Sixto Rodriguez, Who Found Fame Decades Later in ‘Searching For Sugar Man,’ Dies
by Best Classic Bands Staff
Sixto Rodriguez, the singer-songwriter from Detroit, Mich., who finally found fame in the U.S. four decades after his early recordings were released, and became the subject of the 2012 Academy Award-winning documentary Searching For Sugar Man, died August 9, 2023. News of his passing at 81 was posted on his website and Facebook page. Neither the location nor cause of death was revealed but it was known that the musician had suffered a stroke in February.
In 1970 and 1971, performing simply as Rodriguez, the artist released two studio albums, Cold Fact and Coming From Reality, for the Sussex label, a subsidiary of Buddah Records. Neither album sold, and Rodriguez seemed destined to become another recording artists whose career aspirations were never met. The story, however, didn’t end there.
By the mid-’70s, Rodriguez’s recordings developed a following in, of all places, Australia and New Zealand, which led to a pair of tours Down Under in 1979 and 1981. He was unaware that his anti-establishment music had also become hugely popular in South Africa at around the same time. Two fans there heard rumors of the now-mythic performer’s death and began searching for what little was known of Rodriguez’s whereabouts over the intervening decades.
As one of them, Stephen “Sugar” Segerman, writes on a biography on the musician’s website, clever sleuthing on the internet aided their efforts “that Rodriguez was alive and well and still living in Detroit.” A tour of South Africa and a return to Australia soon followed. The Searching For Sugar Man film documents the efforts to locate the musician as well as his subsequent acclaim. His two albums were reissued in the U.S. on the Light in the Attic label.
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Struggling to find the words… Sixto Rodriguez just passed away. Like countless others, you changed our lives in so many ways. Shaped us into better, more caring people. Made us dream bigger. The world was instantly more grandiose and magical when you entered the room. pic.twitter.com/beixCGKofI
— Light In The Attic (@lightintheattic) August 9, 2023
I’m so sorry to hear about Sixto Rodriguez. He toured with us in 2015, and he was a very talented and nice man. Love & Mercy to Sixto’s family and friends. pic.twitter.com/Wcd8KxN8oH
— Brian Wilson (@BrianWilsonLive) August 9, 2023
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1 Comment so far
Jump into a conversationGot to see him perform at The Beacon in 2013 after the movie and he put on a great memorable show. He didn’t get the attention he deserved in America, God bless and R.I.P. Rodriguez