and Max, mother Norma, sister Carol, and Mavericks bandmates Paul Deakin, Eddie Perez, and Jerry Dale McFadden.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Raul Malo, the soulful tenor and frontman of the genre-defying, Grammy-winning band The Mavericks, has died. He was 60. Malo died Monday night, his wife, Betty Malo, posted on his Facebook page. He had been battling cancer. The frontman of The Mavericks had documented his health journey on social media since he disclosed in June [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2192554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25174],"tags":[22062,22846,25601,21741,313551,22149],"class_list":["post-2192553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gossip","tag-celebrity-deaths","tag-country-music","tag-deaths","tag-entertainment","tag-latin-music","tag-musicians"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Raul-Malo-the-soulful-tenor-and-frontman-of-The-Mavericks.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2192553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2192553"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2192553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2192555,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2192553\/revisions\/2192555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2192554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2192553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2192553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2192553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}