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Johnny Rodriguez

Juan Raoul Davis "Johnny" Rodriguez (10 December 1951-) was an American country singer-songwriter from Texas. Born in Sabinal, Uvalde County to a Mexican family of ten-children living in a four-room house, he went to jail at the age of eighteen for not paying a fine, and his singing behind bars led to the Texas Ranger Joaquin Jackson telling the promoter Happy Shahan about him. In 1971, Tom T. Hall and Bobby Bare persuaded Rodriguez to go to Nashville, arriving with just a guitar and $14. He came to front Hall's band and write songs, and he signed with Mercury Records in 1972. He became one of country music's most successful male artists during the 1970s and 1980s, recording six number-one hits and introducing Tejano sounds into his music. In August 1998, he was charged with murder for shooting a 28-year-old acquaintance in his Texas home while believing the man to be a burglar, but he was acquitted in October 1999.

According to a 1998 Texas Monthly article, he was, "Known both for liberal politics that went against the Nashville grain and for wry, insightful story-songs."

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