1

In 1968, two record producers, Dennis Coffey and Mike Theodore, heard that a singer called
Sixto Rodriguez was playing in The Sewer, a rundown nightclub on the edge of Detroit. They
were told that he was 'as great as Bob Dylan', but no one knew who he was. So, one
evening, they decided to drive down to the nightclub and have a look for themselves.

2
Two months after his second record came out, the record company told Rodriguez that they
had dropped him from their label. Rodriguez vanished from the music scene. He went back
to his life in Detroit and to his old job, doing building work and renovating old houses to
make ends meet and raise his three daughters. He never recorded another album.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, in South Africa, Rodriguez was becoming a star.

3
A few days later they asked him if he wanted to sign a contract and he agreed. Over the
next two years he made two brilliant albums, but hardly any copies were sold. Steve
Rowland, producer of the second album, often wondered why Rodriguez didn't succeed.
'This guy was like a wise man, a prophet, I've never worked with anyone as talented.'

4
Sixto Rodriguez was a Detroit singer-songwriter, an "inner city poet" who looked like he
would become a star. But his breakthrough album failed to sell, his second album didn't do
any better and his record label dropped him. That's when his story became very strange
indeed; a story of talent, bad luck and a happy ending many years later.

5
As a child, Rodriguez was a very introverted kid who rarely ventured outside the safety of
his home in Detroit. This was one of the characteristics that triggered his interest in music.
Inspired by the legendary bluesmen of earlier times, he decided to pick up a guitar and
release his inner poet, which had been trapped by years of shyness and isolation. Eventually
he became a superstar thanks to his commercially successful records.

6The nightclub was so dark and smoky that at first, they couldn't see anything. For a moment
they weren't sure if they had come to the right place, but then they spotted him. He was
playing the guitar in a corner with his back to the audience singing quietly, almost to
himself. His music was amazing and they knew immediately that they wanted to record
him.