10 Questions for Sixto Rodriguez

Detroit singer Sixto Rodriguez on finding out his songs have been huge hits for decades--on another continent

David Johnson for TIME

You released two albums in the '70s, Cold Fact and Coming from Reality , that didn't take off in the U.S. Then 25 years later, you discovered you were as big in South Africa as Bob Dylan and the Beatles. How did you find out?
A person by the name of Steven Segerman — Sugar, as he likes to be called — came over to my house in Detroit from South Africa. He showed me the CDs and told me about this fan base in South Africa.

The people in that country believed you were dead, that you'd committed...

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