(Main photo credit: Pop-Up Magazine)
Former actor and founding member of the popular band VST & Co. Spanky Rigor now lives a simple life in the US as a baggage handler.
In the online feature released by Pop-Up Magazine, Rigor—who stands as the ‘S’ in VST (the other being Vic and Tito Sotto)—has been working and living quietly in the US for almost 30 years.
Prior to being a member of the popular band that defined the Filipino 70s music, Rigor worked as a producer at a record company. He then met Vic and Tito, who liked his taste in music. The trio then created the band and released their first record with their debut single, “Awitin Mo at Isasayaw Ko.”
The band’s continued success resulted in Rigor’s instant fame, allowing him to venture hosting and acting endeavors with the Sottos and Joey de Leon.
In 1988, however, he announced that he will be leaving the country as well as his luxurious celebrity lifestyle behind.
His nephew, journalist Albert Samaha, said that his uncle fell in love with the American life and decided to stay in the US for good.
“It was like going to La La Land. It was going to another dimension, another world. Everything I see ‘Wow. Beautiful.’ I couldn’t see the dregs of life. I couldn’t even see garbage. I couldn’t even see homelessness. All I saw was, ‘wow, what a beautiful place,’” said Rigor.
“Spanky thought the place was perfect. Cherry, apple, and lemon trees to pick. Weekend barbecues in the backyard. Family and friends always passing by for long nights of beer and grilled meat,” said Samaha.
However, this comfortable life was halted when unemployment, burglaries, and crimes soared due to the rise of cocaine addiction in the US. They even had burglars break into their home, Samaha stressed.
Through his friend, Rigor was able to get a job as a baggage handler in the airport.
However, the former singer said he still has no regrets about leaving the country behind, adding that it was suffocating to live in comfort in a “country where food and opportunity are scarce to all except those at the top.”
