John Rendez steps out of the Superstar’s shadow

“Think About It” is Rendez’s latest single.

You won’t find anybody more honest and forthcoming than John Rendez as an interviewee. With the recent release of his Jonathan Manalo-penned ballad “Start All Over Again” and the self-written “Think About It,” John’s first two singles for Star Music, the guy who used to be vilified by jealous fans of Superstar Nora Aunor—whom he describes as “my best friend and boss”—is forging his own musical path.

“With Star Music, I’d like to believe I’m in the best place I could possibly be,” John told us when we met him last week. “And I’m hoping to get the push that I need so I don’t fall off the radar.”

As far as we’re concerned, however, John need not blow his own horn. When Ate Guy, who’s also his manager, pitched his singles to us, she didn’t have to give us the hard sell because, unknown to the Superstar, we were already familiar with John’s music—and were already fond of it.

Any OPM aficionado would know that John was behind the booty-grooving hot single “Everybody Sayaw” and is even partly credited with Francis M’s chart-topping hit “Man from Manila.”

In 2001, John released his revivals collection “Crossroads,” which featured songs like Cat Stevens’ “Father and Son.”

In fact, in March 2013, we wrote a review of his album “MetalDog: There Can Only Be One” for this paper’s Saturday Special section because we thought the pop and hip-hop fusion he came up with for his songs “Kembotan,” “Plastik Pala” and the title track showed John in a positive light, for a change.

Yes, he had enough talent to help see him through a less-than-flattering image or those tabloid-fodder stories about him.

When we met John for this interview, we immediately liked John because he didn’t answer questions just to impress us or make himself look like the “wronged guy everybody misunderstood.” We were won over by his self-effacing candor even more when he said, “My voice isn’t great, but at least it can stand out on its own.”

To be fair, devoid of his rapping skills, John more than passes muster as a singer—as the folk-pop ditty “Think About It” astutely demonstrates.

More than his skill at flashy wordplay, it was the wistful melancholy in John’s baritone voice that immediately caught the attention of producer Jonathan Manalo the first time he heard the singer-rapper’s demo of Michael Buble’s “Home.” To make the long story short, it helped put the singer-rapper in good stead.

Has John finally gone soft? “Oh, you mean because ‘Start All Over Again’ and ‘Think About It’ are ‘hugot’ songs (laughs)?” he asked. “It’s better when people go beyond putting music in categories, those are just for awards. If you ask me what changed, I’d say that there are also times when I feel almost human. Because I also get sad sometimes. I may not be an emotional person, but I also have emotions.”

Nora Aunor (left) and John
Rendez

“[I guess it’s also part of my growth as an artist.] As a songwriter, it’s always ‘lyrics first’ for me. When I was younger, I’d try to see what fits into the beat and hope that it would make sense. But as I got older, content became increasingly more important than style. And yes, they’re often based on my own experiences. It’s hard to sing a love song and not be able to back it up with real emotions.

“This time around, I want to do songs I’m comfortable with. I don’t want to be forced to do something now then, five months later, I’d say, ‘I shouldn’t have done that!’ I want to do songs I enjoy singing.”

While his affiliation with Ate Guy is always perceived as a “foot in the show biz door,” John said that it also had its disadvantages because of the “stereotype” he sometimes finds himself hurdling. This is why he enjoys his forays into music—because it allows people to see him beyond his eagerly discussed and highly speculated relationship with the iconic actress.

What makes John a dream interviewee is his inability to “sugarcoat” his answers with superficial niceties.

Like the Superstar herself, John tells it like it is, regardless of the “volatility” of the subject matter—why he likes Nora’s daughter Matet de Leon and her husband Mickey Estrada, his testy relationship with some of her fans and kids, or how he protects the actress from “vultures.”

Don’t get us wrong: While it’s true John doesn’t suffer fools gladly, we also quickly realized he wasn’t the type who would readily spew venomous statements against people who get on his bad side—unless provoked, of course.

And if you want to know more about what the actress is like behind her “super” public persona, all you need to do is read between the lines when John isn’t talking about them himself.

“Ate Guy doesn’t talk nonsense,” he said of the actress. “That’s what I learned from her. I’ve seen her through the highs and lows of her life for the past 29 years, so when people talk sh*t, I just wonder where they were when she needed them the most.”

Now that John has resumed his “love affair” with music, we asked John what it was like when Ate Guy “lost” her voice.

He replied, “What would you do if you lost your golden voice? She was depressed, of course, because singing was her bread and butter. We went to Boston to see Dr. [Steven] Zeitels (who’s also the specialist of Julie Andrews, Adele and Sam Smith), but [she couldn’t have surgery because] her blood pressure was too high at the time.

“If her hypertension isn’t properly managed, it could lead to something bad. Buti na lang she’s just as great as an actress, so she had something to fall back on. We’ve really been through tough times together.”

If you get to know John long enough, you’ll also appreciate not just his candor, but also his vulnerable side, as well as his refreshingly off-kilter humor—like his “unprintable” joke about why he didn’t become a priest despite having been an altar boy in his youth.

“I hardly go out because I don’t easily connect with people,” he disclosed. “I’m an introvert, so I try hard to express myself well. When I talk, a lot of the words I use are big words, so they hide the fact that I’m inherently shy. At the same time, I also realize that it’s hard to be successful if you’re too shy.”

John is set to release his third single in the first quarter of 2020. But this time, he wants to cover “Langit Pala ang Umibig,” a Freddie Aguilar tune that has a special place in Ate Guy’s heart because “it was part of the last album she recorded before she lost her voice,” he said.

Does he still have a lot of dreams? “If music is like dreams, then I still have so many unrealized dreams,” he said. “But [there’s danger in wanting so much out of life], once you get your wish, what’s next for you? I don’t want to use up all my dreams now and have nothing to look forward to in the future.”

Asked what makes him happiest and feeling fulfilled, John said, “Truthfully, I don’t know,” he mused. “I don’t know if one is ever really happy. Perhaps what makes me happy is to still be alive with the people I like, or when the people I love are safe.

“As for personal fulfillment, it would be nice to get the respect of my peers for the things I do. It’s fulfilling to do things that make me feel good, not so much because I make money out of them.”

For now, though, John prefers to let his music speak for him. INQ