SINGER Rodriguez appeared frail in a series of pictures with Dave Matthews before the iconic songwriter died on Wednesday at age 81.
Born Sixto Rodriguez, the Detroit native appeared in several snaps backstage with Matthews in June 2021.
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Matthews paid tribute to Rodriguez, calling him a legend.
“This man is a legend. I remember being 13 when I first heard him,” Matthews captioned the Instagram post.
“I had moved to South Africa with my family after my father’s death. It found a deep purchase in me in those days of openness.
“He was from Detroit and me and all my friends believed the rumors that he was dead.
“It made sense because he had completely vanished after recording two albums in the 1970s.
“When I returned to the US after high school, I soon discovered that nobody knew him at all. Kinda like the movie yesterday about the Beatles music.
“Check out the documentary about ‘Searching for Sugarman.’ I remember the day a friend called and said ‘Rodriguez is alive.'”
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Though Rodriguez initially launched his music career in America, he found success overseas in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.
His only two albums, Cold Face and Coming From Reality, flopped in the United States, leading Rodriguez to put down the guitar and devote his life to other things.
However, unbeknownst to him, he had become a bigger star than Elvis and the Rolling Stones in South Africa.
Rodriguez’s music struck a chord with many repressed young South Africans trying to grapple with their country’s brutal apartheid government.
For years, rumors circulated in South Africa that Rodriguez was dead, having died by suicide on stage.
In 2012, the documentary Searching for Sugar Man detailed the story of two Cape Town fans, Stephen Segerman and Craig Bartholomew Strydom, and their endeavors during the 1990s to uncover what had become of Rodriguez.
Segerman uncovered the musician’s whereabouts and called him: “I told him, ‘In South Africa, you’re bigger than Elvis,'” the fan told Detroit News in 2008.
“Like a lot of people here, I discovered Rodriguez while I was in the army, which every 18-year-old used to have to do,” said Segerman.
“He was on everyone’s cassette tapes. It’s great pop music. But you start to realize this is raw, brutally honest ― and that’s the chord it struck.
“I was in the army, but I didn’t want to be a soldier. I didn’t support apartheid. Raw, brutal honest had lots of appeal.”
After being absent from music for nearly 30 years, Rodriguez was brought to South Africa in 2001 for a short series of sold-out concerts.
Rodriguez is survived by his daughters Eva, Sandra, and Regan.
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