Rodriguez, musician and ‘Searching for Sugar Man’ star, dead at 81
nypost.comon his website Wednesday. His cause and location of death has not been revealed.“It is with great sadness that we at Sugarman.org announce that Sixto Diaz Rodriguez has passed away earlier today,” read the statement on his website.“We extend our most heartfelt condolences to his daughters — Sandra, Eva and Regan — and to all his family.
Rodriguez was 81 years old. May His Dear Soul Rest In Peace,” the statement continued.The Bob Dylan-inspired crooner, better known as Rodriguez, struggled to sell copies of his first two records “Cold Fact” and “Coming From Reality” in the 1970s and he supported himself by working on a Chrysler assembly line.
Unbeknownst to him, his music was gaining cult-like popularity in South Africa, Botswana, Australia and New Zealand. In South Africa, his songs protesting the Vietnam War, as well as racial and gender inequality, became songs used to protest racial segregation during the country’s racist apartheid.His fans in South Africa assumed Rodriguez was popular in the US and thought he was already dead.
In 1997, Cape Town record store owner Stephen “Sugar” Segerman and a journalist named Carl Bartholomew-Strydom hunted the singer down in Detroit, where he was very much alive and working on construction sites.
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