Hall Of Fame Leadership Honor

Joe Ray has always been and will always be a part of the lowrider culture. Some call Joe the "godfather of lowriding" as he's helped set and elevate the standards of the sport. Joe holds the record for being featured on the cover of Lowrider Magazine the most times with a single vehicle, his legendary "Las Vegas" '79 Lincoln Continental. Beginning with his classic '71 Buick Riviera, "Dressed To Kill," Joe's always had a dedicated affair with lowriders. Those who know him personally know that Joe's as humble as they come. Joe tends to stay to himself, which sometimes causes those who don't know him to take it the wrong way and view him as a "prima donna."

Growing up in the San Gabriel Valley area, Joe attended Cantwell High School where he found himself involved in the heart of the local lowrider scene. Joe won a full scholarship to UCLA in commercial art and his life was pretty much set. He was destined for a career, family and the perfect house with a Volvo station wagon parked in the driveway. The only problem was that he had a lot of surrounding distractions, in the senior parking lot. They were called lowriders, full-size American luxury cars on 5.20s and 14-inch rims with hydraulics.

One day, while Joe was on Whittier Blvd., he saw a '73 Chevy Monte Carlo belonging to Groupe Car Club with a wild paint job identifying the car as "Rainbow Bridge" (named after a Jimi Hendrix album). Joe was so moved that he opted to work in the family business and his scholarship pretty much was put on hold. The family business provided Joe with hard-earned money that he could use to express his interest in the art of rolling canvases. "My ideas of creating art had no limits as the art schemes and the ideas of paint jobs were fueled by cars like Rainbow Bridge that 'Buggs' Ochoa had painted," admits Joe. "That challenged me and that's what I needed."

Joe recalls that the car scene in the early to mid '70s was "crazy." "I liked muscle cars, Vettes, Ferraris, but when I saw a brand new Ford LTD pull into the senior parking lot and an almost new '72 Chevy Caprice on 5.20s, I knew that that was what I wanted to do," says Joe. "The looks of the Pontiac Grand Prix and the LTD or a Chevy Caprice along with the right Led Zeppelin song made it seem as if a UFO had just landed. These cars looked like huge spaceships when the hydraulics would bring the car down to the ground."

Joe remembers the era. "I got to cruise the boulevard when the music was new," he says. "Chicago; Malo; Santana; Earth, Wind and Fire; Led Zeppelin; that whole era. Now these are considered legendary bands. Their music fueled the lowrider cruising scenes on Whittier Blvd. Some of these famous bands made hit songs that were used as the theme names for custom cars- 'Sun Goddess,' 'Tequila Sunrise,' 'Color My World,' etc."

"Without the boulevard and the clubs out there competing against each other, lowriding would not be around today," Joe continues. "Probably the greatest designed cars ever were built in the early '70s. I needed to take ownership of one that was sporty, long and luxurious, but different too. So I bought a black '71 Riviera. At the time, I never thought that lowriding would be around for more than 10 years as we were all so young."

Being young and a part of the growing Lowrider Movement, Joe was influenced by others on the scene. "There were a lot of mentors, role models and people who influenced me, but I don't want to try to mention all of them because I know that I'll miss someone and I don't mean any disrespect," he tells us. "I know that it's safe to mention my younger brother Les, who was ahead of his time when it came to living the lowrider lifestyle."

Around that time, young Joe began his association with the legendary Lifestyle Car Club. "Because car clubs existed everywhere and pretty much every guy belonged to one, I decided to join one so I called up my old high school buddy Raul Gras to see what was up with his club called New Life," remembers Joe. "Their president 'Butch' had passed away and in respect they would change and start a new club called Lifestyle. Some 70 original members from New Life would begin Lifestyle and in July '75 I became the first member to be voted in. The club's agenda was to include meetings, caravans, picnics, Led Zeppelin parties, cruising the boulevard and promotional dances."

As the first member to be voted into Lifestyle C.C., Joe was handed the ball and he ran with it, never looking back. Getting into Lifestyle was just the beginning for Joe, and the lowrider culture served as his education. "In the first year, I became an officer in the car committee and then a spokesman for the club,' Joe says. "The role models in my early years in the club would be Tommy, "Pooh Bear," who was all heart, Eloy with his calm manner of leadership, Raul Gras for his taste in cars and his classy ways, and my compadre 'Pokey,' the owner of 'Crazy Camino,' for telling me at a party to drink the wine because everyone was watching. Those guys would leave the club almost at the same time, as they had to move on with their lives."

It wasn't long before Joe moved to the top of the Lifestyle organization. "They would eventually hold a Sunday meeting to have elections and I was made president of the club," he explains. "Their thoughts were that I had no history or rival club ties. I was different. My concentration was only about customizing cars. Maybe the club would survive in that direction."

According to Joe, "Those were still medieval times in lowrider history, with car club wars, politics, jealousies, the bad boy image. There were bumper jackings that destroyed cars on the street and even in your own garage. Everyone had the I don't have nothing to lose mentality and every car club that had or went to war with another club competed to see who the baddest club out there was, and who feared the club more or who won the most battles."

"Orpheus Car Club once told everyone to stay off of Whittier Blvd. one weekend night and the place was empty," Joe recalls. "Gangs on wheels, crazy times. If you had a nice ride and belonged to a club that had problems with another club your car was fair game too. The only exception was that in the old school times there was respect. If you had your woman in your ride with you or your club had problems with another club, the hit wouldn't go down. They wouldn't disrespect your family."

Joe has developed a slightly different view of lowriding over the years. "Lowriding is a culture, a hobby and a sport," he says. "Sometimes, it's all of the above. Lifestyle has been a religion, not a club. Sometimes, it's even a cult. You have to have devotion; anything less is just a sin. Being in a club is almost like having an open love affair. Everything that my family has gone through-missing birthdays, family events and graduations because of a car show or club meeting-is hard, but if you don't have the support or the money, forget it."