From Wikipedia Encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Rodriguez

How the music all began

As a teenager, Johnny Rodriguez would sing for friends at Garner State Park. One night during the 4th of July holidays at Garner, Johnny, Randy Willis and a group of friends decided that they were hungry. According to Rodriguez: "when we were teenagers at Garner we always tried too meet girls that had a mother that would feed us (because none of us had any money); some of those girls may not be our friends today but all their mothers still are."

Rodriguez continued, "I guess no mothers we knew had arrived at the park yet so to satisfy our hunger, the goat was stolen by me with four or five friends from the nearby Bob Davis Ranch" just a few miles from Garner on Ranch Road 1050, near Cherry Creek. Johnny butchered the goat in Cherry Creek and the meat was then taken to a roadside park to be barbequed. The roadside park is on a hill a few miles from the Bob Davis Ranch on Highway 83 near the intersection of Ranch Road 1050. A half dozen or more additional friends were waiting at the roadside park for the goat rustlers and their kill.

Johnny basted the goat in the only sauce he had, plum jelly. Someone saw the goat rustling caper at the ranch and reported it to the authorities. A little while later, a deputy sheriff drives up to the roadside park with his lights off, named J.R. Jackson (not to be confused with Texas Ranger Joaquin Jackson). Everyone runs except Johnny who by this time was barbequing the cabrito.

Johnny took the blame for the whole incident. At the Uvalde jail Johnny signed a statement, at the request of J.R. Jackson, without understanding the seriousness of what he was signing, Everyone thought the goat was worth about $20 to 30 bucks, like a Spanish goat would cost. The goat turn out to be a "prized" Angora goat worth about $3,000 which made the thief a felony.

Recently, Johnny and his friend, since age 12, and manager Randy Willis returned, for the first time in 29 years, to the Bob Davis Ranch at the request of Larry Holden with "Country Weekly," Johnny asked Randy Willis if he "thought they would still be mad at us." Willis replied, "hell John, do you have any idea how many Angora goats these people have sold as a result of that story?"

While in the Uvalde jail singing, Texas Ranger, Joaquin Jackson, recognized Johnny as the same kid that would sing around Garner State Park. He told a promoter about Johnny. The promoter, Happy Shahan hired Johnny to perform at the Alamo Village, a popular south Texas tourist attraction and location of many well known movie sets including John Wayne's "The Alamo." It was here that Johnny was heard by Nashville artists Tom T. Hall and Bobby Bare who both encouraged Johnny to fly to Nashville. 20-year old John (he soon changed his name to Johnny) Raul Davis Rodriguez found himself stepping off the plane with nothing more than his guitar in hand and $14 in his pocket. Soon he was fronting Tom T. Hall's Band and writing songs.

Less than year later, Hall took Johnny over to the office of Roy Deá and Jerry Kennedy, then record producers of Mercury's Nashville operation, for an in person audition. Deá offered a contract on the spot after hearing Rodriguez's "I Can't Stop Loving You" and "If I'd Left It Up To You."

There were 15 number one singles that followed. The first of the singles to reach number one was "Pass Me By". The song raced through the country charts and put Johnny in the fast lane of the country music world. His next single, "You Always Come Back To Hurting Me" didn't stop until it hit the top the first of 11 consecutive #1 records, some of which he wrote or co-wrote.

Johnny has released over 30 albums and charted 45 singles. He has beat the pavement touring in every state in the U.S. and enjoys an enormous response when touring overseas in countries such as Switzerland, England, S. Korea, France, Spain, East & West Germany, Japan, Belguim, Guam, Poland, Canada and Mexico.

This favored son of Texas has received standing ovations by audiences ranging from Ryman Auditorium to Carnagie Hall. He has been honored with the presence of Presidents of the United States including Jimmy Carter and playing the Inaugural Ball for George Bush.