On the title track of his latest album, “Loco de Amor,” Juanes sings this line: “Your smile is like the sun/ And it makes you shine.” Later, he pledges to bite a woman’s lips like an olive. Yet when the Colombian heartthrob is relaxing, he turns not to Sinatra or Bennett but punishing metal bands such as Black Sabbath, Metallica, Slayer and Sepultura. “I just found (in) this music a strong way to escape from reality. I really liked the angry sound and the energy,” he says, by phone from Los Angeles. “I still appreciate that so much.”
Juanes, a 42-year-old native of Medellin, Colombia, has movie-star looks that suggest a more easygoing Colin Farrell, and a matching voice made for pleading ballads. He has sold more than 16 million albums worldwide, all in Spanish. His 20 Latin Grammy Awards have been for signature hits such as “Fijate Bien” (“Look Sharp”), warning his countrymen to watch out for abandoned land mines, and “A Dios le Pido” (“I Ask From God”), a prayer for longevity. Next month, he’ll perform for the pope in Philadelphia.
The singer-songwriter born Juan Esteban Aristizabal took an unusual route to pop success. Medellin, infamously in the ’80s, was the base for Pablo Escobar and violent drug cartels. Juan’s parents and siblings took solace from the streets by singing together, and he picked up the guitar when he was 7. As a teenager, he discovered American hard rock, and put together his own band, Ekhymosis, with some friends in college. Their early albums, beginning with 1993’s “Nino Gigante,” drew from Megadeth and other thrash bands popular at the time, full of guttural chanting, rumbling drums and screechy guitar solos.
But Aristizabal didn’t see himself as the next James Hetfield — in 1997, he quit the band, raised cash by selling his amplifier and motorcycle, and moved to Los Angeles. “The only thing I had with me was my guitar and my small four-track recorder. That was what I used to make my first demos. It was a very difficult time, but I have the best memories. I learned so much,” he says, in an interview during a rare day off, before resuming his tour in Santa Barbara. “Definitely terrifying. I came to the airport, I was saying to myself, ‘What am I doing here? I’m crazy.’ But I had people who helped me.”
Aristizabal’s demo tape landed with Gustavo Santaolalla, a veteran producer in L.A., who signed Juanes to his first solo record deal and helped him put out his 2000 debut “Fijate Bien.” At the time, Latin pop music was taking off in the U.S., but for the most part, stars like Enrique Iglesias and Shakira had to perform certain songs in English in order to reach the widest possible audience. Juanes refused to do so. “Singing in English doesn’t really interest me,” he told Billboard. “I have to worry about pronunciation, so I don’t sing from my soul.” His hard line turned out not to matter, as “Fijate Bien” went platinum in the U.S. and its follow-up, “Un Dia Normal,” has sold more than 6 million copies.
About 10 years ago, Juanes supplemented his show-business stardom with philanthropy. He set up the Mi Sangre Foundation in Medellin, providing education to Colombian violence victims. “I started to understand (political) logistics and meet real people and (hear) human stories in the conflict, and I realized I needed to do something else,” he says. “Colombia is a very rich country, but it is very unequal.” He made a point of including at least one “social song” per album. In 2007’s “Minas de Perdidas” (“Lost Mines”), he sings: “Trees are crying/ They are witnesses of too many years of violence.”
This year’s “Loco de Amor” is a departure from the formula — it’s all love and no politics. Juanes’ concept for the album was to describe the full cycle of a relationship. “At first, it’s very exciting, and happiness is everywhere, and we are so happy about the new situation, but then, when time goes on, we start to know each other and start to understand the concept of tolerance and understand each other,” he says. “Then the breakup, which is very hard to everyone.” He worked with Steve Lillywhite, the British producer for U2, the Rolling Stones, Peter Gabriel and numerous others, and together they agreed on a softer, more intimate approach, using acoustic rather than electric guitars in the studio.
Juanes’ next album, tentatively planned for 2016, may return to the familiar pattern — he has already written one social song and says: “I want to have something serious to say.”
While on tour, he travels with his guitar and laptop and constantly writes and records. But he often works on new material during breaks from the road, at his Medellin home studio, where he conceived much of 2007’s hit “La Vida Es un Ratico.” “When I’m traveling, I spent much more time on my own, so I have much more time to think. I can spend a day in my room working with no interruptions,” he says. “When I am in Colombia, I feel more relaxed, or in tune, being with family, seeing my friends. … I am more relaxed, so I can write songs more about partying, or having good times, or stuff like that.”
Steve Knopper is a freelancer.
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When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Rosemont Theatre, 5400 N. River Road, Rosemont
Tickets: $50-$130; 847-671-5100 or www.rosemont.com/theatre