Music-doc "Searching for Sugar Man" star Sixto Rodriguez facing legal troubles

In the early ‘70s, Rodriguez released two albums to minimal success, yet those albums somehow went on to develop a huge cult following in South Africa long after Rodriguez’s name had been forgotten. The film captures these new fans’ search for the musician, who seek to give him the attention and praise they felt he was unjustly denied the first time around.

Today, according to reporting from Billboard, Rodriguez is facing legal issues over his original recordings used in the film. The issues stem from his 1970 album Cold Fact released through Interior Music Corp. Rodriguez had a pre-existing songwriting deal with a label called Gomba Music, and to get around that, he credited the songs on Cold Fact to his “brother” Jesus Rodriguez (who apparently does not exist). This has apparently been a long-standing issue, but Rodriguez’s potential involvement in the matter has only recently come up. There’s no report yet on the severity of the lawsuit, but if nothing else, it prompts the whole “is it better to burn out or to fade away” discussion anew, and one can’t help but wonder if this issue might never have developed if Sugar Man hadn’t been searched for.

In an unrelated but relevant matter, Swedish filmmaker Malik Bendjelloul, who directed Searching for Sugar Man, committed suicide last month. Tom Bernard, founder of Sony Picture Classics, had reportedly stated that he believed Bendjelloul was suffering from depression related to not being able to find a new story to film following Sugar Man‘s success.

Below, revisit the trailer for Searching for Sugar Man.