Having wasted his early years on drugs and notorious acts, Joseph Manuel Da Rocha ended up being one of the most popular musicians in the country and the world.
He set up his music group, Slow Joe & The Ginger Accident. He even released various albums.
A biopic entitled Slow Joe, based on his life story, is all set to feature Indian actor, Jackie Shroff. It is produced by Shreyasi Sengupta for Darpan Global (Singapore) and and co-produced by Singapore-France-India co-production. Slow Joe will be released in French, English and Konkani.
The film narrates the story of the late musician, who was a former heroin addict and drug dealer, born in Mumbai, and was disowned by his family. At 50, he moved to Goa to start over.
According to reports by Variety, the musician then met Lyon-based French musician, Cedric de la Chapelle, and he sang for de la Chapelle, who recorded some of his a capella songs and played them to music producer Olivier Boccon-Gibod, of Horizon Musiques, in France. This got sold and Joe and de la Chapella set up 'Slow Joe & The Ginger Accident' music group.
Jean-Louis Brossard, director of Transmusicales, one of the biggest French music festivals, at Rennes, heard the songs arranged by the group and they then performed at the 2009 Transmusicales, and the show was a big success.
They released several albums, the first being Sunny Side Up, which was a success and he did several sell-out tours in France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, India, Belgium, Germany etc. The second album was Lost for Love.
By early 2016, the group had performed over 250 concerts. However, Slow Joe died due to a fatal heart attack. Following his death, the third album, Let Me Be Gone, was released in 2017.