Returning to our area by popular demand, Rodriguez – the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary, “Searching for Sugar Man” – is following up his sold out 2013 shows in New York City with debut performances in New Jersey and Long Island this May.
During his wildly popular U.S. tour last year, Rodriguez performed his beloved songs to sold out audiences at Radio City Music Hall, Beacon Theatre, Town Hall and a fourth area performance at Barclays Center. The concerts at Tilles Center and NJPAC continue one of the most remarkable musical comebacks in recent memory.
At the dawn of the 1970s, singer-songwriter Sixto Díaz Rodríguez, a Detroit-based musician, recorded two studio albums Cold Fact and Coming from Reality, filled with uncompromising yet graceful folk-rock songs depicting poverty, missed opportunities, and inner-city life. The albums gained little attention at the time and Rodriguez eventually turned his efforts elsewhere, earning a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Wayne State University, running for political office and working construction and factory jobs to support his family.
Unbeknownst to Rodriguez, bootleg copies of his albums had gained airplay in South Africa where he had reached legendary folk-rock super stardom status and mistaken rumors circulated that he had perished. As it turns out, South African anti-Apartheid activists and musicians alike were inspired by his counterculture lyrics.
In the late 1990s, two South African fans, eager to separate fact from myth, embarked on an investigation to find out what really happened to Rodriguez. Their story is told in the 2012 Oscar award-winning documentary, “Searching for Sugar Man,” which has given Rodríguez a new measure of fame in the U.S. and his music is now reaching audiences worldwide.
Rodriguez now tours extensively in South Africa, Australia, Europe, and the U.S., where he is appreciated by a new generation of listeners who find common ground in his music. Rodriguez’s surprise resurgence and inspirational story has been featured 60 Minutes and CNN.
Tickets are available online at Ticketmaster.com by phone at (800) 745-3000 and the Tilles Center Box Office at (516) 299-3100. For more info and box office hours, please visit www.tillescenter.org.
