Twenty-eight years ago, today, Robert Nesta Marley, better known around the world as reggae’s legendary singer-songwriter and musician, Bob Marley, died at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Miami, Florida, from cancer of the lungs and brain. He was 36. Marley’s death came nearly four years after he was first diagnosed with acral lentiginous melanoma, which was discovered in his big right toe. Staying true to his Rastafarian religious beliefs, Marley had refused amputation to stop the spread of the disease and by the time of his death the cancer had spread to his liver and stomach, in addition to his lungs and brain.
Easily the best-known reggae artist of all time, Marley cut his first single, “Judge Not,” in 1962, as a teenager. A year later he teamed up with fellow singers Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh, Junior Braithwaite, Beverly Kelso and Cherry Smith to form The Teenagers, the group that eventually became The Wailers. While working with legendary producer Coxsone Dodd in the mid-’60s, The Wailers scored several hits in Jamaica, including the chart-topping “Simmer Down,” but it was the group’s work with producer Lee “Scratch” Perry in the late-’60s that helped define the Jamaican sound as it is known today. In 1972 the Wailers signed with Island Records and released Catch A Fire (Tuff Gong/Island) a year later. The Wailers’ first international release received worldwide acclaim. The group’s sophomore album, Burnin’ (Tuff Gong/Island, 1973), which contained “Get Up, Stand Up,” as well as “I Shot the Sheriff,” a record Eric Clapton would cover a year later and turn into a pop hit, was also considered a success. But it was the 1975 album, Natty Dread (Tuff Gong/Island)—recorded with a new lineup under the name Bob Marley and the Wailers—that gave Marley his first international hit in “No Woman, No Cry,” and began to establish him as a revolutionary songwriter. Natty Dread’s follow up, Rastaman Vibration (Tuff Gong/Island, 1976), was also a hit, peaking at No. 8 on The Billboard 200.
Marley’s revolutionary reputation, and by extension, his legend, continued to grow in the late ’70s. In December 1976, he survived an assassination attempt two days before he was set to perform at “Smile Jamaica,” a benefit concert organized by the Jamaican Prime Minister in an effort to ease political tensions on the island nation. Despite suffering injuries in the attempt, Marley performed as scheduled, famously reasoning: “The people who are trying to make this world worse aren’t taking a day off, how can I?”
Marley was survived by his wife, Rita, and 12 children, many of whom—Cedella, Ziggy, Stephen, Ky-Mani, Julian, and Damian—have followed their father into the music business. To date, Tuff Gong/Island’s posthumous compilation, Legend, released in 1984, has sold more than 20 million copies, making it the best selling reggae album ever. In 1994, Bob Marley was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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