required in their acts. Frannie Kirk, who previously managed the SOS and Nievera, said in 2018: "He was bleeding in the lips by the time he learned how to play it." Nievera eventually became the lead singer. When he was with the group, he was known as Roberto because two other members were also named Bert. The Society of Seven mainly performed at the Main Showroom of the Outrigger Waikiki. Nievera and his family resided on the fifteenth floor of the Outrigger; his wife had separated with her first husband in the Philippines and fled with the twins to Hawaii when they were three years old. The couple soon had another child, a daughter named Rachel. Nievera inspired his son Martin to become a singer himself, who told in 2018 that he "would watch [his father] perform downstairs with the Society of Seven, and every night I would dream and imagine myself as one of the members of that group, singing for audiences both big and small." By the age of fourteen, around 1976, Martin was performing with him in Society of Seven shows. In Hawaii, they also owned a restaurant where Martin worked in the kitchen. He toured with his group in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other major cities in the West Coast of the United States. Johnny Mathis saw Nievera perform Mathis' signature song in one of Society of Seven shows in Lake Tahoe. SOS manager Frannie Kirk recalled in 2018, "He was doing 'Misty', with eyes shut, and the real Johnny Mathis heard this voice and came to see where it was coming from. Roberto had his eyes shut and was surprised [to see Mathis] but was excited that he liked the act." In 1976, he left the SOS, after which he recorded and released his debut album, Nievera, in Hollywood through Silver Sword Production (which had also produced the SOS). Gary Bautista filled the vacant position left by Nievera's departure in 1980. 19771989: Solo ventures The Nieveras relocated to Concord, California. While working at a restaurant with his son Martin, he also taught him "The Greatest Love of All", showing him "how and when to belt and how to end the song in a big way." Martin performed the same song at the 1981 California State Talent Competition, which he won. Around this time, when his son was nineteen, Nievera and his wife