Life, Death, Love, and Murder: The Ballad of Johnny Rodriguez

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Whenever you delve into the personal history of many of the greats in country music, you often find out that their own stories unfolded like a country song. It’s rarely if ever a rosy picture these personal biographies paint. They’re full of ups and downs, big achievements and utter heartbreaks, tragic low points and moments of redemption. Perhaps that’s the reason they can sing country songs with such heart and conviction behind them, drawing the emotion from written words to where their songs feel real in the hearts of an audience.

Of all the harrowing, tragic, and redemptive stories in the history of country music, pioneering Hispanic country star Johnny Rodriguez might have the rest of the field beat. From overcoming insurmountable odds as a complete outsider from Texas of Hispanic origin, to reaching the pinnacle of success in country music at the top of the charts, to only then end up back in relative obscurity, and facing potential imprisonment for life after being charged with murder, Johnny Rodriguez experienced it all.

Any serious fan of 1970’s country music will know the name, the hits, and doesn’t need to be sold on the importance of the Johnny Rodriguez career and legacy. Six #1 songs, fourteen Top 5’s, twenty Top 10’s, including a run of fifteen consecutive Top 10 songs to start his career between 1973 and 1978, Johnny Rodriguez helped define country music as much as anyone in the ’70s decade, and continued to mint hit songs well into the ’80s.

Born in the small town of Sabinal, Texas about an hour outside of San Antonio on December 10th, 1951, Johnny Rodriguez was a good kid growing up with his eight brothers and sisters, including being an altar boy at the local church, and the captain of his junior high football team. But when his dad passed of Cancer when he was 16 years old, and then one of his brothers died the following year in an automobile accident, a broken heart began to lead Johnny Rodriguez astray, resulting in some trouble with the law, and a taste for country music to nurse his pain.

Johnny Rodriguez never did anything too scandalous early on in his life, but his early run-ins with the law still made it into country music lore. Legend has it that in early 1969 at the age of 18, Rodriguez was thrown in jail after he and his friends stole a goat and barbecued it. Others say he landed in the pokey simply for an unpaid fine. David Allan Coe believed the former story, and wrote it into a verse of the song “Longhaired Redneck” that became a Top 20 hit in 1976, and one of Coe’s signature songs.

The reason the rather petty incident became infamous over time is because while singing in his cell to pass the time away, famous Texas Ranger Joaquin Jackson heard the 18-year-old Johnny Rodriguez and told Texas music promoter James T. “Happy” Shahan about Rodriguez, and that he could be a big country star. Always opportunistic and excited to make a buck, Happy Shahan pounced, and the entertainment career of Johnny Rodriguez began.

“Happy” Shahan hired Rodriguez to sing at the Alamo Village tourist attraction in Bracketville, TX, located on the road to Del Rio where the 1960 John Wayne-directed movie The Alamo had originally been filmed. Then in 1971, Tom T. Hall and Bobby Bare were passing through the area, and just like everyone else who heard Rodriguez sing, were floored at Johnny’s voice and told him he should move to Nashville. Johnny did eventually, showing up in Music City when he was 21 with just a guitar and $14.

The story goes from Tom T. Hall that unannounced, he took Rodriguez to Mercury Records in Nashville, marched up to the office of producer Roy Dea, and then Tom T. Hall told Rodriguez to sing Don Gibson’s song “I Can’t Stop Loving You” half in English, and half in Spanish. By the time Rodriguez finished, Roy Day was convinced. “I’ll sign him,” he said.

Roy Dea asked Tom T. Hall what he wanted for finding Rodriguez. Hall responded, “I don’t want anything out of it I just think Johnny can sell records. He’s all yours.”

Some were worried that Johnny Rodriguez might face racism in Nashville, but that wasn’t the case. Promoter “Happy” Shahan back in South Texas where the population was mostly Hispanic insisted that Rodriguez perform under the name “Johnny Rogers.” But Tom T. Hall and others insisted Johnny stick with Rodriguez. They believed it kept him more authentic, made him unique in the country realm, and perhaps it was even a little romantic to go with Rodriguez.

Johnny showed up to Nashville virtually destitute without any proper stage attire, but the story goes that multiple performers opened their closets to Rodriguez after hearing him sing so he could get on his feet. But it didn’t take long for Rodriguez to find success. He scored his first Top 10 hit with his debut single on Mercury Records that would go on to be one of his signature tunes, “Pass Me By (If You’re Only Passing Through).”

Rodriguez minted consecutive #1’s, including with the songs “You Always Come Back (To Hurting Me),” another one of his signature songs called “Ridin’ My Thumb to Mexico,” and the track “That’s the Way Love Goes.” Johnny Rodriguez became country music’s first major Hispanic star, helping to open the door for Freddy Fender and others, and sometimes singing songs and phrases in Spanish, making him a crossover star to Hispanic listeners, and making Hispanic listeners fans of country music. In 1973, Johnny Rodriguez’s debut album titled Introducing also hit #1 on the charts, and he was nominated for the CMA’s Male Vocalist of the Year.

Into the mid and late ’70s, Rodriguez continued to succeed, minting further #1s with “Just Get Up and Close The Door” and “Love Put a Song in My Heart.” In 1977, he would have a hit covering “Desperado” by The Eagles, and also covered “Something” by the Beatles, expanding his fan base even further. Johnny’s affiliation with Bobby Bare and the fact that he was from Texas had some regarding him as a part of the era’s Outlaw movement too.

In 1978, Johnny Rodriguez recorded the popular Spanish language song “Cuando Caliente el Sol (Love Me with All Your Heart),” and despite the Spanish verses, took it to the Top 10 on the country charts. Hispanic Americans became country fans through Johnny Rodriguez, and he inspired many other Hispanic singers to not resist their urges to sing country music.

But at the end of 1979, Rodriguez moved on from Mercury Records, and signed with Epic where he started working with famous producer Billy Sherrill. The hits stopped coming so easily, with many of Johnny’s singles stalling out of the Top 10 as the sound of country moved away from the Rodriguez sweet spot of country crooning. But Rodriguez would continue to make his mark now and again, including nabbing two Top 10 hits in 1983 with “Foolin’” and “How Could I Love Her So Much.”

Another important part of the Johnny Rodriguez musical legacy often passed over is that a good case can be made for Johnny being considered the fifth member of the legendary country music supergroup The Highwaymen with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson. On the group’s debut self-titled album from 1985, they covered Woody Guthrie’s song “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)” and asked Rodriguez to guest with them. It’s the only such guest appearance in the group’s entire catalog.

But as the ’80s continued on and the famed “Class of ’89” with superstars like Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson came to power, Rodriguez didn’t just fall out of the Top 10. He fell out of the Top 40, and eventually, out of the favor of the country industry altogether. Rodriguez left Epic in 1987 or so, singed briefly with Capitol, but eventually failed to keep a record deal.

The fall from the top for Johnny Rodriguez was precipitous. Like so many ’70s country stars in the ’90s, there was no room to even discuss their legacies, and the newer artists weren’t really championing them like ’70s stars often did for performers from the ’50s and ’60s.

To replace the highs Johnny Rodriguez once got from big audiences and hit records, he turned to cocaine and alcohol, which helped fuel his precipitous slide from stardom. All Johnny had known since the age of 19 was being the center of attention, and now he felt forgotten. He ended up returning to Texas where he performed regularly and was respected as a legend, even if the audiences were much smaller than they were in his heyday. Johnny lived in San Antonio and his hometown of Sabinal. That’s when Rodriguez found himself in the trouble of his life.

Johnny’s love life had been as tumultuous as his later career. He’d been married four times by the late ’90s, including a brief marriage to Willie Nelson’s daughter Lana in 1995. When he married his fourth wife Debbie in 1997, the hope was that Rodriguez would finally end his rowdy ways. But he would still travel from San Antonio to Sabinal for pickin’ parties with old friends and family that could last well into the morning. In June of 1998, his wife Debbie left him, even though she had just given birth to a daughter named Aubry.

Rodriguez was now back in his hometown, with his life somewhat in shambles. He’d once been one of country music’s biggest stars, but the world had forgotten him, and he was resigned to playing clubs and honky tonks on the Texas circuit. But this wouldn’t be the worst of it.

In the early morning hours of August 29th, 1998, Johnny Rodriguez stumbled into his house after a long night of drinking and pickin’ across the street with one of his brothers. Walking in the door, Johnny sensed he wasn’t alone in the house. There had been issues in the area with burglars, and so as Rodriguez walked through the front door, he reached for a .357 Magnum revolver on a shelf. When 26-year-old Israel “Bosco” Borrego began to lunge toward him, Rodriguez shot him in the abdomen. Borrego later died in the hospital.

The next day, August 30th, Johnny Rodriguez was charged with murder, and held on a $250,000 bond.

When the news hit the wires, it was a sensational story. All of a sudden, everyone remembered Johnny Rodriguez, songs like “Pass Me By (If You’re Only Passing Through)” and “Ridin’ My Thumb to Mexico,” and it seemed like his fall from grace had been spectacular. The way the shooting was portrayed by both the police and the press was that Israel Borrego was Johnny Rodriguez’s friend, and that he’d shot him accidentally in a drunken stupor. The act seemed unconscionable, and any hopes of Johnny rekindling his country music career seemed to die with Israel Borrego.

But during the five-day murder trial of Johnny Rodriguez in October of 1999, the truth would come out, and it would end up painting a much more complex picture.

Israel “Bosco” Borrego did know Johnny Rodriguez, and Rodriguez knew Borrego, but it would be a stretch to call them friends at the time of the shooting. They had first met a few months before, and the two had been drinking buddies for a period. But the unemployed Borrego took to bumming around Rodriguez’s house, and Johnny had told him not to be there. On the morning of the shooting, Borrego was there uninvited.

The Johnny Rodriguez defense attorney portrayed Israel Borrego as the town bully. He had a long history of arrests for assault, burglary and public intoxication. At the time of the shooting, Borrego’s blood-alcohol level was 2 1/2 times the legal driving limit, according to the autopsy. They said Rodriguez only shot him after feeling threatened.

The District Attorney told a different story. He played up the two men’s previous friendship, and said that Borrego was in the house cooking breakfast, and not there to steal anything. In his closing argument, the District Attorney said, “Bosco, God rest his soul, was a coward. He wasn’t a fighting man and he wasn’t going to fight his friend, Johnny. . . . [but] if you believe Bosco Borrego deserved to die the way he did, then you need to vote not guilty and turn Johnny Rodriguez loose.”

Ultimately, that’s what the jury did, coming back with a “not guilty” verdict after two hours of deliberation on October 14th, 1999.

Another key to Johnny’s defense was making the trial about the right of Americans to be able to defend themselves in their own homes. Johnny’s defense attorney Alan Brown said at the time, “The concepts of America are on trial to see whether we still have the freedom to defend ourselves and the freedom to have guns in our house. Johnny Rodriguez has the right not to be a victim and so do the rest of us.”

In truth, there was a good chance that Israel Borrego was not in Johnny’s house to hurt or rob him. But the problem was Johnny did not know that, and didn’t even know it was Borrego until after the single shot was fired into his pelvic region.

Rodriguez told reporters after the not guilty verdict, “The first thing that I thought of was that I can be a father to my baby now,” referring to Aubry Rae, who was 18 months old at the time. Even though Rodriguez was separated from Aubry’s mother Debbie, the two remained on good terms. Rodriguez continued, “I think my mind will be a little more clear now. I think I’m going to cut back on the drinking, too. I’ve learned a little about that.”

And Rodriguez did work to improve his life after the shooting. However, with the way rumors and urban myths had swirled around the shooting accusations, it still felt to many in the country music community that Rodriguez was too hot to handle. Even if he got away with it, Johnny had still shot what the press and prosecutors had characterized as his “friend.”

But if the truth and a not guilty verdict didn’t entirely exonerate Johnny Rodriguez, in many ways, time did. Eventually, the murder charge became more of a footnote, as the songs and albums of Johnny Rodriguez only grew in stature and appeal over time, like all of the greatest country music does. And even if the country industry in Nashville was slow to remember, the people down in Texas couldn’t forget those songs, and that voice.

Johnny Rodriguez was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in 2007. In 2010, he received the Pioneer Award from the Institute of Hispanic Culture in Houston. In November of 2022 he was inducted into the All Cowboy and Arena Champions Hall of Fame in Kerrville, TX. And in 2023, he received the Ameripolitan Master Award. There was also a campaign started to try and get Johnny Rodriguez inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

After all, Johnny Rodriguez was a pioneer when it comes to Hispanic performers in country music, inspiring a new generation of artists to sing and play country. This includes Johnny’s daughter Aubry Rodriguez—the same daughter who was 18 months old when Johnny was acquitted for murder. Aubry released her debut single “Pass Me By” with Vinny Tovar as a tribute to her father on January 31st, 2025.

Johnny not only got to see his daughter grow, he got to see her walk in his footsteps. But unfortunately, Johnny Rodriguez never got to see his induction to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Johnny Rodriguez died on May 9th, 2025. He was 73 years old.

For some, they might remember the controversies, from the alleged goat theft, to the drug use and decline, or the murder charge. But when Johnny Rodriguez passed, it was the songs most people remembered, the memories the music of Johnny Rodriguez helped them make, the incredible voice that could stir hearts in two separate languages, and the redemption story of overcoming adversity and personal setbacks.

Nobody else was like Johnny Rodriguez, in country music, or in the world. But he inspired many who looked like him to want to be just like him. And country music is better off for it.

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Sources:

Johnny Rodriguez Desperado: A Piece of My Soul (Johnny Rodriguez, Austin Teutsch)

L.A. Times (August 30th, 1998) “Country Singer Charged With Murder in Shooting at Home“

Austin American-Statesman (October 14th, 1999) “Singer acquitted of murder charge; Jury finds Rodriguez was justified“

Saving Country Music (May 9th, 2025) “Pioneering Hispanic Country Music Star Johnny Rodriguez Has Died“

The Storytellers Nashville (Tom T. Hall, Peter Cooper)