ROOTS of Country Music

The Professional Work of Johnny Rodriguez

(born Dec. 10, 1951)

Career Highlights

Barn Dance Affiliate: Louisiana Hayride

Grand Ole Opry Member

Film, Night Club, Radio & TV

• Austin City Limits, 4
• Ernest Tubb’s  Midnight Jamboree, 3
• Gilley’s Club, 2
• Hee Haw, 4
• Nashville Now, 4
• Pop Goes the Country, 4 

1-Film, 2-Night Club, 3-Radio, 4-TV 

Billboard Chart Data 

• No. 1 Singles: 6
• Top-10 Singles: 20
• Crossover Singles: 0
• Charted Singles: 45
• Years Active: (1972-1989)

Awards

On August 18, 2007, Rodriguez was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame.

Career Labels:

• Mercury Records (1972-1978)
• Epic Records (1979-1985)
• Capitol Records (1987-1989)

Billboard Top-10 Singles 

1. Pass Me By, 1 -1972
2. You Always Come Back to Hurting..*1 -1973
3. "Ridin' My Thumb to Mexico*#1
4. That's the Way Love Goes*1
5. Something,1 -1974
6. Dance with Me (Just One More Time)1
7. We're Over, 1
8. I Just Can't Get Her Out of My Mind*1 -1975
9. Just Get Up and Close the Door*1
10. Love Put a Song in My Heart, 1
11. I Couldn't Be Me Without You, 1 -1976
12. I Wonder If I Ever Said Goodbye, 1
13. Hillbilly Heart, 1
14. Desperado, 1 -1977
15. If Practice Makes Perfect, 1
16. We Believe in Happy Endings, 1 -1978
17. (Love Me with All Your Heart), 1
18. Down on the Rio Grande, 2 -1979
19. Foolin', 2 -1983
20. How Could I Love Her So Much, 2

#-Biggest Chart Single

*-No. 1 Chart Single

1-Mercury Records

2-Epic Records

Ridin' My Thumb to Mexico: The Johnny Rodriguez Story

A steady country hit maker for much of the '70s, Johnny Rodriguez was born in Sabinal, Texas, growing up ninety miles from the Mexican border. Born Dec. 10, 1951, Johnny was the second youngest of ten children living in a four room house in Sabinal. He was an A/B student, captain of his junior high school football team, a high school letterman and an altar boy at church. But it wasn't all innocent. In 1969, caught with friends stealing a goat, Rodriguez took the rap. It was this jail visit that sparked Johnny his first music break.

His jailhouse singing enthralled Texas Ranger, Joaquin Jackson, who told a promoter about Rodriguez. The promoter, Happy Shahan hired Johnny to perform at the Alamo Village, a popular south Texas tourist attraction. It was there that Johnny was heard by recording artists Tom T. Hall and Bobby Bare who both encouraged Johnny to go to Nashville in 1971. Rodriguez found himself stepping off the plane with nothing more than his guitar in hand and a few dollars in his pocket. Soon he was fronting Tom T. Hall's Band and writing songs.

Less than year later, Hall took Johnny over to the office of Roy Dea and Jerry Kennedy, both record producers at Mercury's Nashville operation, where he was granted an audition. Not long after, Rodriguez signed with Mercury, releasing his debut single, Pass Me By in early 1973. It climbed into the top-10 and turned out to be the first of fourteen consecutive Rodriguez singles to do so. His next two songs, Ridin' My Thumb to Mexico and You Always Come Back (To Hurting Me), both hit No. 1 in 1973.

1974 brought the top-5 hits Dance With Me and We're Over, plus the No.. 1 song, That's the Way Love Goes. The year 1975 was probably his biggest year, in terms of chart success. That year all the singles he released soared to No. 1 on the country charts. These songs were, I Just Can't Get Her out of My Mind, Just Get Up and Close the Door and Love Put a Song in My Heart. More top-5 hits followed through 1976-1977, including I Couldn't Be Me Without You, I Wonder If I Ever Said Goodbye and Desperado. Despite the outlaw movement fading from view in the late 1970s, Rodriguez was determined to stay on top of his game. In 1979, he switched to Epic Records. Under Epic, he worked with producer Billy Sherrill, who produced some of the biggest names in the business at the time. His first hit from Epic came that year with the No. 6 hit, Down on the Rio Grande. His debut album from Epic was entitled, Rodriguez.

Although Johnny did not make the top-10 continuously as in the past, he managed to stay in the top-20, with hits like Fools For Each Other and What'll I Tell Virginia. At the same time, Rodriguez continued to be a popular concert attraction wherever he went. However, Johnny was also having personal problems. In 1983, he went into the top-5 with the hit song "Foolin' followed by the top-10 hit, How Could I Love Her So Much. However, by the mid-80s, he was becoming less successful and Rodriguez subsequently endured a serious commercial slump. In 1987, he signed with Capitol Records for a brief period of time. He had his last major hit in 1988 with I Didn't (Every Chance I Had), which reached No.12 on the chart. By 1989, he left Capitol Records.

Overall in the course of his career, Rodriguez released 26 albums and 45 charted singles. Since 1998, Rodriguez has toured the United States and world, performing in countries including Switzerland, Poland, England, South Korea, Canada and Mexico. Johnny has performed concerts at the famed Ryman Auditorium and Carnegie Hall.

On August 18, 2007, Rodriguez was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame. Through the years, Johnny has risen from the poverty of Sabinal to the top of the country music world. Johnny was a solid and successful competitor in a crowded field of country music luminaries, who included Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn and George Jones.

A steady country hit maker for much of the '70s, Johnny Rodriguez was born in Sabinal, Texas, growing up ninety miles from the Mexican border. Born Dec. 10, 1951, Johnny was the second youngest of ten children living in a four room house in Sabinal. He was an A/B student, captain of his junior high school football team, a high school letterman and an altar boy at church. But it wasn't all innocent. In 1969, caught with friends stealing a goat, Rodriguez took the rap. It was this jail visit that sparked Johnny his first music break.

His jailhouse singing enthralled Texas Ranger, Joaquin Jackson, who told a promoter about Rodriguez. The promoter, Happy Shahan hired Johnny to perform at the Alamo Village, a popular south Texas tourist attraction. It was there that Johnny was heard by recording artists Tom T. Hall and Bobby Bare who both encouraged Johnny to go to Nashville in 1971. Rodriguez found himself stepping off the plane with nothing more than his guitar in hand and a few dollars in his pocket. Soon he was fronting Tom T. Hall's Band and writing songs.

Less than year later, Hall took Johnny over to the office of Roy Dea and Jerry Kennedy, both record producers at Mercury's Nashville operation, where he was granted an audition. Not long after, Rodriguez signed with Mercury, releasing his debut single, Pass Me By in early 1973. It climbed into the top-10 and turned out to be the first of fourteen consecutive Rodriguez singles to do so. His next two songs, Ridin' My Thumb to Mexico and You Always Come Back (To Hurting Me), both hit No. 1 in 1973.

1974 brought the top-5 hits Dance With Me and We're Over, plus the No.. 1 song, That's the Way Love Goes. The year 1975 was probably his biggest year, in terms of chart success. That year all the singles he released soared to No. 1 on the country charts. These songs were, I Just Can't Get Her out of My Mind, Just Get Up and Close the Door and Love Put a Song in My Heart.

More top-5 hits followed through 1976-1977, including I Couldn't Be Me Without You, I Wonder If I Ever Said Goodbye and Desperado. Despite the outlaw movement fading from view in the late 1970s, Rodriguez was determined to stay on top of his game.

In 1979, he switched to Epic Records. Under Epic, he worked with producer Billy Sherrill, who produced some of the biggest names in the business at the time. His first hit from Epic came that year with the No. 6 hit, Down on the Rio Grande. His debut album from Epic was entitled, Rodriguez.

Although Johnny did not make the top-10 continuously as in the past, he managed to stay in the top-20, with hits like Fools For Each Other and What'll I Tell Virginia. At the same time, Rodriguez continued to be a popular concert attraction wherever he went. However, Johnny was also having personal problems.

n 1983, he went into the top-5 with the hit song "Foolin' followed by the top-10 hit, How Could I Love Her So Much. However, by the mid-80s, he was becoming less successful and Rodriguez subsequently endured a serious commercial slump. In 1987, he signed with Capitol Records for a brief period of time. He had his last major hit in 1988 with I Didn't (Every Chance I Had), which reached No.12 on the chart. By 1989, he left Capitol Records.

Overall in the course of his career, Rodriguez released 26 albums and 45 charted singles. Since 1998, Rodriguez has toured the United States and world, performing in countries including Switzerland, Poland, England, South Korea, Canada and Mexico. Johnny has performed concerts at the famed Ryman Auditorium and Carnegie Hall.

On August 18, 2007, Rodriguez was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame. Through the years, Johnny has risen from the poverty of Sabinal to the top of the country music world. Johnny was a solid and successful competitor in a crowded field of country music luminaries, who included Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn and George Jones.

Johnny Rodriguez Dodgged a Bullet in a Case of Self Defense

 On August 30, 1998, Johnny Rodriguez was charged with murder in the shooting death of an acquaintance he mistook for a burglar. Rodriguez was charged in the shooting death of Israel Borrego, an unemployed laborer he met a few months previous. Borrego died at a hospital after being shot once in the abdomen. Allen Brown, Rodriguez's attorney said the singer thought Borrego was a burglar and acted in self-defense.

Rodriguez had 20 top-10 hits before derailing his career in a haze of drugs, alcohol and divorce. He shot and killed Israel Borrego, claiming afterward that Borrego had entered Rodriguez's mother's house uninvited. If convicted he faced 99 years behind bars. Certainly the ballad of Rodriguez seemed over the top at times. The eighth of nine children born to a Hispanic welder and an Irish mother, Rodriguez was an athletic kid who never had much interest in books. At 12, he turned to music, learning chords from his father, Andres, and his older brother Andres Jr.

Johnny appeared in his first talent contest at fourteen and formed his first band at sixteen. In 1969, he was locked up for alcohol possession and everything changed. Famed Texas Ranger Joaquin Jackson, who had heard Rodriguez sing at picnics, persuaded the local sheriff to put Rodriguez on probation. Then he helped the young man land a job singing at the AlamoVillage, a tourist attraction inBrackettville,Texas (TX) where Rodriguez met well-known country singer Tom T. Hall. When Hall invited him to join his band, the teenager said no.

In 1972, Rodriguez's father died of cancer; three months later, his brother Andres was killed in a car crash. Feeling the weight of family responsibility, Johnny took some construction jobs. After several months, he took his last construction paycheck and headed to Nashville with three $14. The first night, he spent $12 on a motel room, then, destitute, contacted Hall, who surprised him with an offer to play lead guitar in his band. This time, Rodriguez accepted.

That year, with the release of his first single, Pass Me By, Rodriguez soared into the top-10 and then he claimed the No. 1 spot six times over the next three years. Rodriguez toured with Waylon Jennings and Tanya Tucker. Fame came too fast and with it came temptations. Rodriguez was a ready target for drugs. Though he estimates he spent large sums of money on cocaine, most of what he got was free. People give it to him because they wanted to hang out. He felt the drug, which he began snorting in the mid-'70s, helped him overcome fatigue and stage fright. In 1979, he checked into a rehab center, but it would take five more visits before he allegedly kicked his coke habit.

 Still, the years of fast and hard living exacted a toll. His first marriage, in 1976 to flight attendant Linda Patterson, lasted less than three years. Most of that time, Rodriguez was on the road and continual temptation lead to infidelity.  By the time he was invited to perform at President Bush's Inaugural in 1989, drugs and unreliability had put his career in eclipse. Concert dates were drying up and his voice was shot.

In 1992, Rodriguez returned to Central Texas, hoping to clean up his life. Instead, he got arrested for public intoxication in 1994. A year later, he married longtime pal Lana Nelson, daughter of Willie Nelson, but the union lasted only seven months. With his third marriage, in 1998 to Debbie McNeely, a hair-salon owner, Rodriguez seemed to be getting his life in order.

Three months later, however, following a marital spat, Rodriguez traveled alone to Sabinal to spend a few weeks writing new songs. On the night of August 28, he and Carlos Torres Tova, an old school pal, got together to drink and play some music. According to court testimony, when Rodriguez returned to his mother's house before dawn, he saw a figure in the kitchen doorway. Grabbing a 357-caliber magnum revolver, he shot and killed the alleged intruder, Borrego, a local carpenter on probation for four burglaries. In recent months, Borrego had been unwelcome in the Rodriguez home because of his reputation for stealing.

From the moment of his arrest, Rodriguez, who called 911 immediately after the shooting, insisted he had been stopping a burglary. The trial, which began on October 6, 1999, lasted six days. The state argued that Rodriguez had shot Borrego after he'd ignored the warning to stay away. Rodriguez's attorney Alan Brown countered, "The law says you can stop a burglary with deadly force." On October 13, after deliberating just two hours, a jury of six men and six women agreed and found Rodriguez not guilty.

Note: In June, 2007 Johnny was back in the headlines, this time he was stopped after speeding complaints and arrested for possession of marijuana, methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia and an open container of beer.

Researched, written and compiled by Richard Bell. Roots of Country Music. Jan., 15, 2011.