Giovannie and the Hired Guns

Blending elements of Southern rock, alt-rock, metal, Latin hip-hop, and música norteña, Giovannie and the Hired Guns first unveiled their rough-voiced country-rock hybrid on the 2017 album Bad Habits. Already established as a popular live draw throughout their home state of Texas, the group issued a self-titled LP in 2020 before delivering the more alt-rock-leaning Tejano Punk Boyz in 2022, their first release for a major label. Johnny K, whose prior credits include Megadeth, Sevendust, and 3 Doors Down, helmed the harder-edged Quitter, which appeared in March 2025.

Hailing from Mineral Wells in North Texas, frontman Giovannie Yanez began delivering his own emotionally candid material at neighborhood bars while still in his late teens. At the time he held a daytime position at a rock quarry, later taking work at a pawn shop that led to his introduction to bassist Alex Trejo. Together with drummer Milton Toles they formed the band, which settled in Stephenville, Texas, and embarked on an intense touring regimen that eventually produced sold-out shows statewide. Written solely by Yanez and tracked by producer-engineer Taylor Kimball (Austin Meade, Kody West), the self-released debut Bad Habits arrived in 2017. The group soon shared stages with Kody West and Read Southall Band, and in 2019 they performed before an Arlington audience of 36,000 while opening for Jason Aldean. Guitarists Chance Bannister and Adam Urbanczyk appeared on the follow-up Giovannie and the Hired Guns, released in mid-2020; the breakup-themed track “Rooster Tattoo” from that set later accumulated millions of streams.

Bannister and Urbanczyk were succeeded by Jerrod Flusche and Carlos Villa, after which the five-piece signed with Warner Music Nashville in mid-2020. Their major-label debut Tejano Punk Boyz surfaced in October 2022, followed twelve months later by a live version recorded at Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Texas. The band collaborated with Texas hip-hop artist Bo Bundy on the mid-2023 single “Cocaine Cowboy,” then issued the aggressive track “Chiquita” in 2024 as the initial preview of Quitter.