On the seventh anniversary of Jenni Rivera’s passing on December 9, a previously unheard interview with the late Diva de la Banda was unearthed. Radio host Pepe Garza played his last interview with Rivera where she opened up about death threats and her fear of playing shows in Mexico.
On his YouTube channel, Pepe’s Office, Garza invited Rivera’s children, Chiquis Rivera and Johnny Lopez, to hear his last interview with their mother, which took place in July before her untimely death in December 2012. “She asked me to interview her because she had received death threats and she wanted to leave a testimony in case something happened,” Garza told the Riveras ahead of playing the interview for the first time.
“Let’s hope this never gets aired,” Jenni said in the recording. “Every weekend I travel to Mexico, it’s a risk that I continue to take but I do it for the love I have for my fans.”
In the interview, Rivera said that she received death threats in emails, message boards and phone calls. She sounded shaken up revealing a specific threat around kidnapping if she went to a show in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, on July 29. The FBI got involved with that one. Rivera kept all the threats a secret from her family.
“My career is so important for me,” Jenni added. “I’m a strong woman. No one, not even my team, my family, my friends, no one knows about this and I want it that way because I don’t want to scare my loved ones. I will continue going to work because I have faith in God that he will get me out of this one.”
Rivera continued to work undeterred until the very end. On what would’ve been her 50th birthday this year, Rivera’s family released her new single, the triumphant “Aparentemente Bien.”