While Rodriguez had once performed with his back to the audience, he embraced his growing recognition, albeit after some initial resistance. “I’ve had such an ordinary life,” he told The Washington Post in 2012.
an up-tempo love song in which he sang of “the love you can’t find” and “the loneliness that’s mine.”The record flopped in the United States, never cracking the Billboard album chart. When his 1971 follow-up, “Coming From Reality,” fared just as poorly, he put his music career on hold, taking jobs in home renovation, roofing and demolition to support his family in Detroit.
Their quest inspired the 2012 documentary “Searching for Sugar Man,” directed by Swedish filmmaker Malik Bendjelloul, who had met Segerman on a visit to South Africa. “This was the greatest, the most amazing, true story I’d ever heard, an almost archetypal fairy tale,” Bendjelloul told the New York Times
, which he released under the name Rod Riguez: “And you can keep your symbols of success / Then I’ll pursue my own happiness / And you can keep your clocks and routines / Then I’ll go mend all my shattered dreams.” After he was discovered performing in a Detroit nightclub called the Sewer, Rodriguez signed with the newly launched Sussex label, led by music executive Clarence Avant. Copies of his first album made their way not only to South Africa, but also to Australia, where the record was championed by a Sydney radio DJ and became a collector’s item, reportedly selling at record stores for more than $300.
For all his success overseas, Rodriguez never received a royalty check for the estimated half-million record he sold in South Africa. His label boss, Avant, was dismissive when asked in the documentary why Rodriguez had never profited from those sales.
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