Sixto Rodriguez 8/2023 (81) was born on July 10, 1942, in Detroit, Michigan. He was the sixth child of Mexican immigrant working-class parents Ramon and Maria Rodriguez. They had joined an influx of Mexicans who came to the Midwest to work in Detroit’s industries. Mexican immigrants at that time faced both intense alienation and marginalization. In most of his songs, Rodriguez takes a socio-political stance on the difficulties that faced the inner-city poor. His mother died when he was three years old. Growing up in a single parent, working class environment, Rodriguez first got turned onto music after hearing his father play Mexican folk songs. They often moved him to tears. “My father’s night would usually end with a couple of drinks, and a few songs. I would always listen to his heart-breaking songs. He loved music, and I picked it up through him.”
In 1967, using the name “Rod Riguez” (given by his record label), he released a single, “I’ll Slip Away”, on the small Impact label.
“My early career happened through introductions,” he says with an easy laugh. “Someone introduced me here, someone took me there. I eventually met Harry Walsh who ran a label called Impact Records. He wanted to record me and sign me up for a sixty-year contract. That was fine. I knew I could out live that.”
“I really thought Cold Fact was going to make it,” he later stated. “There was a lot of work done, and I thought there was a big chance for it, but it didn’t happen. I went into the second album, but again a lot of other things happened and the place went bankrupt. Nothing beats reality. But the revolution never stops. Power to the people. It’s a real political kind of thing.”
“I renovated homes and buildings and residences in Detroit,” Rodriguez said. “That’s what I was doing. I basically went back to work.”“I continued to play. It’s something that I don’t think I can stop. I went to work and did restoration and demolition of buildings. I learnt another trade. That’s the pattern of my career. It’s kind of all mismatched, but that’s the way it went. Life isn’t chronological. Some people are older at a younger age.” Rodriguez says he was past any dreams of rock ‘n’ roll fame by the time he got that call to tour Australia in 1979.
Blue Goose stated they paid royalties to Sussex, even though Sussex went down in 1975. It later was suggested that former Sussex owner Clarence Avant had pocketed the payments without paying Rodriguez a penny. In an ironic twist of fate, Avant passed away 5 days later than Rodriguez on August 13, 2023.
In the meantime At His Best went platinum in South Africa, which at one stage was the major disc-press source of his music to the rest of the world. Rodriguez was compared to contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Cat Stevens. Many of his songs carry anti-establishment themes, and therefore boosted anti-apartheid protest culture in South Africa, where his work influenced the music scene at the time and was also a considerable influence on a generation drafted, mostly unwillingly, to the then whites-only South African military. Reportedly, anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko was also a Rodriguez fan.
Even though he didn’t see any of the money from his record sales, in 1998 he flew over and played a series of sold out shows in 5,000 seat arenas. He was mobbed everywhere he went. “One guy came up to me and said, ‘I’m from Namibia. We make love to your music, we make war to your music.’ That really struck me. I’m for peace, but I’m not for peace at any price.”In April 2007 and 2010, he returned to Australia to play at the East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival, as well as sell out shows in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. His song “Sugar Man” was featured in the 2006 film Candy, starring Heath Ledger. Singer-songwriter Ruarri Joseph covered Rodriguez’s song “Rich Folks Hoax” for his third studio album. Irish singer-songwriter Darragh O’Dea mentions Rodriguez and references “Inner City Blues” in his 2020 single “Lost Dog Loyal”. Rodriguez continued to tour in various countries until his final show in 2021.
Rodriguez’s albums Cold Fact and Coming from Reality were re-released by Light in the Attic Records in 2009. They were rereleased again on CD and vinyl in 2019 by Universal Music Enterprises, the current rights holder of the material.
In January, 2012, the Sundance Film Festival hosted the premiere of the documentary film Searching for Sugar Man, by Swedish director Malik Bendjelloul, detailing the efforts of two South African fans to see if his rumored death was true and, if not, to discover what had become of him. The documentary Searching for Sugar Man, produced by Simon Chinn and John Battsek, went on to win the World Cinema Special Jury Prize and the Audience Award, World Cinema Documentary. Sixto Rodriguez finally received the attention he should have gotten early in his career when the documentary received the Best Music Documentary Award at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam and the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 85th Academy Awards in 2013. Rodriguez declined to attend the award ceremony as he did not want to overshadow the filmmakers’ achievement. Upon accepting his award, Chinn remarked on such generosity, “That just about says everything about that man and his story that you want to know.”
In 2014, the French deep house and electro music producer The Avener released a new version of “Hate Street Dialogue” originally appearing on Rodriguez’s album Cold Fact. The version by The Avener features Rodriguez’s vocals. The release charted in France.
The Searching for Sugar Man soundtrack features a compilation of Rodriguez tracks from his albums Cold Fact and Coming from Reality, in addition to three previously unreleased songs from his third unfinished album. The album was released on July 24, 2012. To allay possible concerns raised in the film about how Rodriguez was apparently cheated by his previous record label, the back cover bears the statement “Rodriguez receives royalties from the sale of this release.”
After the cinematic release of Searching for Sugar Man in 2012, Rodriguez experienced a flush of media exposure and fan interest in the United States, as well as Europe. He appeared as a musical guest on the Late Show with David Letterman on August 14, 2012, performing “Crucify Your Mind” and performed “Can’t Get Away” on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on January 11, 2013. Prominent news coverage put Rodriguez in the uncomfortable spotlight of being re-discovered so may years later.
In addition to concerts in Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand, Rodriguez’s tour schedule for 2013 included his most highly attended U.S. concerts to date, such as a stint at the Beacon Theatre in New York City in April and a spot at the 2014 Sasquatch Music Festival at The Gorge Amphitheatre, as well as other concerts in Europe. He played on the Park Stage at the Glastonbury Festival, U.K., in June 2013. On July 5, 2013, Rodriguez opened the Montreux Jazz festival. On August 10, 2013, he headlined at the Wilderness Festival in the U.K. In 2015, he opened for Brian Wilson’s tour with Wilson, Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin of the Beach Boys.
Rodriguez received additional exposure in 2014 as the Dave Matthews Band often covered “Sugar Man” in their summer tour. Matthews would often preface the song with his experience as a fan of Rodriguez growing up in South Africa and his surprise at Rodriguez’s lack of popularity in the United States.
The film Searching for Sugar Man strongly implied that Rodriguez had been cheated out of royalties over the years, specifically by Clarence Avant. Rodriguez first expressed indifference to these “symbols of success” but then filed a lawsuit in 2013. In 2022, the year before his death, the lawsuit was reported to have been settled with no amount disclosed.
Rodriguez headlined a tour in August 2018, ending with a hometown show at Detroit’s Garden Theater. His final North American concert tour in late 2019/early 2020 culminated on February 20, 2020, at Nashville’s City Winery.
In March 2013, Rolling Stone wrote that Rodriguez was suffering from glaucoma and was going blind. The disease had by then dramatically limited his vision and forced him to walk very slowly and often clutched to someones else’s arm. They quoted Rodriguez as saying, “I’m still able to make out some people in the crowd at my shows”.
In August 2022, Le Monde reported that Rodriguez had become blind, and that he was still living in the same house in Detroit he bought for $50 in 1975.
In February 2023, Rodriguez suffered a stroke, then had surgery in March to repair stroke damage, followed by post-operative physical therapy. But his condition later worsened and he was placed in hospice care. He died on August 8, 2023, at the age of 81. A genius singer-songwriter, who had learned early in life that it isn’t fair.
A concert celebrating his life was held on August 12, 2023, at Detroit’s Majestic Theatre.
This man’s music, it tears you apart and so repairs you. So beautiful it breaks your heart and drives the best you have in you in every direction you move and think and dream. Sixto, you will never leave us. Be in peace. ” The sweetest kiss I got, was the one I never tasted” – Shakespeare is smiling somewhere. Listening to the words you understand why corporate America did not want him to be heard by the masses. He was a challenge to the system. Truth always is. A talented poet and most admired songwriter of the rock and roll era, Dylan came nowhere close to that. His most activist song, Blowing in the Wind, has questions but no answers. Not only that but he gave it to others to launch it. Because it had success, he decided to sing it himself. Rodriguez describes a world others, the media included, did not want to admit existing, and in doing so he really exposed the problems with a capitalist system that generates that kind of world.
