For as dedicated and prideful as San Antonio’s heavy metal scene has been for five decades, you could probably bet the house that only a small handful of metalheads know the answer to this question:
Which band was:
a) a staple of the local scene for 17 years
b) played in front of the members of Motley Crue during the national finals, among 10,000 entrants, of a Guitar Center Cruefest contest at the Whisky-A-Go Go in Hollywood
c) is the only artist — local or national — to have played every River City Rockfest (2013-18)?
Who are The Heroine, Alex?
Ding ding ding ding ding!
From pool halls and dive bars to the main stage of the AT&T Center, The Heroine was arguably the most energetic, most rocking and most tireless band the local scene had to offer.
And it wasn’t even close.
Living up to his song “Hardworking Man,” vocalist Lynnwood King was at the front of it all on stage and off. Joined by bassist Wes “Ghulie” Vargulish, drummer Johnny Lightning, lead guitarist Derek “Dibby Disaster” and rhythm guitarist Jorge “The Kidd” Luevano, The Heroine dropped Playing for Keeps in 2007. Songs such as “Texas Star,” “Night Rocker” and “Ballad of Lenny King” (which wasn’t a ballad) introduced San Antonians to a microphone slinging wild man fueled by his passion for the Christian inspired music he helped create and the bandmates that collectively threw down during every show no matter how large or small their audience.
They entered a Guitar Center contest to see which band would open for Motley Crue in 2008 during the inaugural Cruefest, which included a stop at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater. Advancing to the final six bands, The Heroine traveled to Hollywood and had one shot at attempting to impress Motley’s members.
Drummer Tommy Lee was sold, saying, “This band kicks ass!” Alas, The Heroine came this close, falling short to The Last Vegas.
But it wasn’t all for naught for The Heroine.
In addition to the experience the band gained, it earned endorsement deals with Gibson Guitars and Ernie Ball plus a collaboration with Best Buy to have their CDs sold in one of the biggest electronic and entertainment stores the nation had at that time.
King had another project on the side called Lynnwood King & The Revival which occasionally doubled up with The Heroine at the River City Rockfest. The Revival was more blues and gospel oriented with a horn section and female church choir backup vocalists complementing King’s acoustic guitar.
Despite a couple of lead guitarist changes along the way, with David Arias Jr. replacing Dibby Disaster and Joey Villalobos taking over for Luevano, The Heroine was going strong for many years, releasing Out for Blood in 2022. They’d occasionally land a small headlining tour that would see them traveling in a van across the country, but they were never quite able to land The Big One.
Once Covid took over, things began to change for The Heroine.
Sitting in that same van last Saturday after performing a three-hour afternoon set with two breaks as a now quartet version of Lynnwood King & The Revival, King laid it all out exclusively to Alamo True Metal.
“It’s been a good but challenging road,” King said.
Accompanied by his cousin Tito on drums, guitarist Maclovio Perez III and bassist Dmitri, King and The Revival played a mixture of covers and originals during the Chopper and Vintage Bike Show at Caliente Harley-Davidson on the city’s northwest side.
“I could tour the rest of my life playing in front of 50 people a night, and I’d be happy,” King said. “I just love it. But when everyone doesn’t feel that way . . .”
That’s about how many witnessed The Revival’s performance at the bike show, an audience that included King’s mother and 95-year-old grandmother.
Without a whole lot of fanfare, The Heroine decided to call it quits in 2024. Rather, King uses the phrase “rebranded.” For example, the Playing for Keeps album cover on your streaming devices now looks like this.
Naturally, the decision wasn’t exactly one of the happiest moments in the band’s history.
“I’m proud of what we accomplished,” King said. “And I miss Johnny, I miss Wes, I miss David. I even miss Jorge and Derek, man. I miss all those guys. But on the 1st of January, I typed up this long letter, and I texted it to them. I would’ve had a meeting. Laid it all out: this is what I want to do, and if you want to come with me, I want you to come with me. Everyone was just like, ‘No problem.’ We’ve all worked hard, but they also know the financial investment I have in this.
“They offered to do a show where we could try and raise money and pay me back, but I didn’t want to do a benefit show. I want to build what we have and keep doing what we do. I was content. I love to play. I have enough money. I’m blessed. I have several companies that have done well for me. My music: I’m not making a killing, but I’m making enough.”
King and the band were active on social media doing whatever they could to promote shows locally and whenever they’d go on tour. But then that was taken away from them.
“Social media banned the band’s name,” he said. “We can’t say or promote The Heroine on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok. They flag it as the drug. Literally. We were restricted. We lost all our accounts. TikTok wouldn’t let us be searchable. If I talked about The Heroine, it would restrict me for days. AI just killed us.”
Wonder how Wonder Woman feels about “Heroine” vs. “Heroin.”
“In this day and age, you have to have a social media presence,” King continued. “Do reels and engage with your audience. And we couldn’t do that, man, and that was such a frustration. I brought it up to the band: ‘Hey, maybe we should change the name. Let’s try to relaunch,’ and everyone was against it. We’re stuck. And there’s no way out of it. And I’m losing money every month.”
King cites three turning points along the way when he could feel things going south, starting with the Chancla Fest in April 2023 at Alamo Beer Company, an all-day event that featured 20 local bands headlined by Upon A Burning Body (coverage here).
Promoted by Joe Cordero as the first of its kind with aspirations to hold it annually at Boeing Center at Tech Port and eventually the Alamodome, those hopes never materialized.
Nearly, as well, did The Heroine’s paycheck.
“We had agreed to do the Chancla Fest (but) I’m used to dealing with contracts,” King said. “When you do a big event, you lock in a contract. Everyone signs it. You get a deposit. That was kind of a weird thing. I had just lost my social media and couldn’t communicate on Instagram, but the promoter was communicating with all the bands on Instagram. Then he started messaging everyone: ‘I’m not paying everyone. Only the headliners are going to get paid.’ And they moved us from being direct support to Upon A Burning Body to playing at 3 in the afternoon, super hot. Then I called and said, ‘Hey dude, you’ve gotta keep your guarantee.’ And so he agreed to keep it and was like, ‘Don’t just tell no one that I paid y’all.’ It was super humbling. Nothing against the guy, but there’s a certain level of professionalism everyone expects.”
Despite the awkwardness of going from a promised direct support slot to wondering what their audience was going to be like at the Chancla Fest, things appeared to be moving forward shortly thereafter.
“I always thought the band was amazing, and every show we played was good,” King said. “We were signed to Atomic Music Group. They were going to put us on some super awesome tours, and we kept telling them — there was always someone who couldn’t do something. Our agent called one time and said, ‘Hey, The Supersuckers need someone to jump on their tour from Chicago through the Midwest and ends in Austin. I need you all to be there on Monday.’ And I was like, ‘I’m down. I can do it.’
“I called all the band, and some of them didn’t have a very good attitude about it: ‘The Supersuckers? They don’t even draw.’ This is our booking agent from Atomic Music Group, who’s really taking a chance on us. We weren’t a big draw.”
King shakes his head in reflection regarding the second moment.
“We did a tour after that, and it was just brutal. Headlining tour. San Antonio to Seattle and back. It was a good route, but Covid kind of changed the landscape. The first two dates were just brutal. We got guarantees, so they’ve gotta pay us, but it was like, ‘No one’s here.’ I bought this van for us to tour in. We had just freakin’ got our deal with Atomic, and (claps his hands twice): upgrade! I got this van, and this is our first tour, and we all have our beds. But we were losing money.
“And finally, we get to Portland, and we have a good base out there and a killer show. But then me and Joey — Joey was already checked out. I was throwing my mic stand around, doing my thing, and Joey was like, “Watch out, man! You almost hit me!” He was like, “Stay on your side of the stage,” and he started getting upset. I’d never seen an attitude (like that). He was frustrated. We all were. When you have a family and you’re not making money on tour, and you’re playing all these dates. You’re like, ‘I can’t send my wife money, and we’ve got kids.’ So that was kind of a buildup.
“Johnny said, ‘I don’t want him in the band anymore.’ David was like, ‘Meh’ and that night came to a head. I let him know, ‘Joey, man, I’m gonna have to drop you off at the airport, Bro.’ I’ve fired guys before, but . . .”
Asked if and when he knew his final show as frontman of The Heroine was going to be, King went back to the June 7, 2024, Summer Fest at Stable Hall at the Pearl Brewery as the third turning point. It was a headlining bill with support from The Recasts, Grupo Tan Tan, Becoming Sons and Rebel Angels.
“It’s fun when you’re headlining and you’ve got all this buzz around the band,” King said. “But when it’s not there, and you’re not getting the attention or validation, I think it just demoralizes people. I don’t know how well they promoted it. We didn’t promote it very well. But that night, I knew that was my last show with The Heroine. But we had just done a photo shoot. I was losing weight. We were getting ready for stuff to relaunch.
“But when we got to that show — the band did great. But I just felt like there was no turnout, and I was just wondering what was going on. I was discouraged. We played the show.
“We probably didn’t talk to each other for a few months (afterwards), and we didn’t play any shows. I just started working on myself, music, trying to write. And then December, when 2025 was coming, I was thinking, ‘We have to make a change.’ “
Which brings us to 2026 and the rebranded version of Lynnwood King & The Revival. Last weekend’s performance also saw the band unknowingly have the added duty of judging the bike contest in between their sets (see 43-photo gallery and watch them in action below via a cover of The Doors’ “Gloria” plus original track “Let It Fall Down”).
Indicative of the times for King, he played “Let It Fall Down” twice, doing it a second instance because “no one was really here” the first time.
The gig also marked Perez’s final performance with the band. Perez, whose father is a TV weatherman in Corpus Christi, is preparing to move to Miami to work for Gibson Guitars.
But where one door closes, another may be opening. And it’s from King’s immediate past.
“David has agreed to start rehearsing, and he’s going to play a couple shows with me,” King said of Arias Jr. “I’m so excited. My mind’s already: if David comes in . . . “
Then King pumped the brakes.
“David’s not committed. He just says, ‘I’m gonna jam with you all.’ And I’m gonna pay him. He’s not a business partner anymore. He’s a hired gun.”
“And he ain’t cheap,” King added laughing. “Don’t tell those other guys. And he deserves it. They all get their publishing still. They all get their share.”
King, Lightning and Luevano were all contractors in their non-music time. Vargulish is an aviation technician, and Arias Jr. is a psychology therapist. Eventually, their day jobs consistently paid more than their musical passion — another factor that helped do The Heroine in.
“Wes and I talk a lot. Wes was very hurt,” King said of Vargulish. “But he understood. But he was more hurt that the guys let it get to that point. Wes and I were always telling the guys, ‘Man, we’ve got to work harder. We’ve got to play more, we’ve got to stay tight.’ But when Covid hit, everyone stopped playing music and (started) focusing on their business. They were doing contract work. Me and Wes were like, ‘My work is going to play.’ But when you make money outside of music and the money’s better, music becomes a hobby. It may have gotten to that point with some of the guys, and I understand. But I don’t want to play part time.
“When I made the decision to kinda rebrand The Heroine to Lynnwood King & The Revival, that was a hard decision because everything was The Heroine,” King said. “The only reason I did The Revival was because The Heroine wasn’t playing enough, and I wanted to play. In The Heroine, we’re like business partners. We won and we lost together. Since I rebranded to Lynnwood King & The Revival, that brought all the content with me. I let them know . . . and everyone was cool with that. They’d already felt like . . . they were tired. They’re still playing, but being in a band is more than just playing shows.
“Especially in this day and age with technology, you have to be playing shows. And doing content. And messaging your crowd, the audience, every day. You gotta be consistent with that. And it’s hard for a band to do that.
“I like it when you’re business partners. But the problem with that model is, one guy decides not to show up, you can’t play. One guy decides he doesn’t want to do a tour, you can’t do the tour. One guy decides he wants to take a year off or decides he’s going to get wasted drunk. That’s the problem with that. Right now, thank God I have a lot of people around me that I can ask to fill in, and they’re very proficient and good players. But there’s no promoting. With The Heroine, everyone was talking about it, sharing posts, collectively working together whereas now, it’s just me. Right now where I’m at, as long as I get paid enough money to pay everybody, I’m good. And if you don’t show up, that means I make more money. They’re both good. I miss the guys, but I definitely feel like I have more control over my life.”
While Arias Jr. is getting ready to reunite with King on stage, Lightning continues to play drums for Thunder Horse, which took part in the two-day Ram Jam last month in Windcrest, and his wife recently gave birth to their second child.
Vargulish is putting together a Christian oriented band called Enoch Flesh with Chris Gamez on guitar and longstanding San Antonio and former Wednesday 13 drummer Jason West. They’re looking for a hardcore styled vocalist male or female.
“What’s done is done. We had our moment in the sun, and circumstances beyond our control, pandemic lockdowns, ultimately was the undoing of it all,” Vargulish said when contacted by Alamo True Metal. “I have no regrets, we did a lot of cool things, and now I am trying to get my band off of the ground.”
So while each member of The Heroine is moving on in his own way, King is doing what he’s always been known to do: be a “Hardworking Man.”
“I can’t tell you, Jay, how many times I’ve sang that song and cried,” King said. “Cried, literally, on stage with my bandmates, crying, singing that song. Because that is the energy we should always bring. And I still want to bring that. Because I’m so passionate about this, and I love it. And when someone loses that, when you lose that fire, you can tell. So, don’t lose that fire.
“This is my whole life. I’ve got thousands of dollars invested in the music of The Heroine. And our last tour, thousands in repairs and fixes. I got to the point where if we’re not playing a lot, man — I can’t just not play. That’s when I started gigging with The Revival. I started live streaming, figuring out how to stay afloat.
“I’m a solo artist now. The difference is now, I have to make sure everyone gets paid. If you’re going to play with me, I’m going to pay you. Everyone. I’ve gotta have my P.A. system. I gotta pay my soundman. ‘Cause, it’s my name. (In) The Heroine, everyone gave. We went tours without getting paid. We struggled together. And we had success together because we were in it. We were partners.
“I don’t want my bandmates to feel like I betrayed them, that we broke up. But we did break up because we’re not playing together anymore. They’re my best friends. I would love to play with them again.
“But I also have to understand that I gotta move on and try and keep growing. To keep playing. I can’t throw those songs away.”