At the Juno Awards of 2002, Lopez won his first award, in the Best Instrumental Album category for "Armando's Fire". He won a second Juno Award in the same category for "Mi Destino/My Destiny" at the Juno Awards of 2005. Around this time, however, Lopez took a break from performing for two years to deal with depression. As a result, Spirit of the West recorded a tribute song to Lopez, "Come Back Oscar", on their 2004 album "Star Trails". On July 24 that year, Lopez appeared on stage with Spirit of the West at the Calgary Folk Music Festival to perform the song; the following year, he returned to the stage as the festival's headlining act.