11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Mexican American singer Johnny Rodriguez, whose 1970s country hits topped charts, dies at 73
Mr. Rodriguez was named the most promising male vocalist at the 1972 Academy of Country Music Awards, and his debut, 'Introducing Johnny Rodriguez,' was nominated for album of the year in 1973. More than a dozen of his albums and singles landed in the Top 10.
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He later said his career suffered after he began to use drugs and alcohol excessively.
Mr. Rodriguez was born in Sabinal, Texas, a small town about 60 miles west of San Antonio.
A Texas jury acquitted Rodriguez of murder in 1999, about a year after he walked into his mother's house in Sabinal and shot at an acquaintance whom he thought was a burglar. Israel Borrego, 26, died a day after he was shot.
Mr. Rodriguez continued to play concerts in South Texas, and he was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in 2007.
