CAUSE OF DEATH: Sixto Diaz Rodriguez has passed away.
A documentary directed by Malik Bendjelloul focused on the quest of two South Africans to find out what happened to Rodriguez, who never quite reached fame in the United States as a folk artist in the 1970s.
The film, Searching for Sugar Man, won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature during the 2013 Academy Awards. Bendjelloul died just over a year later.
Born in Michigan, the musician called Detroit’s historic Woodbridge neighborhood home. In 1981, he earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Wayne State University’s Monteith College. But before his higher-education journey, he had been making music under the name Rod Riguez and in 1967 released the single “I’ll Slip Away.” Several years later, he would sign with Sussex Records and, shifting his professional name to Rodriguez, recorded and released two albums, 1970’s Cold Fact and 1971’s Coming From Reality.
Rodriguez garnered more widespread recognition in the U.S. later in his career, following the release of Searching for Sugar Man. The doc, directed by Malik Bendjelloul, traced the folk musician’s journey from near obscurity to international cult success after his first two albums — which he recorded in Detroit in the early 1970s — struggled to sell.
The film received the 2013 Academy Award for best documentary feature, but Rodriguez was not awake at the time. “We also just came back from South Africa and I was tired,” he told Rolling Stone in 2013. “I was asleep when it won, but my daughter Sandra called to tell me. I don’t have TV service anyway.”
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