Bob Marley is a famous reggae singer, songwriter and musician who rose to fame first in his band The Wailers and then as a solo artist. He was born as Nesta Robert Marley on February 6, 1945 at Nine Mile, St. Anne, Jamaica, of Cedella Booker and Norval Sinclair Marley. Despite growing up in poverty, he surrounded himself with music and met several members of The Wailers in the future. Bob Marley joined the Rastafarian movement and this greatly influenced his musical style. Bob Marley and The Wailers worked with several famous musicians before they became famous themselves. His career flourished and he became a cultural icon. He is the first international superstar born into poverty in a third world country.
His mother raised him to be a Catholic, but once he got older, he became Rastafari, which is a religion that originated in Jamaica.
Bob Marley’s father was a white British naval captain. He was 50 and Bob’s mother was 19 when Bob was born.
Rastafari do not believe in cutting their hair, and they believe in healthy eating and generally not altering your body’s natural state. This is why Bob Marley started styling his hair in dreadlocks. He made the hairstyle popular all over the world.
Bob’s father forced Cedella to name him Nesta Robert Marley. Several years later it was changed to Robert Nesta Marley when an immigration officer said it sounded like a girl’s name.
Since his father was white, and because his skin was paler than some of his friends, Bob Marley was called “white” by his classmates.
Bob’s father was not around much while he was growing up.
Throughout his life, he was quoted saying that the color of your skin doesn’t matter, and it is far more important what kind of person you are. As he said, “Me don’t dip on nobody’s side. Me don’t dip on the black man’s side, not the white man’s side. Me dip on God’s side.”
Bob Marley is rumoured to have been capable of reading palms and predicting their futures. At the age of seven he gave it up and declared his new love to be music.
When Bob Marley was a little kid, he would read people’s palms to tell them their futures.
Bob Marley was born and raised Catholic, but became a Rastafarian when he got older, following this way of life and beliefs until his death. Rastafarians follow strict faith beliefs just as any religion.
In 1976, Rolling Stone magazine voted him (and his band) the “Best Band of the Year.”
Bob Marley and his friends formed the group The Wailing Wailers in 1963.
In total, Bob Marley is the father of 11 children.
Bob Marley married Rita Anderson in 1966. They would remain married until his death.
Bob Marley loved playing soccer so much that he was quoted as saying, “Football is freedom, a whole universe.”
Right after marrying Rita, Bob Marley went to live in the United States to earn money, working at a Chrysler plant, and as a lab assistant at DuPont Chemical.
While on tour, Bob Marley and his crew would play soccer before or after soundcheck.
In 1972 The Wailers got their big break when they signed a contract with Island Records.
Marley wasn’t supportive of weed for recreational use. He used it to meditate, and encouraged others to do the same.
Bob Marley’s friend Don Taylor managed him for many years. Bob eventually discovered that he was broke and learned that Don had been stealing from him all along. Bob beat him up and then fired him.
Bob Marley believed in the unity of all African people, regardless of whatever country they came from.
Bob Marley drove a BMW and claimed it stood for Bob Marley and the Wailers.
Originally, his band’s name was called The Teenagers, and after testing out a few names for a while, they called themselves The Wailers.
Although Bob and Rita stayed married until his death, it is rumoured that he had countless children out of wedlock.
In 1966, he moved to Delaware in the USA to be with his mother.
While performing in Jamaica in 1976 someone tried to assassinate him for his work to support the People’s National Party. He was shot and his wife was shot. They both survived.
He worked for DuPont as a a lab assistant, and was also an assembly line worker at the Chrysler plant on his second visit in 1969.
In 1977 it was discovered that Bob Marley had cancer in his toe. He refused to have it amputated as it was against his religion.
One of his most popular songs is “No Woman No Cry”; it made it to Rolling Stone’s top 500 songs of all time.
Bob Marley’s cancer spread to his vital organs and he died on May 11th, 1981 at the age of 36.
February became National Reggae Month in Jamaica in his honor.
Bob Marley was awarded Time Magazine’s Album of the Century Award in 1999, 18 years after his death. The BBC named his song “One Love” the song of the millennium. He has been given numerous awards for his music.
There is a life-sized statue of Bob Marley in Ethiopia.
He was one of the best-selling artists of all time, having sold more than 75 million albums.
In 1978, the United Nations gave him the Peace Medal of the Third World for all of his work being a voice of political justice for Jamaica and the African people.
