Álvaro José Arroyo González grew up in the Nariño neighbourhood of Cartagena, on Colombia's Caribbean coast, and was already singing for money at eight years old. In 1971 he signed with the Discos Fuentes label and joined Fruko y sus Tesos, the salsa band led by bassist and producer Ernesto Estrada, and he stayed with them for about a decade.
In 1981 he started his own orchestra, La Verdad, and mixed salsa with cumbia, porro and champeta into a sound fans named joesón. Songs like "En Barranquilla me quedo", "Tania", "La noche" and "El ausente" made him a carnival favourite: his band won the Congo de Oro at the Barranquilla Carnival ten times, until organisers gave him a special Super Congo so other bands had a chance. He died in Barranquilla in 2011 at 55, on the same day the Latin Recording Academy announced his Lifetime Achievement Award.