Music
Rodriguez: once a legend… always a legend!
What a night – a sold out Apollo bursting with passionate fans, new and old, cheering and whistling juxtaposed with a fragile folk-rock icon garbed in leather trousers, Stevie Wonder look-alike glasses and a black bowler’s hat. The relatively recent global star, Rodriguez, performed a one-off London gig and he sure did rock out as he had time-travelled back to the 60s, giving it his all!
Sixto Diaz Rodriguez spent most of his music career underground and relatively unknown in the entertainment world. Unbeknown to him his work was extremely influential and powerful in South Africa, especially during the Apartheid regime where some of his songs were even chanted as Anti-Apartheid anthems. Surprisingly, despite this mystery man’s apparent incognito status, his fame has been likened to that of Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens and even rock’n’roll legend, Elvis.
In the 90s, a group of determined fans went on a worldwide hunt to locate Rodriguez’s whereabouts in order to perpetuate his long-standing fame and bring his songs to back to life. This positive outcome led to the revival of his musical career which has attracted an explosion of media exposure and fan-interest, plus even an interview on David Letterman’s Late Night Show. His 2012 Academy-Award winning documentary, Searching for Sugar Man, has really given him the gravitas and well-deserved fame he has so long deserved.
So what’s next for this American lost and found hero? I wonder, I wonder wonder I do…!