RODRIGUEZ, 1942-2023

Rodriguez, the singer-songwriter whose amazing return from obscurity was chronicled in the Oscar-winning doc Searching for Sugar Man, died Wednesday (8/9). He was 81.

Born Sixto Rodriguez, he recorded two albums for Clarence Avant’s Sussex Records that were commercial failures. In Australia and South Africa, however, he developed a following that viewed him as a major artist, on par with the biggest acts of the day. Having being dropped by the label after his 1971 release, Coming From Reality, failed to sell in the U.S., Rodriguez stopped recording.

The Seattle-based label Light in the Attic reissued his two LPS—1970's Cold Fact in 2008 and Coming From Reality in 2009—which introduced him to audiences seeking overlooked artists of the 1960s and '70s. The reissues led to a few club tours as the extent of his relevance and career revival in South Africa remained untold.

Sugar Man director Malik Bendejelloul heard Rodriguez’s story while looking for a doc subject and set out to tell the astounding tale of Rodriguez’s level of fame in South Africa, where his debut album reportedly sold a half-million copies, with the anti-apartheid movement embracing his songs and turning him into a folk hero.

Having left the music business to work in construction, Rodriguez performed several sold-out concerts in South Africa almost three decades after his retirement from music. Many fans believed he'd died. But in 1997, a devotee with a Rodriguez website learned he was alive and living in his hometown of Detroit, which led to the effort to bring him to South Africa.

Rodriguez joined Bendejelloul in publicizing the film from its early festival stops at Sundance and SXSW up through its release in September 2012 and beyond, performing in cities in tandem with screenings. He continued touring after the doc won the Oscar, the BAFTA and another 40+ awards, playing to a sold-out crowd at L.A.’s Greek Theater in 2014 and doing four shows at London's Royal Albert Hall, the most recent in 2018.