Singer-Songwriter Chuck Prophet Looks Back on His Career, Overcoming Cancer, and How He’s Bringing Cumbia—Latin Dance Music—to the Masses with His Latest Album and Tour

The guitarist and producer recently collaborated with the Cumbia Urbana group ¿Qiensave? on his latest record, Wake the Dead

From The LifeMinute.TV Team

April 7, 2025

There isn't much that journeyman musician Chuck Prophet hasn't covered in his 40-plus years in the rock and roll biz.

In 1984, he was a member of the Paisley Underground music scene in Los Angeles, having his first brush with success playing in the revered band Green on Red. Since the band’s dissolution, he has not only been steadily churning out his own unique brand of Americana rock while incorporating a wide variety of influences but also collaborating with a long, eclectic list of artists, including Warren Zevon, Kelly Willis, Jim Dickinson, Jonathan Richman, and Alejandro Escovedo. This list, of course, only scratches the surface.

Chuck is back with his latest effort, Wake The Dead, which comes four years after his previous record. This time, he is bringing the band ¿Qiensave? along for the ride. After a major health scare in 2022 (battling stage 4 lymphoma), along with the COVID lockdown, Chuck found himself gravitating toward a form of Latin dance music called Cumbia. The origins of this music started in Colombia, but it has since spread throughout Latin American countries, including Mexico and Argentina.

Now cancer-free, Prophet is hitting the road with a six-piece band, bringing his variation of Cumbia along with some classics that have his fans dancing in the aisles. Chuck sat with editor-in-chief Joann Butler at the LifeMinute Studios in Times Square recently to enthrall us with stories from his past, what inspires him, and what lies ahead.

This is a LifeMinute with Chuck Prophet.