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 in a social media post 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 Rodriguez formed a band, and Andres died the next year. The losses sent him “spiraling,” according to the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame.
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Mr. Rodriguez had spent time in jail by the time he was 18 for what is said to be an unpaid fine. He would pass time in the cell by singing and was overheard by Joaquin Jackson, a Texas Ranger, who eventually helped find Mr. Rodriguez a job as a singer and stagecoach driver at the Alamo Village, then a popular tourist attraction in Texas.