The San Antonio band Girl in a Coma formed over a junior high obsession over the tortured music of Morrissey. “I loved him so much it hurt,” says singer Nina Diaz, who was only 13 when she joined the band. “I turned vegetarian after that, started reading Oscar Wilde, eating yogurt and bagels and trying to be just like him.” Bassist Jenn Alva remembers, “We had posters all over the room, and we would talk to them.”

After a few years of hard work getting the band established, their fairy tale came true: Morrissey himself invited them to join him on tour. “When we got to open up for him, everything just switched and the whole fan thing just shredded off, and it was time to work,” says Alva.

Their second album, Trio B.C., paid tribute to Diaz’ grandfather, who played Tejano music in the 1950s. “There’s a lot of passion in Spanish singers, a lot of drive,” says Phanie Diaz, Nina’s sister, who plays drums. “Watching our grandfather, that’s what we took from him: to never give up and love it.”

Girl in a Coma is touring this summer and their latest record, Exits & All the Rest, just won an Independent Music Award.

(Originally aired: July 31, 2009)