Sixto Rodriguez in 2013. Photo by Matt Roberts via Getty Images
Sixto Rodriguez, the Detroit-born folk musician who would go on to become a phenomenon in South Africa and the subject of the documentary Searching for Sugar Man, has died, according to a statement posted to his website's official Twitter account. He was 81.
Rodriguez put out his best-known releases — Cold Fact and Coming From Reality — under a mononym in the early 1970s. They sold poorly in the US, but found a massive following in Oceania and especially South Africa, where his songs became revolutionary anthems for the Apartheid era. Rodriguez himself wasn't aware of this following until the turn of the millennium; many fans believed he'd killed himself years earlier.
In 2012, the documentary Searching For Sugar Man by Swedish director Malik Bendjelloul, premiered at Sundance. Bendjelloul followed two South African fans trying to track down Rodriguez' whereabouts in the wake of his rumored death.
"We extend our most heartfelt condolences to his daughters — Sandra, Eva, and Regan — and to all his family," reads the statement posted to Twitter. No cause of death was provided.
