(Conjunto as it was called at that time), Vicente Fernandez, and Jose Alfredo Jimenez. So, at that time the "Tejano" market, as I knew it, was in it's infant stage. There were probably a couple of other groups like Sunny Ozuna, but I had not been exposed to them yet. It was that horn section, the mixture of guitar and, organ sound, drums and a bass player that set them apart, from all the others. I sort of associated that mixture of instrumentation with the true make up of the "Tejano" sound. The others, were still the traditional sounds of Big Band and Mariachi or, Conjunto. Yet, they were still a big influence on the Tejano sound, just for the fact that they were the songs that most groups were trying to convert over to that new horn band mixture, that was fairly new, to not only myself, but, maybe a lot of other people at that time. My family, as probably a lot of other families, loved music, and it was on our record players (hi-fidelity) most all weekend long. There were of course other artists from the English market, but, I won't get into those since your interest is mostly the Mexican sounds playing at that time. During that time my brother would take me to all of the places that the Bishops played here in the Houston area (they had always been my favorite group since the first time I heard them). There was that voice of Rocky's with the band behind him that was almost flawless in every song that they played, that caught my interest. Sure, there were other groups at that time and, probably their biggest competition was Jesse Casas and the Crystals. Rocky though, had that very distinctive voice and the band was so tight that I just made that level at playing my goal. I even made it my goal to someday play with Rocky Gil and the Bishops.

Your question about them being a forerunner, I guess I would have to answer absolutely yes.

There was no other band during that time, that had a bunch of 16 year olds traveling as far as California, bringing that new sound out for other Mexicano's to hear. During that time California was still in the Tropical and Traditional music stage. Just a short story, we played with one of Mexico's great female vocalists in Northern California (summer of 1968) and The Bishops were her opening act. The crowed was so amused or involved they just stopped dancing and stood there in front of the stage and, watched. It was like a scene from a Rock Concert if you can visualize that. They were just completely into the new sound that was coming from Texas at that time. Yes, they were forerunners at that time and, weren't even aware of it.

What did the 60's bring? Thanks to people like Eddie Gomez, Albert Calderon, Roosevelt on sax, Johnny on trumpet, David Martinez on drums, Mando Martinez on Bass, & Gilbert de La Cruz. It brought, a level of professionalism, that Rocky could not ignore, nor would he let anyone else, that came in behind that group of musicians let up on. He made absolutely sure, that everyone that played in that group, knew his part without mistake and with whole hearted effort or, else. Not to say that he was a slave driver but, he expected and, demanded only the best out of all of us and, we were all very grateful for that afterwards. Why? because it showed us, that good things happened, if you really worked hard and put your heart into it. There was nothing that you could not achieve, if you just worked for it. The Bishops ended up with several songs, that were played all over the States from the East Coast to the West Coast. About bringing together socio-economically opposed musical trends. I would have to answer yes somewhat and, in the bands own way we were in competition afterwards with some of the popular Black groups in that time like the TSU Toronado's (The Tighten Up} and opened up for Sam & Dave when their big hit, Hold on I'm Coming was just getting out. We played some of the black clubs at that time, which at one time, here in Houston and, at that time was pretty risky for a Latino's health. There had been clashes between the blacks and, the Mexicans over an incident that happened here in Houston. Yet, there, we were risking it all for the music that we loved so much. Anyway, there is much more that can be said and I hope I helped just a little bit but, let me close in saying Rocky was as much to the Tejano scene as Little Joe, Sunny Ozuna or anyone else,  just never been given credit for it.