{"id":7303,"date":"2023-08-15T23:32:54","date_gmt":"2023-08-15T23:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/?p=7303"},"modified":"2023-08-15T23:32:54","modified_gmt":"2023-08-15T23:32:54","slug":"singer-and-songwriter-sixto-rodriguez-subject-of-searching-for-sugar-man-documentary-dies-at-81","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/2023\/08\/15\/singer-and-songwriter-sixto-rodriguez-subject-of-searching-for-sugar-man-documentary-dies-at-81\/","title":{"rendered":"Singer and songwriter Sixto Rodriguez, subject of \u2018Searching for Sugar Man\u2019 documentary, dies at 81"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"By COREY WILLIAMS<\/em>
\nAssociated Press<\/em><\/p>\n

DETROIT, August 9, 2023 (AP): Sixto Rodriguez, who lived in obscurity as his music career flamed out early in the U.S. only to find success in South Africa and a stardom he was unaware of, died Tuesday in Detroit. He was 81.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez\u2019s legacy would take off back home after the singer and songwriter became the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary \u201cSearching for Sugar Man.\u201d<\/p>\n

His death was announced on the Sugarman.org website and confirmed Wednesday by his granddaughter, Amanda Kennedy.<\/p>\n

He died following a short illness, according to his wife, Konny Rodriguez, 72.<\/p>\n

His albums flopped in the United States in the 1970s, but __ unknown to him __ he later became a star in South Africa where his songs protesting the Vietnam War, racial inequality, abuse of women and social mores inspired white liberals horrified by the country\u2019s brutal racial segregation system of apartheid.<\/p>\n

Swedish filmmaker Malik Bendjelloul\u2019s documentary \u2018\u2018Searching for Sugar Man\u201d presented Rodriguez to a much larger audience. The film tells of two South Africans’ mission to seek out the fate of their musical hero. It won the Academy Award for best documentary in 2013.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez was \u201cmore popular than Elvis\u201d in South Africa, Stephen \u201cSugar\u201d Segerman said in 2013. The Cape Town record store owner\u2019s nickname comes from the Rodriguez song \u201cSugar Man.\u201d<\/p>\n

As his popularity in South Africa grew, Rodriguez lived in Detroit. But his fans in South Africa believed he also was famous in the United States. They heard stories that the musician had died dramatically: He’d shot himself in the head onstage in Moscow; He’d set himself aflame and burned to death before an audience someplace else; He’d died of a drug overdose, was in a mental institution, was incarcerated for murdering his girlfriend.<\/p>\n

In 1996, Segerman and journalist Carl Bartholomew-Strydom set out to learn the truth. Their efforts led them to Detroit, where they found Rodriguez working on construction sites.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s rock-and-roll history now. Who would-a thought?\u201d Rodriguez told The Associated Press a decade ago.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez said he just \u201cwent back to work\u201d after his music career fizzled, raising a family that includes three daughters and launching several unsuccessful campaigns for public office. He made a living through manual labor in Detroit.<\/p>\n

Still, he never stopped playing his music.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt I was ready for the world, but the world wasn’t ready for me,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cI feel we all have a mission __ we have obligations. Those turns on the journey, different twists __ life is not linear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Konny Rodriguez said the couple met in 1972 while both were students at Wayne State University in Detroit and married in the early 1980s. Although still married at the time of his death, the couple had been separated for a number of years, she said Wednesday while shuffling through some of Sixto Rodriguez\u2019s memorabilia.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe loved college. He was born to be taught, to teach himself,\u201d Konny Rodriguez said. \u201cThe music was more to bring people together. He would play anywhere, anytime. That’s where I noticed him. He was walking down Cass Avenue with a guitar and a black bag. He was a really eccentric guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two albums she said he recorded in 1969 and 1971 \u201cdidn’t do well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m sure that was still in his head,\u201d Konny Rodriguez added. \u201cThen in 1979, I picked up the phone and it was a guy with an Australian accent who said ‘he must come to Australia because he’s very famous here.’\u201c<\/p>\n

She said they toured Australia in 1979 and 1981 and later learned about the impact of his music in South Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cApartheid was going on,\u201d she said. \u201cFrank Sinatra had a full-page ad, ‘Do not go to South Africa.’ We didn’t.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the end of apartheid, Sixto Rodriguez did travel to South Africa and perform in front of his fans there, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did so well in South Africa. It was insane,\u201d Konny Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n

Sixto Rodriguez later pursued royalties he did not receive from his music being used and played in South Africa.<\/p>\n

Some of Rodriguez songs were banned by the apartheid regime and many bootlegged copies were made on tapes and later CDs.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n

Received Id d52806f73e2ca3842de8c3234f7f6a on Aug 09 2023 13:33<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By COREY WILLIAMS Associated Press DETROIT, August 9, 2023 (AP): Sixto Rodriguez, who lived in obscurity as his music career flamed out early in the U.S. only to find success in South Africa and a stardom he was unaware of, died Tuesday in Detroit. He was 81. Rodriguez\u2019s legacy would take off back home after<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7304,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_rtcl_gb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[158],"class_list":["post-7303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sixto.jpg",700,466,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sixto.jpg",700,466,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sixto.jpg",700,466,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sixto-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sixto-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"large":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sixto.jpg",640,426,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sixto.jpg",700,466,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sixto.jpg",700,466,false],"rtcl-gallery":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sixto-700x462.jpg",700,462,true],"rtcl-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sixto-320x240.jpg",320,240,true],"rtcl-gallery-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sixto-150x105.jpg",150,105,true],"psacp-medium":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sixto.jpg",500,333,false],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sixto-45x45.jpg",45,45,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"LaPrensa Newspaper","author_link":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/author\/laprensa\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Articles<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"By COREY WILLIAMS Associated Press DETROIT, August 9, 2023 (AP): Sixto Rodriguez, who lived in obscurity as his music career flamed out early in the U.S. only to find success in South Africa and a stardom he was unaware of, died Tuesday in Detroit. He was 81. Rodriguez\u2019s legacy would take off back home after","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7303"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7305,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7303\/revisions\/7305"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7303"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=7303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}