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Music|Johnny Rodriguez, Country Music Star, Dies at 73
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/11/arts/music/johnny-rodriguez-dead.html
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He was best known for the 1970s hits “I Just Can’t Get Her Out of My Mind” and “Ridin’ My Thumb to Mexico,” and as the first popular Mexican American country artist.
May 11, 2025Updated 7:46 p.m. ET
Johnny Rodriguez, who became the first Mexican American country music star with a string of hits, died on Friday. He was 73.
His daughter, Aubry Rodriguez, announced his death on social media on Saturday. The post did not cite a cause of death.
Mr. Rodriguez rose to fame in the 1970s and was best known for the hits “Ridin’ My Thumb to Mexico” and “You Always Come Back (to Hurting Me).” He released six singles that reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, and nine others reached the Top 10.
In 2007, Mr. Rodriguez was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame, which described him as the “greatest and most memorable Chicano Country singer of all time.”
Juan Raoul Davis Rodriguez was born on Dec. 10, 1951, in Sabinal, Texas, around 65 miles west of San Antonio. A list of survivors was not immediately available.
Mr. Rodriguez, the second youngest of 10 children, started playing guitar at the age of 7 when his older brother, Andres, bought him one. Their father died of cancer when Mr. Rodriguez was 16, around the same time Mr. Rodriguez formed a band, and Andres died the next year.
