The lead singer and main songwriter for the Mavericks has died.

Raul Malo was 60 years old.

The band announced his passing on its Instagram page on Tuesday. saying he died on Dec. 8, but did not provide details.

A Mavericks’ representative said the cause of death was cancer, Rolling Stone reported.

He announced in June 2024 that he had Stage 4 colon cancer. He later developed leptomeningeal disease, where cancer cells attack the membrane surrounding the brain and spinal cord, The New York Times reported.

The band first got together in the 1980s and was named the Basics, but focused more on rock music than country. Malo at the time was background vocals and bass.

But in 1989, Malo and Robert Reynolds, the lead singer and guitar player, swapped roles and their style of country, rock and Latin music blend was born, the Times reported. He was known as “El Maestro,” Rolling Stone said, with the publication calling his singing "powerful and emotive" and saying he “had the ability to both stun an audience into silence and spur them to their feet.”

Their first album, “The Mavericks,” came out in 1990 and was followed by their second, “From Hell to Paradise,” in 1992. Their third album, “What a Crying Shame,” had the band’s breakthrough hits “There Goes My Heart” and “O What a Thrill.” But it was their fourth album, released in 1995, “Music for All Occasions”, which had their biggest country hit, “All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down.” It hit No. 13 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart and was No. 159 in Rolling Stone’s 200 Greatest Country Songs of All Time.

The band also won CMA Awards for Vocal Group of the Year in 1995 and 1996, won a Grammy for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for “Here Comes the Rain,” according to Rolling Stone.

The band split in 1999 and Malo started a solo career, producing “Today” in 2001, featuring “Every Little Thing About You.”

The Mavericks reunited in 2011. They released their 13th and final studio album, “Moon & Stars,” in 2024.

Malo was the son of Cuban parents who escaped their home and came to Miami, where he was born in 1965.

“They came here to pursue the American dream — the promise that here in this country, you won’t be persecuted for your religious beliefs, skin color or ethnicity,” Malo told Rolling Stone in 2017.

The band said he left behind his wife, three sons, mother, sister and his bandmates.

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