Born Robert Nesta Marley on February 6, 1945 in Nine Miles, (St. Ann) Jamaica, from a middle age
white father and a teenage Black mother, Robert Nesta Marley transcended the humility of his rural
beginnings to become not only a million-selling artist and stadium-filling entertainer but a nearly religious
figure whose pleas for brotherhood and justice achieved universal anthemic status.
At the young age of 16 he started singing professionally, releasing his first single "Judge Not" on
the Beverley's Label, under the names Robert Marley and Bobby Martell. However "Judge Not"
and its follow-up "One Cup Of Coffee" were not successful. Due to his musical hunger he asked
Joe Higgs to tutor him, Joe Higgs was a recording artist who coached local youngsters like
Marley, Bunny Livingstone, and Peter Tosh (who would become The Wailers) for free. Signed in
1963 to Coxsone Dodd's Studio One Label, The Wailers saw their first release, "Simmer Down,"
become an instant number 1. During the next two-and-a-half years, the group recorded over a
hundred songs, and at one point in 1965 they held five of the top ten slots on the Jamaican charts.
Noticing that they were not getting enough of the money made from there records, they formed
their own label, Wail 'n Soul 'm, in 1966. The Wailers continued a series of local hits, with little
financial remuneration. Following the album "Best of the Wailers" with producer Leslie Kong
(which may have lead to his own death), they joined forces with the seminal oddball producer,
Lee Perry, and produced an amazing series of singles that are collected under a variety of names
and remain their finest hour.
In 1972, Island Records president Chris Blackwell signed The Wailers to a record contract,
allowing them to release records under there new label, Tuff Gong, but after there first two albums
with Island, the group broke up, leaving Marley at the head of the band (now named Bob Marley
and the Wailers), to which he added a female backing trio, The I-Threes (Rita Marley, Judy
Mowatt, and Marcia Griffiths).
During his raise to fame Marley made his beliefs in Rastafari, well known to the observing public.
Most ignorant observers viewed Marley as a long haired, Herb smoking trouble-maker, but the
younger, more understanding youth say him as a leader. 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.
