Mexican rock singer Johnny Laboriel dies at 71

MEXICO CITY -- Johnny Laboriel, a legendary Mexican rock and roll singer and icon for the Afro-Mexicano community, has died in Mexico City, a representative said. He was 71.

He died Wednesday at his home after an extended stay in the hospital for treatment of prostate cancer, the Rev. Jose de Jesus Aguilar, who administered the last rites, said via his Twitter account.

Laboriel's specialty was to reinterpret American hits of the 1960s, classics such as "Poison Ivy" and "Yakety Yak," translated into Spanish and sung with buoyant enthusiasm and an infectious smile. Launching his career in the late 1950s and '60s, he was a pioneer for Mexico.

"He brought a different Latin flavor to rock music," critic Jaime Almeida said in a radio interview. "When Johnny Laboriel appeared, the entire atmosphere changed. He infected the original versions with a tropical rhythm they didn't have. You never knew what he would come out with, but you always ended up remembering it."

From age 19, Laboriel starred with his group Los Rebeldes del Rock (The Rebels of Rock). They recorded dozens of albums and toured Latin America for decades.

Laboriel had been scheduled to headline a tribute to his 55 years in the business last month, but the show was postponed because of his failing health.

"He leaves an enormous void," said his sister, Ella Laboriel, speaking outside the funeral home where the late "rocanrolero" was memorialized. She, like almost everyone in the family, is also a musician.

Juan Jose Laboriel was born in Mexico. His father, also named Juan Jose, was a trailblazer in Mexico's music and film industry starting in the 1920s.

Johnny Laboriel, in addition to his musical career, also appeared in a handful of movies, television programs and numerous festivals. He was a rare black man to achieve such success in the world of Mexican show business.

But being black in Mexico was not something that held them back, thanks largely to their father's reputation, his brother Abraham, a bass guitarist with the American band Open Hands, said from Los Angeles.

"We were such an integral part of the entertainment business in Mexico that racial questions were never an issue," he said.