Close-up: Sixto Rodriguez

The rumours of Sixto Rodriguez's death were greatly exaggerated. As his Cold Fact album, recorded in 1969, became a word-of-mouth favourite in mid-1970s South Africa and Australia, one fan even claimed to have seen this sixth son of Mexican immigrants from Detroit, Michigan, shoot himself on stage.

The rumours might have persisted, had the internet not intervened. By the mid-1990s, two South Africans, raised on Cold Fact's blend of hippie politics and funky folk-rock, launched a website called The Great Rodriguez Hunt. Where was this forgotten genius, they asked. The answer came via email on 14 September 1997. "Rodriguez is my father! I'm serious," wrote Eva Alice Rodriguez Koller.

"I belong to the old century," says Sixto Rodriguez, 67, today. "But Eva was tuned in and that email really opened up so much for me." Since then, there have been tours, a cover of his signature song "Sugar Man" by David Holmes, and the opportunity for Rodriguez to travel the world and play live – something that never happened during that first, all-too-short musical career. "I spent years working anywhere, even in a laundry. I'm not worthy," he says.

And has his message remained the same over the years? "You can't change the world, so stay comfy-cosy, man. Oh, and we got to get Mugabe out of Zimbabwe."

Rodriguez plays the Barbican Hall on Saturday (www.barbican.org.uk)