Sixto Rodriguez, the Detroit musician who unknowingly found massive success in South Africa and became the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary Searching For Sugar Man, has died. “It is with great sadness that we at Sugarman.org announce that Sixto Diaz Rodriguez has passed away earlier today,” his website’s Twitter account posted this morning. “We extend our most heartfelt condolences to his daughters – Sandra, Eva and Regan – and to all his family.” No cause of death was provided. Rodriguez was 81.

Rodriguez was born in Detroit in the summer of 1942 to a Mexican father and a Native American mother. His parents named him Sixto because he was their sixth son. In 1967 he launched a music career, using the name Rod Riguez. Eventually he switched to the mononym Rodriguez and released a pair of albums on Sussex Records, Cold Fact in 1970 and Coming From Reality in 1971. As evidenced by song titles like “Inner City Blues,” his music often focused on the plight of the urban poor, a subject he had personal experience with. Stylistically, he pulled from folk-rock and psychedelia, writing with a natural smoothness and weathered, conversational warmth and drawing comparisons to the likes of Bob Dylan and Cat Stevens.

Rodriguez’s records sold poorly in the US, and he was dropped from his label while recording a third, still-unreleased album. In 1976, he quit music and purchased a decrepit house in Detroit for $50 in a government auction and continued to live there until the early 2010s. That’s when Rodriguez finally found his spotlight moment in the US, though his legend had long been building overseas.

As the 1970s rolled on, Rodriguez’s records started selling like crazy across Oceania and southern Africa, particularly in South Africa, where his anti-establishment themes resonated during the apartheid era. He’s said to have sold more albums in South Africa than Elvis Presley. In 1977, unbeknownst to Rodriguez, the Australian label Blue Goose Music released a compilation called Rodriguez At His Best featuring music from his two albums plus unreleased recordings from that shelved third LP. In South Africa, the comp went platinum via sales of bootleg copies. Rodriguez was both a nationwide sensation and a mysterious figure in South Africa; many fans believed he had died by suicide after quitting his music career.

Rodriguez learned of his success in Australia in time to capitalize on it, touring the country in 1979 and 1981. But he didn’t know about his fame in South Africa until 1997, when his daughter discovered a South African website dedicated to him. He then launched his first ever tour of the country, chronicled in the 2001 South African Broadcasting Corporation documentary Dead Men Don’t Tour: Rodriguez In South Africa 1998. He toured South Africa again in 2001 and 2005.

Rodriguez’s rise to cult stardom back home began around the turn of the millennium. His signature song “Sugar Man” was sampled on Nas’ “You’re Da Man” in 2001, and the DJ David Holmes opened his 2002 mix Come Get It I Got It with a cover of “Sugar Man” by Just Jinger and Paolo Nutini. “Sugar Man” was also featured in the 2006 Heath Ledger movie Candy. In 2009, the archival record label Light In The Attic reissued Cold Fact and Coming From Reality. The stage was set for Rodriguez’s Hollywood moment.

In 2012, Swedish director Malik Bendjelloul’s documentary Searching For Sugar Man premiered at Sundance. It tracked the efforts of two South African fans to uncover the truth about Rodriguez’s rumored death and his whereabouts. The movie won awards at Sundance and other festivals, becoming a critical sensation and a word-of-mouth hit. In 2013, it won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film’s success spurred a wave of interest in Rodriguez’s music, leading to appearances on Letterman, Leno, 60 Minutes, and other TV shows as well as extensive touring and festival dates. The Searching For Sugar Man soundtrack, another compilation of Rodriguez’s material, went gold in the US. He continued to tour for the rest of the 2010s, enjoying a late-breaking victory lap after years of obscurity.

Below, check out some of Rodriguez’s music.