From the website Saving Country Music

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

Born in Sabinal, Texas, on December 10th, 1951, Johnny Rodriguez was a good kid growing up, including being an altar boy at the 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 his brother died the following year in an automobile accident, a broken heart led to trouble with the law and a taste for country music.

Johnny Rodriguez never did anything too bad, at least not early on. Legend has it that in 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 the verses of the song “Longhaired Redneck.” Either way, while singing in his cell to pass the time away, famous Texas Ranger Joaquin Jackson heard Rodriguez, and told music promoter “Happy” Shahan about him.

“Happy” Shahan in turn hired Rodriguez to sing at the Alamo Village tourist attraction where the 1960 John Wayne-directed movie The Alamo had been filmed. In 1971, Tom T. Hall and Bobby Bare were passing through town, and just like everyone else, they were floored at Johnny’s voice and told him he should move to Nashville. Johnny complied, showing up in Music City when he was 21 with just a guitar and $14. Less than a year later Rodriguez was signed to record songs for Mercury.

After scoring his first Top 10 hit with “Pass Me By (If You’re Only Passing Through),” Rodriguez minted consecutive #1’s with “You Always Come Back (To Hurting Me),” “Ridin’ My Thumb to Mexico,” and “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 Linda Ronstadt, 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 was nominated for the CMA’s Male Vocalist of the Year.