DETROIT — Sixto Diaz Rodriguez, the Detroit musician who rose to international fame as the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary “Searching for Sugar Man,” died Tuesday. He was 81.
Known simply as Rodriguez, the singer had been in declining health after suffering a stroke last year, The Detroit News reported. He died in his longtime Detroit home in the city’s Woodbridge neighborhood.
“As he would have preferred to be at home” for his death, his daughter, Regan, told the newspaper. She said her father died of natural causes.
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
Rodriguez’s death was also announced on his website.
Rodriguez appeared destined for stardom after “Cold Fact,” his debut album on the Sussex label, was released in 1970, according to Deadline. His follow-up album, “Coming From Reality,” was released in 1971, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Sussex would soon score a major victory with the 1971 release of Bill Withers’ debut album “Just As I Am”, which included the hit “Ain’t No Sunshine,” Deadline reported.
“Honest to God, I thought this guy (Rodriguez) was going to be huge,” Sussex founder Clarence Avant told Rolling Stone in 2013. “He’s one of the there greatest artists I’ve ever worked with, and that includes Bill Withers. He was a (expletive) genius.”
Sixto Rodriguez, the Seventies rocker known as Rodriguez whose music enjoyed a renaissance after the 2012 Oscar-winning documentary 'Searching for Sugar Man,' has died at age 81. https://t.co/ZcA2IYErhs
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) August 9, 2023
Neither one of Rodriguez’s albums sold well in the U.S. but they became popular in Australia and South Africa during the late 1970s, the magazine reported on Wednesday.
“Every single one of my friends had ‘Cold Fact,’” Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst told the magazine in a 2013 interview. “We’d play Bruce Springsteen’s ‘The Wild, The Innocent & the E Street Shuffle,’ Billy Joel’s first album, and ‘Cold Fact.’”
Rodriguez eventually left the music business and bought a home in Detroit, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Rodriguez was rescued from obscurity with the 2012 release of “Searching for Sugar Man” a documentary that traced his popularity in South Africa, the News reported. The film, written and directed by Malik Bendjelloul, won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 2013.
The film told his story from the perspective of South African fans who continued to play his music and found him in the U.S. despite an urban legend that he was dead, Rolling Stone reported.
“It’s been a great odyssey,” Rodriguez told the News in a 2008 interview. “All those years, you know, I always considered myself a musician. But, reality happened.”
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