Biography - Bob Marley

Published by tuffgong971

Robert Nesta Marley was born 6 February 1945, in Nine Miles, Jamaica. His father was a white British Naval Officer called Norval and his mother, Cedella, was a black Jamaican teenager.

At 16, Bob released his first song entitled 'Judge not' and, in 1963 the original Wailers were formed. The line-up consisted of Bob, Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingstone (later to be known as Wailer) and group's first song 'Simmer Down' went straight to number one in the Jamaican Charts.

Haile Sellasie's visit to Jamaica three years later was a profound moment for the group, who consequently embraced Rastafarianism. Whilst the public were to see him as a weed-smoking hippie with dreadlocks, his followers in Jamaica revered him as a leader and a prophet. In 1972 the Wailers were signed to Island Records, and the release of 'Catch a Fire' in 1973 gave them international recognition.

But the touring proved strenuous and soon, both Bunny and Tosh quit to go their separate ways. As a result 'Bob Marley and the Wailers' were created, with the Barrett brothers and the 'I-Threes', who acted as backing vocalists (one of whom was Bob's wife Rita). Their first album 'Natty Dread' was a huge success.

Almost assassinated in 1976 in his Kingston home at 56 Hope Road, Marley was given the UN Peace Medal on behalf of 500 million Africans in 1978 for his humanitarian achievements. He headlined a Peace Concert that same year in Jamaica, bringing together Prime Minister Michael Manley and Edward Seaga, the leader of the opposition. But his greatest honor came when he was invited to headline the Zimbabwe Independence Celebrations in 1980.

He outdrew the Pope in Milan, fathered eleven children by seven different women, sold tens of millions of records worldwide, left a $30 million estate, and died at the young age of 36 from melanoma.