Diaz Rodriguez was born on the 10th July 1942, in Detroit, Michigan USA, and is a musician as well as a singer and songwriter. As Sixto Rodriguez or often just Rodriguez, he is most famous for his success primarily in South Africa, where his studio albums “Cold Fact” (1970) and “Coming from Reality” (1971) sold more copies than Elvis Presley’s, and were certified gold. He was also featured in “Searching for Sugar Man” – the 2012 Oscar-winning documentary about his life and music career.
Have you ever wondered how much wealth this veteran musician has accumulated so far? How rich Sixto Rodriguez is? According to sources, it is estimated that the total of Rodriguez’s net worth, as of early 2017, exceeds the sum of $2 million, acquired through his music career which, with pauses, has been active since 1967.
Sixto Rodriguez Net Worth $2 million
Rodriguez was the sixth son in a family of Mexican immigrants, and that’s where his stage name “Sixto” came from. He was heavily influenced by growing up among the poor working class, and the majority of his songs are about the difficulties of the inner city’s poor population. He attended Monteith College of Wayne State University in his hometown, from which he graduated with Bachelor of Philosophy in 1981.
He debuted as a musician in 1967 when, under the name of Rod Rodriguez, he released his first single “I’ll Slip Away”. This was followed by a three-year long pause from recording, and in 1970 as Rodriguez, he released his debut studio album entitled “Cold Fact”, featuring his, to this day, most popular hit single “Sugar Man”. Subsequently, in 1971 his second and so far last studio album “Coming from Reality” hit the charts. Due to amodest commercial success in the states, Rodriguez was dropped by his record label, and impacted by these “ventures”, abandoned his music career and directed himself toward production line work as well as a demolition business. These jobs provided the rather small basis for Rodriguez’s current net worth.
However, despite being barely known and acclaimed in the USA, Rodriguez and his music gained a huge audience and popularity on the African continent, including countries such as Zimbabwe, Republic of South Africa and Botswana, as well as in Australia and even New Zealand. After selling the entire range of his recordings, Australian Blue Goose Music record label bought the rights and re-released both of his studio albums, complementing his discography with “At His Best” compilation album, which featured several, at that time, still unreleased songs. The album quickly reached platinum status in South Africa, selling more copies that Bob Dylan as well as “The King of Rock ‘N’ Roll” Elvis Presley. These achievements helped Sixto Rodriguez to dramatically improve the total of his wealth.
More than an interesting fact, is that his huge popularity in South Africa, where widespread belief was that he committed suicide in the early 1970s, had remained totally unknown to Sixto ‘til 1997. After this cognition, Rodriguez toured South Africa, performing several concerts in front of thousands of his fans. These were even followed by a video documentary “Dead Men Don’t Tour: Rodriguez in South Africa 1998” which certainly impacted his wealth.
Despite being in music for several decades, Rodriguez came into prominence in the states just in 2012, after a documentary about his life and career “Searching for Sugar Man” was honored with an Oscar Award. This was followed by a series of Sixto’s appearances in popular TV shows including “Late Show with David Letterman”, “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “60 Minutes” among several others. It is certain that all these involvements have helped Sixto Rodriguez to raise the level of his fame in the USA as well as to add a sum to his net worth.
Additionally, Rodriguez toured Australia in 1979, 1981, 2007, 2010 and more recently in 2016, while in 2001 and 2005 he toured South Africa. His most recent releases include the 2013 compilation “Coffret Rodriguez” and 2016 live album “Rodriguez Rocks: Live in Australia”. His song “Sugar Men” was featured in the 2006 romantic drama “Candy”, and was remixed by Just Jinger, David Holmes and Nas, while he was featured in a deep house remix of his “Hate Street Dialogue” by the French DJ The Avener. It is certain that all these achievements have helped Sixto Rodriguez to further improve his net worth.
Apart from music, Sixto has also made some unsuccessful efforts towards politics – in 1981 and 1993 he ran for the Mayor Detroit, and in 1989 he was a candidate for the Detroit City Council, while in 2003 he ran for the Michigan House of Representatives.
When it comes to his personal life, Rodriguez was married twice and from his second marriage with his, now separated wife, Konny Koskos, he has three daughters. He resides in his home in Detroit, which he bought as a derelict property in a government auction for $50 in the 1970s.
