Sixto Rodriguez, the 71-year-old, homegrown musician whose story was told in the Oscar-winning documentary "Searching for Sugarman," could be getting some of the royalties on his music that's long been due.
Brian McCollum of the Detroit Free Press writes that a copyright and fraud lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court in Detroit against Clarence Avant, who signed the Detroit singer to a record deal more than four decades ago.
McCollum writes:
Rodriguez is not a direct party in the complaint, filed (Friday) in Detroit federal court by Gomba Music, which is owned by longtime Michigan music executive Harry Balk. But the musician does stand to benefit if Gomba is successful.
Speaking with the Free Press this evening, Avant denied wrongdoing.
“I think I’ve been pretty fair to Rodriguez all along,” said Avant, 83. “I wish him nothing but the best, because I think he deserves it. I admire the nerve.”
The Freep reports that Gomba claims it had an exclusive songwriting deal with Rodriguez that Avant ignored. Avant's Los Angeles-based Venture Records released the musician’s “Cold Fact” album in 1970.
The lawsuit claims Gomba holds songwriting copyrights for those Rodriguez songs.
The lawsuit alleges that that Avant devised a “fraudulent scheme” to credit the album’s compositions to others — including the musician’s brother — rather than to Rodriguez himself.
The lawsuit claims Gomba, as well as Rodriguez, failed to benefit from the album’s eventual success in apartheid-era South Africa, where it may have sold 500,000 copies.
Ever since the movie came out, Rodriguez has enjoyed a resurgence of popularity and has been doing tours around the world.
He is scheduled to play at Masonic Temple on May 13.
