Tejano legend Roy "Pia" Ramos passes way over weekend

By Michael Corcoran at Austin360.com
Singer Ruben Ramos, “El Gato Negro,” is the star of popular Austin band Texas Revolution, but bass-playing younger brother Roy Ramos was the musical driving force. Roy “Pia” Ramos had the idea in 1969 to move Ruben from behind the drums to the forefront with Mexican Revolution, which changed its name during the early ‘80s Tejano craze. Roy Ramos passed away Sunday morning after a brief illness. He was 62.

“I’m just so saddened,” said singer Little Joe Hernandez, whose band had played with the Ramos brothers in El Paso two weeks ago. “Besides being a great musician, Pia was such a lovely person. I never once heard him say a bad thing about anyone. He was always the first to praise you.”

Roy Ramos was the youngest of seven siblings who played in older brother Alfonso’s orchestra in the early 1960s. Roy and Ruben Ramos called their next band Mexican Revolution to tie in with the Chicano civil rights movement of the late ‘60s.

“I feel like we lost not just a musical brother, but a true brother,” Hernandez said.

Services will be Thursday at 10 a.m. at the Mission Funeral Home at 1615 East Cesar Chavez St.