A love for his country will always be in Juanes’ blood

For a musician with nine Latin Grammys and a new single topping the charts, Juanes is a laid-back guy, with none of a rock star’s brashness.

But underneath that mellow exterior is a man on a mission. His new album, “Mi Sangre” (Spanish for “My Blood”), confronts the suffering and bloodshed in Colombia’s protracted guerrilla war.

“Colombia is a country which is suffering, and we must move ahead,” the lanky singer says. “To make a flowery record would not be telling the truth.”

While conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan grab headlines, Colombia’s war kills 3,500 people – mostly civilians – every year. Another 3,000 Colombians are kidnapped.

And the conflict is seemingly endless: Two Marxist rebel groups, funded by drug trafficking, extortion and kidnapping, have been battling a succession of elected governments for 40 years.

Juanes, a 32-year-old Miami resident, has found a huge international audience with his heartfelt lyrics mixed with flowing guitar riffs. On his previous two albums, he sang often of love and betrayal, and a little about the Colombian conflict.

Now that ratio has been reversed on his new album, as he hopes for better days for his South American homeland.

“I dream that all the hostages who are held today in the middle of the jungle are free,” he sings in “Suenos” (“Dreams”). “I dream that my bleeding people live in peace and this senseless war is over.”

Before the album’s release, Juanes performed for wounded Colombian soldiers at a Bogota military hospital. One soldier, who lost an arm in combat, presented him with a clay cup made at the hospital’s occupational training program.

“It was a very emotional encounter for me,” Juanes says. “I respect and admire them.”

Some of his new songs were inspired by tales of soldiers separated from their loved ones while pulling one- or two-year tours of duty from the cold of the Andes Mountains to Colombia’s steamy jungles.

“When they’re in the field, what keeps them going is their desire to return to their families,” Juanes says.

The single “Nada Valgo Sin Tu Amor” (“I’m Worthless Without Your Love”), which is the most-played Latin song in the United States, poignantly addresses the theme: “I want to take back all the nights I’ve lost, to beat back this overpowering fear of death, to be eternal with you.”

Juanes, whose given name is Juan Esteban Aristizabal, has come a long way since he fronted a heavy metal band called Ekhymosis in his hometown of Medellin in the 1990s.

“I wanted to be the James Hetfield of Medellin,” he recalls with a laugh, referring to the lead singer of Metallica, a band he still admires. “But I realized that wasn’t me and that I wouldn’t get far.”

Juanes, who began learning guitar at 5, says he decided when he left Ekhymosis and moved to the United States that he didn’t want to copy other bands, no matter how cool they were, but instead to find his own voice.

Unlike fellow Colombian superstar musician Shakira, whose album “Laundry Service” is mostly in English, Juanes says he will stick to Spanish – even if many fans don’t always understand the words.

“In London, when I sang ‘A Dios Le Pido’ (‘I Ask God’), some people thought I was saying ‘Adios Lepido’ (‘Goodbye Lepido’),” he says with a grin. “But it doesn”t matter – even if people don’t understand 100 percent of the words, the music still connects.”

The birthday bunch

Actor Charlton Heston is 81. Author Jackie Collins is 63. Author Anne Rice is 63. Actress Susan Sarandon is 58. Actor Armand Assante is 55. Singer Jon Secada is 43. Actor Liev Schreiber is 37. Actress Alicia Silverstone is 28. Actress Rachael Leigh Cook is 25. Singer Jessica Benson of 3LW is 17.