Sometime in 1992, Jose Mari Cuervo left Razorback as their second lead singer. The band was in limbo and had a very uncertain future. Karl Roy was the lead singer of Advent Call at the time. I’m not sure who brought up the idea but Miguel Ortigas, David Aguirre and myself made it our mission to try and hijack Karl from Advent Call. Sounds sinister? Maybe. But, the mere idea of Karl Roy fronting Razorback made our heartbeats race and our imaginations run amuck. We had to give it a try.
We were in the residence of the guitarist of Watawat (I forget his name), Freddie Aguilar’s back-up band. My memory is foggy regarding Louie Talan and Tirso Rippol being present. After a few beers, we brought up the idea to Karl. His initial reaction was that of enthusiasm and he got excited at the prospect of fronting the hardest rock band in Manila at the time. But, just as he was getting enamored by the idea, he declined the offer. He said he couldn’t leave Advent Call and his loyalty lay with them. All night, we tried our “darndest” to convince him to join Razorback and conquer the f***ing world. We told him that we felt that he was getting stuck in a cover band and how awesome it would be to write music with him. And all night, he kept his loyalty to his band and declined the offer. We finally relented and never bothered him again about it.
Razorback eventually hired Karl’s younger brother Kevin and the rest is, well, history. We never treated Karl negatively for declining the offer. I personally admired his display of loyalty. You always want a bandmate with that kind of integrity. Someone who sticks with you even when the sh*t hits the fan. Karl eventually left Advent Call and the rest, is again, history. I never got close to Karl as others have so I hope this story warms his close friends’ hearts for I am sure he has showed this kind of trait to all of them.