Johnny Rodriguez, Mexican American country star, dead at 73

Johnny Rodriguez, the pioneering singer-songwriter widely regarded as the first Mexican American country star, has died. He was 73.

His death on May 9 was confirmed in a social media post from his daughter Aubry Rodriguez. It did not list a cause of death.

“Dad was not only a legendary musician whose artistry touched millions around the world, but also a deeply loved husband, father, uncle and brother whose warmth, humor and compassion shaped the lives of all who knew him,” Aubry Rodriguez wrote.

Born in Sabinal, Texas, Juan Raul Davis Rodriguez rose to fame in the ’70s, with a sound rooted in western swing and honky-tonk traditions. He had six singles top Billboard’s hot country songs chart, with nine others in the Top 10, including beloved hits like “Ridin’ My Thumb to Mexico.”

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Rodriguez began his career singing at Alamo Village, a former set for a John Wayne film revamped into a Texas tourist destination. He’d gotten the job after famed Texas Ranger, Joaquin Jackson, heard him singing in jail and connected him to local music promoter James “Happy” Shahan.

At the Alamo Village, he was discovered by country singer Tom T. Hall, who hired the 20-year-old to play guitar in his band. Rodriguez soon signed to Mercury and released his debut, “Introducing Johnny Rodriguez,” in 1973. That album featured his first hit, “Pass Me By (If You’re Only passing Through),” and the country chart-topper “You Always Come Back (to Hurting Me),” a plaintive barroom heartbreak ballad in the tradition of George Jones.

Rodriguez’s honky-tonk instincts owed to Merle Haggard and Lefty Frizzell (Rodriguez sent a cover of Frizzell’s “That’s The Way Love Goes” up the charts in 1973). But like his ’70s-era peer Freddy Fender, who incorporated Tejano sounds into his music, Rodriguez deftly wove mariachi and Tex-Mex elements into his arrangements and would sometimes sing in Spanish, including a famous audition for Mercury, where he sang a verse of Don Gibson’s “I Can’t Stop Loving You” in Spanish.

Describing his cultural relationship to country music, Rodriguez told Ken Burns in a PBS documentary that “It was just like the music of our people. In Mexican music, you have stories. Mexican music and country music said almost the same thing, just in different languages.”

His hitmaking streak continued well into the ’70s and ’80s, with singles like “Dance With Me (Just One More Time)” and “I Just Can’t Get Her Out of My Mind.” He had a knack for adventurous covers, taking on the Beatles’ “Something” as well as the Eagles’ staple “Desperado.” The supergroup the Highwaymen brought him in to sing on their version of Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos),” which addressed a real-life incident illustrating the mistreatment Mexican farmworkers faced in the U.S.

Rodriguez had personal struggles common to his country-star era, including substance abuse issues and a 1998 arrest after shooting a an acquaintance he mistook for a home invader. Rodriguez was acquitted. He had three brief marriages, including one to Willie Nelson’s daughter Lana in 1995.

Still, Rodriguez’s landmark career was lauded at the heights of power — he performed at the inaugural ball for George H. W. Bush in 1989. In 2007, he was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame and received the Institute of Hispanic Culture’s Pioneer Award in 2010. He continued performing well into his 60s.