Singer Nonoy Zuñiga is coming out with a new album containing a new rendition of the classic OPM “Swerte, Swerte Lang.” He’s still doing gigs with some of his also-iconic contemporaries and he is even endorsing a product that helps him have a better walk in life. It’s amazing he’s harvesting these positive things now in light of what happened to him on a fateful night three decades back when he was just a struggling showband member.

Back in the 80s when terrorism gripped the nation under martial rule, Nonoy became an unsuspecting victim of a time bomb that exploded near him while dressing up for a show. The guitarist of his then band called “Family Birth Control” never ever plucked the same way again after that, while he himself lost a leg as a result.

“That forced me to go solo,” Nonoy said in a recent interview with the Manila Bulletin. He recalled that his group was in the restroom at the Philippine Plaza when the bomb placed inside a trash can changed their lives forever.

Displaying an optimistic attitude that brought him to where he is now, there was nothing in the balladeer’s voice to suggest he was kind of still feeling the hurt of the incident. He is a jolly dude, someone who won’t be offended that some of his closest colleagues dubbed him “The Slowest Balladeer”, simply because he walks by way of an artificial right leg.

Now an endorser of nutritional supplement Powerjoints (which has Glucosamine Sulfate and Chondroitin Sulfate to stop degradation of osteoarthritis), the voice behind the classics “Never Say Goodbye” and “Doon Lang”, shared, “I volunteered to endorse Powerjoints because it works for me, and it’s a natural form of medication, no side effects. I started 3 capsules a day for a week and for just three days I already felt the good effect. Ngayon once a day na lang afterlunch. Hindi na sumasakit ang nag-iisang tuhod ko.”

A doctor who doesn’t practice the profession anymore, he technically explained that the product he’s endorsing ‘nourishes cartilage which protects the bone like shock absorber does.’ Thus, according to him, people with arthritis or are in the same condition as he is into should take it.

Nonoy is about to finish his new indie album featuring his different sounding versions of already familiar tunes, or what he calls as “modified old songs.” He is thrilled to have done a bossa nova arrangement for one of the tracks.

For his live gigs, he’ll have a Metrobar performance with Rico J. Puno and Rey Valera on July 25, before going to the US with the other Hitmakers on August for a multiple city tour. The supergroup, also comprising of Hajji Alejandro and Marco Sison, has been performing together for the past six years running.

“Dapat kung gusto mong tumagal as a singer, you should have a professional attitude,” he threw as a piece of advice to novices wanting to achieve his level of success. “Come on time, magpractice ka, you have to improve as an artist and syempre hindi ka dapat mayabang.”

Nonoy graduated from the University of Santo Tomas and is also known for co-hosting the long-running “Kapwa Ko Mahal Ko.” He is one of the few in showbiz whose package is complete in a big way in spite a handicap.