Getty Musician Chris Perez attends the ceremony honoring his late wife, singer Selena Quintanilla, with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on November 3, 2017.
Selena Quintanilla Perez’s husband, Chris Perez, mourned his wife deeply after she was shot and killed. He is one of the many people featured in Netflix’s series, Selena. But where is Perez now? Here’s everything you need to know about what he’s doing today.
Perez Is Still in the Music Business, Wrote a Book & Started a Hot Sauce Brand
Today, Perez is still in the music business. After Selena’s death, he formed the Chris Perez Band with John Garza, Rudy Martinez, Joe Ojeda, and Jesse Esquivel. The band signed with Hollywood Records. His first album Resurrection won a 2000 Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album. But the band ended after its second album.
For a time, he worked with Selena’s brother A.B. Quintanilla in his bands, Kumbia Kings and Kumbia All Starz, after being the lead guitarist in Selena y Los Dinos, ABC 11 reported. But then he formed a new band of his own called the Chris Perez Project in 2010 with Angel Ferrer, My San Antonio reported.
He and his business partner, John Gomez, started a hot sauce brand, ABC 11 reported.
He Married, Had 2 Children, & Later Divorced
Perez did find love after Selena. He met Vanessa Villanueva in 1998 and they married in 2001. They had two children, Cassie and Noah, before they divorced in 2008.
Perez wrote on Instagram about his son Noah: “To my son Noah, the sweetest person I know. Thank you for letting me be your dad. Every time I look at you, I am honored and amazed by your greatness…Reminding me of what this life is about is your specialty. I would not be the man I am, without a son like you.. Daddy loves you unconditionally. (NOT looking forward to my summer with you being over)”
He also wrote about his daughter, saying: “She is a badass…musically inclined, vocally inclined, plays some pretty fancy guitar (well, she had an amazing guitar teacher 😉), etc, etc… but, what makes me the proudest is that she is her own person and she does what she wants…and she’s good at it. Keep chasing your dreams Cassie. I got your back.”
He told The Hollywood Reporter about Selena: “People need to remember what she stood for, the values she had. If she gave any message to the younger generation, it would be: Stay in school, and anything is possible as long as you work for it. If people remembered her in that way, I’d be happy and I’m sure she would be happy, too.”
In 2012, Perez published a book called To Selena, with Love. In his book, he said he couldn’t even eat for two days after Selena died, and turned to drugs and alcohol for comfort.
Perez Told ‘Good Morning America’ That He Wishes He Had Amnesia About Selena’s Death
Perez recently spoke about Selena, 25 years after her death, on Good Morning America. Perez said that when he and Selena first met, Selena had her brother A.B. ask him what he thought about her. But Perez said he was worried at first that he might “ruffle … feathers” because he was close to everyone in the band, ABC 11 reported. “I just wanted everything to be cool,” he said.
Their relationship grew from being in the same band to becoming friends and then falling in love. But they had to elope because her dad didn’t approve. He did eventually come around, ABC 11 noted.
Perez wrote in his book about Selena: “I was attracted to the woman I saw onstage. But I fell in love with the real Selena, the woman who laughed hysterically while riding speedboats, was determined to beat every guy in the band at video games, and wore jeans and sneakers and a baseball hat on the bus.”
Perez said he believed that Selena’s rise to fame was inevitable. “There’s a few things that could have gotten in the way, but I think because of who she was and how she did things and carried herself, I almost feel like it was inevitable for her to just keep climbing,” he said.
Perez said that on the way to the hospital the day she died, he had a speech prepared to explain to her why she should never go into situations like that alone again. Finding out she died was terrible, he said.
“I wish I had amnesia for that day,” he said. “I wish I could go from the night before, which was amazing, to… I don’t even know.”
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