Johnny Rodriguez, Mexican American country star, dead at 73

Johnny Rodriguez, the pioneering singer-songwriter wide regarded arsenic the archetypal Mexican American state star, has died. He was 73.

His decease connected May 9 was confirmed successful a societal media station from his girl Aubry Rodriguez. It did not database a origin of death.

“Dad was not lone a legendary instrumentalist whose artistry touched millions astir the world, but besides a profoundly loved husband, father, uncle and member whose warmth, wit and compassion shaped the lives of each who knew him,” Aubry Rodriguez wrote.

Born successful Sabinal, Texas, Juan Raul Davis Rodriguez roseate to fame successful the ’70s, with a dependable rooted successful occidental plaything and honky-tonk traditions. He had six singles apical Billboard’s blistery state songs chart, with 9 others successful the Top 10, including beloved hits similar “Ridin’ My Thumb to Mexico.”

Rodriguez began his vocation singing astatine Alamo Village, a erstwhile acceptable for a John Wayne movie revamped into a Texas tourer destination. He’d gotten the occupation aft famed Texas Ranger, Joaquin Jackson, heard him singing successful jailhouse and connected him to section euphony promoter James “Happy” Shahan.

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

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

Describing his taste narration to state music, Rodriguez told Ken Burns successful a PBS documentary that “It was conscionable similar the euphony of our people. In Mexican music, you person stories. Mexican euphony and state euphony said astir the aforesaid thing, conscionable successful antithetic languages.”

His hitmaking streak continued good into the ’70s and ’80s, with singles similar “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 connected the Beatles’ “Something” arsenic good arsenic the Eagles’ staple “Desperado.” The supergroup the Highwaymen brought him successful to sing connected their mentation of Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee (Plane Wreck astatine Los Gatos),” which addressed a real-life incidental illustrating the mistreatment Mexican farmworkers faced successful the U.S.

Rodriguez had idiosyncratic struggles communal to his country-star era, including substance maltreatment issues and a 1998 apprehension aft shooting a an acquaintance helium mistook for a location invader. Rodriguez was acquitted. He had 3 little marriages, including 1 to Willie Nelson’s girl Lana successful 1995.

Still, Rodriguez’s landmark vocation was lauded astatine the heights of powerfulness — helium performed astatine the inaugural shot for George H. W. Bush successful 1989. In 2007, helium was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame and received the Institute of Hispanic Culture’s Pioneer Award successful 2010. He continued performing good into his 60s.