Rodriguez On Oscar Winning Searching For Sugar Man

Today Searching For Sugar Man, the documentary that chronicles the fascinating story of Detroit singer-songwriter Rodriguez, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary, another astonishing chapter to the musician's fascinating life.

Just after the film had received a nomination for the Oscars, Rodriguez himself spoke to theMusic.com.au's Dan Condon about how the film has changed everything. In true Rodriguez fashion, he diverts all attention away from himself and spends his time praising others.

“Yes, 100 percent different,” he says of the films effect on his musical career. “It started at Sundance. Malik Bendjelloul is a self-made director and it's his first film. He called me in November after he had come four or five times to Detroit, saying he had submitted it to Sundance. He was very excited because he submitted it in time for the deadline.

“It's his first film and he and Camilla [Skagerström] got this thing together – she's the cinematographer, these two people put that whole project together. I didn't decide anything in the film as to who he interviewed or where he interviewed or what he put in there – it's pretty much his work. I'm in it for eight minutes. But it's changed things; I'm getting a lot of attention.

“I [was] on 60 Minutes on the 23rd [of December] and we're going to play the Glastonbury in England, The Rolling Stones and Fleetwood Mac are the headliners. This is 42-year-old material, who would have thought? It's an amazing phenomenon in music.

Rodriguez had tried with his two sensational albums Cold Fact [1970] and Coming From Reality [1971] to break into the American market to no avail and, as such, gave up on his musical dream. He didn't know that audiences in South Africa, which is where much of the film is based, had fallen for these records and made him a mysterious superstar and had long given up playing music when he was rediscovered in the late-1990s.

Rodriguez says that there had been further attempts to break him in the US in recent years recently (Australian audiences have always been big supporters of his work), but this film has finally got him over the line.

“We broke into the American market,” he says. “We were trying to do it through the Light In The Attic reissues of my albums, but it was through the film [that it happened].

“I have to credit – and this is really important – I have to credit Sony Pictures Classics, Sony Legacy, Sony Home Video, Light In The Attic, 42nd West and the local promoters – I think it's Mad Man in Australia. We're getting a lot of attention that way and it all has helped.”

Rodriguez is in Australia for a run of dates next month, they are as follows:

Tuesday 19 March – Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Thursday 21 March – The Arts Centre – Hamer Hall, Melbourne
Friday 22 March – The Arts Centre – Hamer Hall, Melbourne – Sold Out
Sunday 24 March – The Gov, Adelaide – Sold Out
Monday 25 March – Enmore Theatre, Sydney – Sold Out
Tuesday 26 March – Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Sunday 31 March – The Tivoli, Brisbane
Monday 1 April – The Tivoli, Brisbane – Sold Out