Johnny Rodriguez, the first star of the American Mexican origin known for recordings such as “You thanked (to injure me)” and “Ridin ‘My Thumb to Mexico”, died Friday after having entered palliative care. He was 73 years old. His daughter confirmed Rodriguez’s death in an article on social networks.
“It is with deep sadness and a heavy heart that we announce the death of our beloved Johnny Rodriguez, who left us peacefully on May 9, surrounded by family,” she wrote. “Papa was not only a legendary musician whose artistic talent affected millions of people in the world, but also a husband, a father, a uncle and a deeply loved brother whose warmth, humor and compassion shaped the lives of all those who knew him.”
Born in Sabinal, Texas – just 90 miles from the Mexico border – Juan Raul Davis Rodriguez became “Johnny Rodriguez” after drawing the attention of the businessman Happy Shahan, who hired him to sing in his village in Alamo, a shoot of John Wayne transformed the tourist attraction of Texas. During his stay there, Rodriguez was noticed by singer and composer Country Tom T. Hall, who encouraged him to get started for a country career in Nashville and then hired a 20-year-old Rodriguez to play the main guitar in his group, paving the way to an agreement with Mercury Records.
Rodriguez released her first album, Presentation of Johnny RodriguezIn 1973. The record gave him his first blow, the top 10 “Pass Me by (if you only pass)”, followed by the graph “You always review (to injure me).” BARROOM Wepeper written by Rodriguez and Hall, it was the perfect vehicle for the rich but accessible voice of Rodriguez.
That same year, Rodriguez released her second album, Everything I wanted to do was singWho added two strokes to his CV. The hard anthem “Ridin ‘My Thumb to Mexico” mixed the promenade with a broken heart, while “This is how Love Goes” found it interpreting the sublime ballad of Lefty Frizzell a decade before the version of Merle Haggard.
“Rodriguez is already a superb C&W stylist and one of the most promising writers in the country”, ” Rolling Stone ‘S Chet Flippo wrote about Rodriguez in 1974. “His first two albums demonstrate that he certainly studied his George Jones, Merle Haggard and Charley Pride, but he also exceeded these influences to establish his own enclave of C&W.”
Indeed, Rodriguez underlined the “western” in C&W at the time, weaving Mariachis elements and Tex-Mex styles in his songs, and often sang in Spanish. “You have stories in Mexican music, and country music said almost the same thing, just in different languages,” said Rodriguez in Ken Burns 2019 Country music series. In a separate interview, he said: “I believe there is a marriage between Mexican Mariachy music and country music.”
Rodriguez was a coherent hitmaker throughout the 1970s and well in the 80s. He scored with “Dance With Me (just once again)”, “I can’t get her out of my mind”, “I wonder if I have already said goodbye”, “north of the border” and “Fool ‘”, and I put his own turn on a pair of rock staples, covering the “something” The Eagles “Desperro”. He also recorded a catchy version of Robert Earl Keen’s “Corpus Christi Bay”.
Even the highways recognized the immense talent of Rodriguez. When Johnny Cash supergroup, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings recorded their first album Highwayman With producer Chips Moman in 1984, they recruited him to sing on their version of “Deportee de Woody Guthrie (plane wreck in Los Gatos)”. “This is one of these old stories about the mistreatment of extraterrestrials,” said Cash to present the song when he and Rodriguez delivered a duet version in the television series Nashville now in 1987.
Although it is not a singer of “Country Outlaw”, Rodriguez had his share of problems. In 1998, he was arrested and accused of murder after making an acquaintance he confused with a burglar at his Sabinal House in Texas. Rodriguez was acquitted the following year. He also fought, then overcome cocaine dependence and problems with alcohol.
Rodriguez continued to tour and perform live throughout his life. In 2007, he was inducted into Texas Country Music Hall of Fame, and in 2017, he made a triumphant appearance at CMA Fest in Nashville, anchoring a range of legends which included Jeannie Selyry, TG Sheppard and his old friend Bobby Bare. Despite a casting on his right hand which forbade him to play the guitar, Rodriguez, then 65, was in a superb voice and a gregarious spirit, displaying his smile of 1000 watts between the verses. He sang all the tubes, from “You Reven Back (To Hurtin ‘Me)” and a magnificent “That’s the Way Way Love Goes”, with his disjointed song, “Ridin’ My Thumb to Mexico”, which he wrote solo.
“I asked Willie (Nelson) … how you can say a lot in so few words,” Rodriguez said during an interview in Australia. “He said,” Be honest and rhyme him. “Finally, it started to flow a little and I try to use most of the time in my writing.”
