Rodriguez walks into the room wearing dark shades and clad in every shade of black. As he reaches out to shake my hand he looks every inch the rock star.
He has indeed been a star for years but for most of his life he didn't know it.
In the early 1970s in South Africa he was as famous as the Beatles and Bob Dylan. He was pretty well known in Australia too. His album, 'Cold Fact' won over fans with its heartfelt folk tunes charting the singer's personal struggles as well as those of the era.
His fans proclaimed his music to be the soundtrack to their lives and left-leaning Afrikaaner students heralded his songs for helping to galvanise youth resistance against apartheid.
"I had no idea it was being played. I thought it wasn't being heard. I didn't know much about South Africa and I don't think the world knew a lot but it certainly led to an economic boycott and I think Russia's going through that at the moment"
"Activism is always going to be the response to all these issues for young-bloods and for us we've gone through some of that and everything is unique to that situation," he says.
Yet he was living in relative obscurity in Detroit, struggling to get by and eventually ditching his music career to eek out a living doing construction jobs while living in a derelict house he bought for $50.
"Oh geez, well I had no idea it was being played. It didn't reach my information track until I got that information in ‘97. I thought it wasn't being heard. I didn't know much about South Africa and I don't think the world knew a lot but it certainly led to an economic boycott and I think Russia's going through that at the moment.
“I think the same issues confront young-bloods today as it did then and issues about justice," he tells me.
Watch the full interview with Rodriguez here:
Someone, somewhere was making money from his music but he never saw a cent. An Academy Award winning film "Searching for Sugar Man" was made in 2012. It documented his life, hidden success, tackled false rumours of his death and eventually won him a legitimate fan base.
"I consider Sydney the capital of the world in my experience. I'll be back, knock on wood."
He hopes this tour of Australia will make right some of the previous injustices he's endured.
“I do want to put closure to that and I'm heading towards that because of this wonderful tour that I'm on and we've got 16 shows in Australia and at that point everything is equal to get to some justice.
“I don't think it's one crook. It's a bunch of crooks. There's more than one cockroach in the kitchen like that.”
And he's paying Australia back too for its kindness and recognition over the years. He says he loves the place.
"I consider Sydney the capital of the world in my experience. I'll be back, knock on wood".
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