{"id":15292,"date":"2025-12-11T15:24:26","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T22:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/the-hits-keep-coming-for-durango-musician\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:33:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:33:45","slug":"the-hits-keep-coming-for-durango-musician","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/the-hits-keep-coming-for-durango-musician\/","title":{"rendered":"The hits keep coming for Durango musician"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Durango
Durango musician El Demonio was honored this year with a Josie Music Awards nomination. (Courtesy)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

El Demonio\u2019s having an amazing year.<\/p>\n

The musician, who moved to Durango 15 years ago from Southern California, was nominated for an Artist of the Year award in the 11th annual Josie Music Awards at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee. The JMAs is the \u201cpremier music event within the independent music industry recognizing and celebrating excellence globally. The JMAs honor exceptional talent, hard work, growth, and outstanding bodies of work, and contributions to those who inspire us, encourage us, and shape the culture of the global independent music industry,\u201d according to its website.<\/p>\n

And for El Demonio \u2013 whose real name is Reuben Roman and was given the nickname \u201cEl Demonio\u201d by his grandfather when he was little \u2013 the nomination caps off a career that has included a string of successful singles; the album, \u201cDiamond on My Heart,\u201d which hit No. 1 on the iTunes Blues Chart on Jan. 19, 2024; a film (\u201cThe Greenhorn Controversy\u201d); the \u201cEl Demonio Penance\u201d comic book series; and collaborations with some of music\u2019s heavy hitters, including Snoop Dogg, Lil Wayne and Krayzie Bone of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.<\/p>\n

\n

For more<\/h4>\n

For more information about El Demonio, visit www.therealeldemonio.com.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

He started out in Southern California as a member of one of the original 1%er outlaw motorcycle clubs, but, he said, when the time commitment of the lifestyle became too much, he chose his family and his first love: music.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still love my motorcycle, but it took up a lot of time, and I knew that I had to pick one,\u201d El Demonio said.<\/p>\n

After turning to music full-time, he began his career as a rapper, adopting his nickname as his stage name.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in a rock band,\u201d he said. \u201cBack in the olden days, record companies would give you money to do a demo specifically for them. And when I went into the studio, we were recording, and my drummer started playing a really funky beat. Jokingly, I started rapping, and I didn\u2019t know that the engineer was recording it.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the session, El Demonio received a call from a manager who had heard the tape and assumed he was a rapper. And from that point on, his career began to take off, and he found himself touring the world. Ultimately, though, El Demonio needed a break from that lifestyle, and so he went on hiatus, which lasted 15 years.<\/p>\n

It was in 2024 when his break from music came to an end \u2013 and he found himself living through a health scare that would change his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn January 2024, I was still playing music in my room, but I was playing what I really like, kind of like country blues, and I just got an itching to do a record, nothing big \u2013 just wanted to do a record,\u201d El Demonio said.<\/p>\n

He called his own management, with whom he\u2019d stayed in contact over the years. A deal with The Orchard, a division of Sony Music, was signed, and the album, \u201cDiamond on My Heart,\u201d was released and topped the iTunes Blues Chart on Jan. 19, 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put the record out. I didn\u2019t anticipate anything, it was just to get it out of my system,\u201d El Demonio said. \u201cI was 15 years removed from my fan base, doing a whole different genre, so I didn\u2019t expect anything. It was mostly for friends and family. \u2026 So I got asked to do a tour, to go promote this record. It was basically a tribute to the motorcycle life that I was living when I moved out here. I\u2019ve always ridden motorcycles, and I got involved in a motorcycle club, the major clubs, and I wrote about that, and that\u2019s what it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hits kept coming until a hit came he wasn\u2019t expecting Nov. 14, 2024.<\/p>\n

It all started with a pain in El Demonio\u2019s jaw.<\/p>\n

The next thing he knew, he was in the hospital, having suffered a heart attack doctors call a \u201cwidowmaker.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I had my heart attack, I didn\u2019t have any of the traditional symptoms that you see on TV \u2013 your arm hurt or you can\u2019t breathe. What happened was my jaw hurt. My jaw was really sore and I thought that was odd. I didn\u2019t think heart attack, but it got really, really bad. So my wife was like, \u2018Let\u2019s go to hospital, something\u2019s wrong. Let\u2019s go figure this out,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cAs soon as I got there, when I told them my jaw (hurt), it was like a NASCAR team. They start all running around and I\u2019m like, \u2018Holy heck, what\u2019s going on here?\u2019 And they explained to me that I had a massive heart attack, and a cardiologist was really surprised I didn\u2019t die. He called it a widowmaker. My cardiologist told me that 86% of the people with this heart attack don\u2019t make it.\u201d<\/p>\n

After his release from the hospital, El Demonio said he hit the ground running with his rehabilitation, and three months into a six-month rehab, he was back, releasing the singles \u201cLove & Hate\u201d in February of this year, and \u201cThe Road,\u201d featuring Krayzie Bone of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and Twista. Both singles charted at No. 1 Country single on Amazon Music.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy style is a little weird: It\u2019s kind of a blend of country music with hip-hop beats,\u201d he said, calling it Urban Outlaw Country.<\/p>\n

He left The Orchard, signed a new deal and re-released \u201cDiamond on My Heart\u201d \u2013 and invited Snoop Dogg to be on it. That effort resulted in No. 1 spot on both Amazon Music\u2019s Country single charts. His latest release, \u201cHighway Man,\u201d featuring Lil Wayne, dropped Oct. 21, according to a news release.<\/p>\n

And while he\u2019s logging time in the studio, El Demonio has also been able to put his heart attack behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve fully recovered. And I live completely opposite of what I used to live \u2013 not that I was ever a drinker or a smoker, my vices were like, I make good money and I like to eat really good food,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I was going through my rehab, I changed my life, and it\u2019s just a complete change: I work out, I eat regularly, healthy, and I\u2019m just enjoying life.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also finishing up work on a new single and is getting ready to head out on tour at the beginning of the new year. He said coming out the other side of a major heart attack has given him new perspective on life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really weird because this is one of the major life changes. Everything matters, everything,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I talk to my brother, my sisters, my mom and dad, at the end of conversation, I let them know exactly how I feel: \u2018Hey, I love you guys.\u2019 \u2026 Life really is precious, and it took me almost dying to really appreciate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

katie@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Demonio recently honored with 2025 Josie Music Awards nomination<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1060,1167,28,559,994],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-arts-entertainment","tag-exclude-homepage-video","tag-headlines","tag-music","tag-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15292"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19580,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15292\/revisions\/19580"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15292"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}