Sixto Rodriguez laughs more than a couple of times during the interview. Not least when, out of a sense of cautious respect, it was hinted that one of the forthcoming questions might border on the impolite.
"It's OK," he says, reassuringly. "You're talking to the legend."
It's a warm laughter that carries over into his answer to the question of how long the 74-year-old thinks he will be able to continue touring. 
"We do one tour at a time," he says. "But we're looking forward to Australia. It's a long drive down there."
And there is that laughter again. And who can blame him for being in a good mood.
His story is a moving, powerful tale of musical redemption. Unknown in his home country of the US for more than 40 years after the release of his debut album, Cold Fact, it is no secret that all that has since changed for the soulful, sensitive wordsmith. 
Documented in the must-see 2012 film Searching for Sugar Man, Rodriguez had unknowingly achieved cult status in late apartheid South Africa. 
The Oscar-winning documentary is an emotional journey about two fans' search for Rodriguez that climaxes with him on stage before thousands of adoring South African fans, when he toured there for the first time in 1998.
But that is just one part of his story. Before the crowds in South Africa, the gentleman poet was brought to Australia in 1979 and 1981, where record label Blue Goose Music was releasing his albums.
Speaking about his Australian adventures - "the film certainly helped my career," Rodriguez says. "But in '79 and '81, I was starting to get out there."
Indeed, he was. Rob Hirst of Midnight Oil has been quoted as saying that all his friends owned a copy of Cold Fact. It was fitting then that Hirst, and two other members of Midnight Oil (Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey) were Rodriguez's backing band for his 2013 tour here.
But in the early '80s, fate, in Rodriguez's words, "wasn't there". It would take some years before he would receive international fame. Nevertheless, playing Australia definitely cemented a love for our country in his heart.
"When I first got back from Australia, anything Australian, the ballet from Brisbane, anything Australian, I was in the audience, you know."
But it is performing to Australians, rather than watching them, that really brings Rodriguez alight.
"Australians are very vocal people. Very much so," he says. "And the audience generates a lot of the action."
That awareness a performer has of the audience is definitely something that influences his craft.
"I know they listen," Rodriguez says. "You can almost sense it at the concert. So I gotta be right. For me, I'm trying to deliver what they came to hear. It's exhilaration. It's as physically draining as doing a football season or something. So I have a good time with it."
Speaking from his home town of Detroit Rodriguez is preparing for more tours. 
"This is a pretty exciting schedule for me," he says. "We start in   July and we do Europe, and we do nine dates there, so we don't have time to rest. Then we do Canada."
And, after that, he takes that long drive down to Australia.

Rodriguez is at the Convention and Exhibition Centre, Brisbane, on   November 12; the State Theatre, Sydney, on   November 15; the Derwent Entertainment Centre, Hobart, on   November 21; the Plenary, Melbourne, on   November 25; The Barton Theatre, Adelaide, on   November 29; and Kings Park and Botanic Garden, Perth, on   December 10.