A Late-Career Confession from a Country Traditionalist — A Song About Regret, Sung with the Weight of a Lifetime
On July 13, 2013, at the Texas Pride Barbecue in Adkins, Texas, Johnny Rodriguez stepped onto a small, familiar stage and delivered a quietly powerful performance of “I Was Foolin’.” It was not a grand arena moment, nor a television spectacle. It was something rarer: a seasoned country voice revisiting an old emotional truth, face to face with an audience that had grown older alongside him.
By 2013, Johnny Rodriguez was long past his commercial peak, yet his importance to country music history was firmly established. As one of the first major Latino stars in mainstream country, Rodriguez helped redefine what the genre could look and sound like in the early 1970s. His smooth baritone, rooted in honky-tonk tradition and classic heartbreak, never relied on theatrics. And on that summer night in Adkins, he didn’t need any.
“I Was Foolin’” is a song about self-reckoning — the moment when bravado falls away and a man admits that love was mishandled, taken for granted, misunderstood. Sung live at Texas Pride Barbecue, the song carried a deeper resonance than it ever could have in the studio. Rodriguez no longer sounded like a young man learning lessons the hard way; he sounded like someone who had lived with those lessons for decades.
The venue itself mattered. Texas Pride Barbecue is known less for polish than for authenticity — food, music, and community woven together without pretense. For an older audience, many of whom remembered Rodriguez’s chart-topping years, the setting felt right. This was country music returned to its roots: close enough to hear the grain in the voice, close enough to feel the silence between lines.
Rodriguez sang without rushing. Each phrase seemed considered, almost conversational, as if he were telling an old friend the truth at last. There was no attempt to chase trends or reclaim past glory. Instead, the performance offered something more enduring: dignity, memory, and emotional honesty.
For longtime fans, that 2013 performance stands as a reminder of what country music once promised — songs that aged with you, voices that carried history, and moments where the past didn’t feel distant at all, just quietly present under the Texas night sky.