Jef Maldonado is the new Red Sauce Rules! rhythm/lead guitarist. Born and raised in San Antonio, Jef is self-taught--he learned mostly by copying the guitar parts he heard on the radio and records. Jef was brought up on a wide variety of music from Ritchie Valens to Led Zeppelin thanks to his dad's extensive collection of 45rpm singles and 8-track tapes.

Jef was a member of several small 'garage bands' in San Antonio before joining the military, after which he remained a 'closet' guitarist. One day in early 2005, Jef answered an email from 'Terryaki Sauce' looking for a guitarist for the Red Sauce Rules! band.

"Shortly after we moved back to San Antonio I placed an ad on a San Antonio musician's Internet board. I was just looking for some folks to jam with to jumpstart my guitar playing again. After receiving no replies, I forgot about the ad for a few months until I received an e-mail from Terry. I told him I hadn't played in a band in a really long time, but he encouraged me to come out anyway.

As I packed up my rig, my youngest daughter asked where I was going with my stuff...when I told her I was off to an audition, she replied 'you mean like American Idol?' I laughed and headed out with visions of being judged Simon Cowell-style by the rest of the band, but everyone was very polite and cordial.

After the rehearsal Art mentioned they were looking for a George Harrison-type of guitarist. I didn't tell them right away about the huge George Harrison poster on my wall at home, my boxes of Beatles memorabilia, or about basically being a Beatles freak since I was 12. They haven't told me to get lost yet, and I keep showing up to the rehearsals so I think I'm in the band now!"