Bob Marley was a Jamaican singer and songwriter. He was born in a small village in Jamaica as Nesta Robert Marley. Later a Jamaican passport official would swap his middle and first name making him Robert Marley. The name stuck and he kept it as Bob Marley. As a child Marley suffered from prejudice due to his mixed ancestry but this negativity would only make him stronger in the years to come. 

Later in Life Marley became friends with a man named Neville “Bunny” Livingston whom he started playing music with. He left school at the age of 14 to make music with Joe Higgs, a local singer and devout Rastafari. It was at a jam session with Higgs and Livingston that Marley met Peter McIntosh (later known as Peter Tosh), who had similar musical ambitions. In 1963, Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh, Junior Braithwaite, Beverly Kelso and Cherry Smith formed a ska and rock steaky group called “The Teenagers”. After changing the band name many times it ended with “The Wailers”. Many years later Bob Marley split with “The Wailers”, and started working on his solo career. He continued recording with the group but only under the title “Bob Marley and The Wailers”. 

In 1975 Bob Marley had his first international breakthrough with the song “No Woman, No Cry”. The was followed by a breakthrough album Rastaman Vibrations which blasted the US charts landing him on the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks. Marley would later spend two years in London where he recorded two albums titled Exodus and Kaya. After getting in legal trouble over cannabis Marley returned to Jamaica to perform at political concert to calm warring parties. In 1977 Bob Marley would find out that he was very ill and was diagnosed with acral lentiginous melanoma. Little did Marley know this would later cause his dealth in 1981.

Fun Family Facts:

Bob Marley had many children. He had three children with his wife Rita, two adopted from Rita’s previous relationships, and the remaining seven with several different women.

Names of his children:

Imani Carole, Sharon,Cedella,David “Ziggy”,Stephen,

Robert,Rohan,Karen,Stephanie,Julian,Ky-Mani,

Damian, and Makeda.