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Everytime you delve into the private historical past of most of the greats in nation music, you typically discover out that their very own tales unfolded like a rustic track. It’s not often if ever a rosy image these private biographies paint. They’re stuffed with ups and downs, massive achievements and utter heartbreaks, tragic low factors and moments of redemption. Maybe that’s the rationale they will sing nation songs with such coronary heart and conviction behind them, drawing the emotion from written phrases to the place their songs really feel actual within the hearts of an viewers.
Of all of the harrowing, tragic, and redemptive tales within the historical past of nation music, pioneering Hispanic nation star Johnny Rodriguez might need the remainder of the sphere beat. From overcoming insurmountable odds as a whole outsider from Texas of Hispanic origin, to reaching the head of success in nation music on the prime of the charts, to solely then find yourself again in relative obscurity, and dealing with potential imprisonment for all times after being charged with homicide, Johnny Rodriguez skilled all of it.
Any critical fan of 1970’s nation music will know the identify, the hits, and doesn’t must be offered on the significance of the Johnny Rodriguez profession and legacy. Six #1 songs, fourteen Prime 5’s, twenty Prime 10’s, together with a run of fifteen consecutive Prime 10 songs to begin his profession between 1973 and 1978, Johnny Rodriguez helped outline nation music as a lot as anybody within the ’70s decade, and continued to mint hit songs properly into the ’80s.
Born within the small city of Sabinal, Texas about an hour outdoors of San Antonio on December tenth, 1951, Johnny Rodriguez was a superb child rising up together with his eight brothers and sisters, together with being an altar boy on the native church, and the captain of his junior excessive soccer workforce. However when his dad handed of Most cancers when he was 16 years previous, after which considered one of his brothers died the next yr in an car accident, a damaged coronary heart started to steer Johnny Rodriguez astray, leading to some hassle with the regulation, and a style for nation music to nurse his ache.
Johnny Rodriguez by no means did something too scandalous early on in his life, however his early run-ins with the regulation nonetheless made it into nation music lore. Legend has it that in early 1969 on the age of 18, Rodriguez was thrown in jail after he and his mates stole a goat and barbecued it. Others say he landed within the pokey merely for an unpaid positive. David Allan Coe believed the previous story, and wrote it right into a verse of the track “Longhaired Redneck” that turned a Prime 20 hit in 1976, and considered one of Coe’s signature songs.
The rationale the quite petty incident turned notorious over time is as a result of whereas singing in his cell to cross the time away, well-known Texas Ranger Joaquin Jackson heard the 18-year-old Johnny Rodriguez and advised Texas music promoter James T. “Completely happy” Shahan about Rodriguez, and that he might be a giant nation star. All the time opportunistic and excited to make a buck, Completely happy Shahan pounced, and the leisure profession of Johnny Rodriguez started.
“Completely happy” Shahan employed Rodriguez to sing on the Alamo Village vacationer attraction in Bracketville, TX, positioned on the street to Del Rio the place the 1960 John Wayne-directed film The Alamo had initially been filmed. Then in 1971, Tom T. Corridor and Bobby Naked had been passing by means of the world, and similar to everybody else who heard Rodriguez sing, had been floored at Johnny’s voice and advised him he ought to transfer to Nashville. Johnny did finally, displaying up in Music Metropolis when he was 21 with only a guitar and $14.
The story goes from Tom T. Corridor that unannounced, he took Rodriguez to Mercury Information in Nashville, marched as much as the workplace of producer Roy Dea, after which Tom T. Corridor advised Rodriguez to sing Don Gibson’s track “I Can’t Cease Loving You” half in English, and half in Spanish. By the point Rodriguez completed, Roy Day was satisfied. “I’ll signal him,” he mentioned.
Roy Dea requested Tom T. Corridor what he needed for locating Rodriguez. Corridor responded, “I don’t need something out of it I simply suppose Johnny can promote data. He’s all yours.”
Some had been nervous that Johnny Rodriguez would possibly face racism in Nashville, however that wasn’t the case. Promoter “Completely happy” Shahan again in South Texas the place the inhabitants was principally Hispanic insisted that Rodriguez carry out below the identify “Johnny Rogers.” However Tom T. Corridor and others insisted Johnny follow Rodriguez. They believed it stored him extra genuine, made him distinctive within the nation realm, and maybe it was even a bit of romantic to go along with Rodriguez.
Johnny confirmed as much as Nashville just about destitute with none correct stage apparel, however the story goes that a number of performers opened their closets to Rodriguez after listening to him sing so he might get on his ft. Nevertheless it didn’t take lengthy for Rodriguez to seek out success. He scored his first Prime 10 hit together with his debut single on Mercury Information that may go on to be considered one of his signature tunes, “Go Me By (If You’re Solely Passing By).”
Rodriguez minted consecutive #1’s, together with with the songs “You All the time Come Again (To Hurting Me),” one other considered one of his signature songs referred to as “Ridin’ My Thumb to Mexico,” and the monitor “That’s the Manner Love Goes.” Johnny Rodriguez turned nation music’s first main Hispanic star, serving to to open the door for Freddy Fender and others, and typically singing songs and phrases in Spanish, making him a crossover star to Hispanic listeners, and making Hispanic listeners followers of nation music. In 1973, Johnny Rodriguez’s debut album titled Introducing additionally hit #1 on the charts, and he was nominated for the CMA’s Male Vocalist of the Yr.
Into the mid and late ’70s, Rodriguez continued to succeed, minting additional #1s with “Simply Get Up and Shut The Door” and “Love Put a Tune in My Coronary heart.” In 1977, he would have a success masking “Desperado” by The Eagles, and likewise lined “One thing” by the Beatles, increasing his fan base even additional. Johnny’s affiliation with Bobby Naked and the truth that he was from Texas had some relating to him as part of the period’s Outlaw motion too.
In 1978, Johnny Rodriguez recorded the favored Spanish language track “Cuando Caliente el Sol (Love Me with All Your Coronary heart),” and regardless of the Spanish verses, took it to the Prime 10 on the nation charts. Hispanic People turned nation followers by means of Johnny Rodriguez, and he impressed many different Hispanic singers to not resist their urges to sing nation music.
However on the finish of 1979, Rodriguez moved on from Mercury Information, and signed with Epic the place he began working with well-known producer Billy Sherrill. The hits stopped coming so simply, with a lot of Johnny’s singles stalling out of the Prime 10 because the sound of nation moved away from the Rodriguez candy spot of nation crooning. However Rodriguez would proceed to make his mark every now and then, together with nabbing two Prime 10 hits in 1983 with “Foolin’” and “How May I Love Her So A lot.”
One other essential a part of the Johnny Rodriguez musical legacy typically handed over is {that a} good case might be made for Johnny being thought of the fifth member of the legendary nation music supergroup The Highwaymen with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Money, and Kris Kristofferson. On the group’s debut self-titled album from 1985, they lined Woody Guthrie’s track “Deportee (Airplane Wreck at Los Gatos)” and requested Rodriguez to visitor with them. It’s the one such visitor look within the group’s complete catalog.
However because the ’80s continued on and the famed “Class of ’89” with superstars like Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson got here to energy, Rodriguez didn’t simply fall out of the Prime 10. He fell out of the Prime 40, and finally, out of the favor of the nation trade altogether. Rodriguez left Epic in 1987 or so, singed briefly with Capitol, however finally didn’t hold a report deal.
The autumn from the highest for Johnny Rodriguez was precipitous. Like so many ’70s nation stars within the ’90s, there was no room to even talk about their legacies, and the newer artists weren’t actually championing them like ’70s stars typically did for performers from the ’50s and ’60s.
To switch the highs Johnny Rodriguez as soon as bought from massive audiences and hit data, he turned to cocaine and alcohol, which helped gasoline his precipitous slide from stardom. All Johnny had identified for the reason that age of 19 was being the focus, and now he felt forgotten. He ended up returning to Texas the place he carried out commonly and was revered as a legend, even when the audiences had been a lot smaller than they had been in his heyday. Johnny lived in San Antonio and his hometown of Sabinal. That’s when Rodriguez discovered himself within the hassle of his life.
Johnny’s love life had been as tumultuous as his later profession. He’d been married 4 instances by the late ’90s, together with a quick marriage to Willie Nelson’s daughter Lana in 1995. When he married his fourth spouse Debbie in 1997, the hope was that Rodriguez would lastly finish his rowdy methods. However he would nonetheless journey from San Antonio to Sabinal for pickin’ events with previous family and friends that would final properly into the morning. In June of 1998, his spouse Debbie left him, regardless that she had simply given start to a daughter named Aubry.
Rodriguez was now again in his hometown, together with his life considerably in shambles. He’d as soon as been considered one of nation music’s largest stars, however the world had forgotten him, and he was resigned to enjoying golf equipment and honky tonks on the Texas circuit. However this wouldn’t be the worst of it.
Within the early morning hours of August twenty ninth, 1998, Johnny Rodriguez stumbled into his home after an extended evening of ingesting and pickin’ throughout the road with considered one of his brothers. Strolling within the door, Johnny sensed he wasn’t alone in the home. There had been points within the space with burglars, and in order Rodriguez walked by means of the entrance door, he reached for a .357 Magnum revolver on a shelf. When 26-year-old Israel “Bosco” Borrego started to lunge towards him, Rodriguez shot him within the stomach. Borrego later died within the hospital.
The following day, August thirtieth, Johnny Rodriguez was charged with homicide, and held on a $250,000 bond.
When the information hit the wires, it was a sensational story. Rapidly, everybody remembered Johnny Rodriguez, songs like “Go Me By (If You’re Solely Passing By)” and “Ridin’ My Thumb to Mexico,” and it appeared like his fall from grace had been spectacular. The best way the capturing was portrayed by each the police and the press was that Israel Borrego was Johnny Rodriguez’s good friend, and that he’d shot him by chance in a drunken stupor. The act appeared unconscionable, and any hopes of Johnny rekindling his nation music profession appeared to die with Israel Borrego.
However through the five-day homicide trial of Johnny Rodriguez in October of 1999, the reality would come out, and it might find yourself portray a way more complicated image.
Israel “Bosco” Borrego did know Johnny Rodriguez, and Rodriguez knew Borrego, however it might be a stretch to name them mates on the time of the capturing. They’d first met a couple of months earlier than, and the 2 had been ingesting buddies for a interval. However the unemployed Borrego took to bumming round Rodriguez’s home, and Johnny had advised him to not be there. On the morning of the capturing, Borrego was there uninvited.
The Johnny Rodriguez protection lawyer portrayed Israel Borrego because the city bully. He had an extended historical past of arrests for assault, housebreaking and public intoxication. On the time of the capturing, Borrego’s blood-alcohol stage was 2 1/2 instances the authorized driving restrict, in line with the post-mortem. They mentioned Rodriguez solely shot him after feeling threatened.
The District Lawyer advised a distinct story. He performed up the 2 males’s earlier friendship, and mentioned that Borrego was in the home cooking breakfast, and never there to steal something. In his closing argument, the District Lawyer mentioned, “Bosco, God relaxation his soul, was a coward. He wasn’t a combating man and he wasn’t going to struggle his good friend, Johnny. . . . [but] should you imagine Bosco Borrego deserved to die the way in which he did, then it’s worthwhile to vote not responsible and switch Johnny Rodriguez unfastened.”
Finally, that’s what the jury did, coming again with a “not responsible” verdict after two hours of deliberation on October 14th, 1999.
One other key to Johnny’s protection was making the trial about the best of People to have the ability to defend themselves in their very own houses. Johnny’s protection lawyer Alan Brown mentioned on the time, “The ideas of America are on trial to see whether or not we nonetheless have the liberty to defend ourselves and the liberty to have weapons in our home. Johnny Rodriguez has the best to not be a sufferer and so do the remainder of us.”
In fact, there was a superb probability that Israel Borrego was not in Johnny’s home to harm or rob him. However the issue was Johnny didn’t know that, and didn’t even understand it was Borrego till after the one shot was fired into his pelvic area.
Rodriguez advised reporters after the not responsible verdict, “The very first thing that I considered was that I generally is a father to my child now,” referring to Aubry Rae, who was 18 months previous on the time. Despite the fact that Rodriguez was separated from Aubry’s mom Debbie, the 2 remained on good phrases. Rodriguez continued, “I believe my thoughts will likely be a bit of extra clear now. I believe I’m going to chop again on the ingesting, too. I’ve discovered a bit of about that.”
And Rodriguez did work to enhance his life after the capturing. Nevertheless, with the way in which rumors and concrete myths had swirled across the capturing accusations, it nonetheless felt to many within the nation music neighborhood that Rodriguez was too scorching to deal with. Even when he bought away with it, Johnny had nonetheless shot what the press and prosecutors had characterised as his “good friend.”
But when the reality and a not responsible verdict didn’t totally exonerate Johnny Rodriguez, in some ways, time did. Ultimately, the homicide cost turned extra of a footnote, because the songs and albums of Johnny Rodriguez solely grew in stature and enchantment over time, like all the best nation music does. And even when the nation trade in Nashville was sluggish to recollect, the individuals down in Texas couldn’t overlook these songs, and that voice.
Johnny Rodriguez was inducted into the Texas Nation Music Corridor of Fame in 2007. In 2010, he obtained the Pioneer Award from the Institute of Hispanic Tradition in Houston. In November of 2022 he was inducted into the All Cowboy and Enviornment Champions Corridor of Fame in Kerrville, TX. And in 2023, he obtained the Ameripolitan Grasp Award. There was additionally a marketing campaign began to try to get Johnny Rodriguez inducted into the Nation Music Corridor of Fame.
In any case, Johnny Rodriguez was a pioneer relating to Hispanic performers in nation music, inspiring a brand new era of artists to sing and play nation. This consists of Johnny’s daughter Aubry Rodriguez—the identical daughter who was 18 months previous when Johnny was acquitted for homicide. Aubry launched her debut single “Go Me By” with Vinny Tovar as a tribute to her father on January thirty first, 2025.
Johnny not solely bought to see his daughter develop, he bought to see her stroll in his footsteps. However sadly, Johnny Rodriguez by no means bought to see his induction to the Nation Music Corridor of Fame. Johnny Rodriguez died on Could ninth, 2025. He was 73 years previous.
For some, they may keep in mind the controversies, from the alleged goat theft, to the drug use and decline, or the homicide cost. However when Johnny Rodriguez handed, it was the songs most individuals remembered, the recollections the music of Johnny Rodriguez helped them make, the unbelievable voice that would stir hearts in two separate languages, and the redemption story of overcoming adversity and private setbacks.
No one else was like Johnny Rodriguez, in nation music, or on the earth. However he impressed many who regarded like him to wish to be similar to him. And nation music is best off for it.
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Sources:
Johnny Rodriguez Desperado: A Piece of My Soul (Johnny Rodriguez, Austin Teutsch)
L.A. Occasions (August thirtieth, 1998) “Nation Singer Charged With Homicide in Taking pictures at Residence“
Austin American-Statesman (October 14th, 1999) “Singer acquitted of homicide cost; Jury finds Rodriguez was justified“
Saving Nation Music (Could ninth, 2025) “Pioneering Hispanic Nation Music Star Johnny Rodriguez Has Died“
The Storytellers Nashville (Tom T. Corridor, Peter Cooper)
