Bob Marley’s life may have been tragically cut short at 36, but few individuals can claim as an enduring legacy as the reggae star turned international icon. Marley's image has become a totemic symbol for peace, unity and reggae, his songs have been a mainstay of popular music since the 1970s and, even now, Marley has the second-highest social media following of any posthumous celebrity. This year, the Marley family and Island records are rolling out a year-long commemorative celebration in honour of what would have been his 75th birthday, as well as the 40th anniversary of “Redemption Song”, which will see festivities take place across the globe, from a just-released official music video for the track, which highlights Marley's contribution to the empowerment of black civilisation, to recordings, exhibitions and unreleased material from the family's private vaults. In honour of this landmark moment, we've taken a deep-dive into Marley's past to separate truth from myth and bring you the definitive facts about the Jamaican legend.
His Childhood
Bob Marley was born Nesta Robert Marley in Nine Mile, St Ann Parish, Jamaica on 6 February 1945, to 19-year-old village girl Cedella Booker. His father, Norval Sinclair Marley, a white British naval officer who was around 60 years old at the time, met Cedella while working as a supervisor on a plantation. He had a reputation for bedding young local women and separated from Cedella shortly after Bob was born, remaining largely absent from his son’s life until he died suddenly from a heart attack when Bob was ten. It was Cedella who changed his name to Robert Nesta Marley, after a Jamaican immigration officer suggested that “Nesta” sounded too girlish.
HIs 'tuff gong' nickname
Marley had a notoriously hard time growing up because of his biracial heritage, especially after he and his mother moved from their rural village to Kingston when he was a boy. Jamaica was still under colonial rule, and there was a deep sense of distrust among the black community of white people, which saw Marley bullied by neighbours who derogatorily referred to him as “White Boy”. On the streets of Trenchtown, the impoverished neighbourhood he lived in, Marley would soon come to be known as “tuff gong” instead, because of his resilience, bravery and skill as a street fighter. The name, which Marley would later lend to numerous business enterprises, including his record label and recoding studios, was a nod to founder of the Rastafari movement, Leonard "The Gong" Howell, and was supposed to connote special abilities.
He could palm read
One of the weirdest Bob Marley facts out there is that he could apparently read palms as a child. Up until the age of about seven, he would study the palms of friends and neighbours and, remarkably, accurately predict their futures. This unsettled his mother somewhat, but that’s not the reason Marley’s palm reading was short lived. After returning to his rural village from Kingston, Marley told people that his destiny was to be a singer, and refused to read palms again for the rest of his life.
The Wailers were originally 'The Teenagers'
In 1963, Marley and his friends Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer started a ska band called The Teenagers, before renaming themselves The Wailing Rudeboys, then The Wailing Wailers and finally The Wailers. The young men spent much of their time listening to rhythm and blues on American radio stations, and used the word “wailers” as a reference to their social and economic position in the seriously deprived area of Trenchtown as “ghetto sufferers, born wailing”.
He lived in Delaware, USA
A little-known, somewhat surprising fact about Marley is that he actually lived in the US for a short time in the mid 1960s and then again, on and off, in the 1970s. He had initially followed his mother, Cedella Booker, to Delaware after she remarried, living close to her in the town of Wilmington, where she ran a Jamaican music shop called Roots. Amazingly, Marley worked as a lab assistant at Du Pont. Accounts of precisely how long he stayed in Delaware vary, but by 1969 he had moved back to Jamaica and resumed recording with the Wailers. He later returned to the US (his son Stephen Marley was born in Wilmington in 1972), but the Marley family have avoided specifying precisely how long for. At some point during the later period, he had a job at the Chrysler Assembly Plant in Newark, where he was allegedly paid under the name “Donald Marley”. “Night Shift”, which he wrote in 1976, is said to have been inspired by his forklift driving job in Chrysler's parts warehouse.
His wife
Bob Marley married Alpharita Constantia 'Rita' Anderson in Kingston, Jamaica, on February 10, 1966, when he was 21-years-old. The pair remained married until the day he died, making Anderson the most powerful broker of Marley’s assets, but their relationship wasn’t without its ups and downs. Extra-marital affairs (on both sides) featured regularly, with Marley conducting a slew of relationships with high-profile figures, from 1976 Miss World Cindy Breakspeare, to Caribbean table-tennis champion Anita Belnavis. Anderson had two other children to different men while married to Marley, a move speculated to have been made out of jealousy of her husband’s affairs.
His children
Marley’s website officially acknowledges 11 children, although the ”real” number is disputed, given the number of litigants who tried to stake their claim to the “Marley millions” after Bob’s death. When Marley and Anderson married, he adopted her daughter from a previous relationship, with the couple going on to have three of their own children: Cedella Marley, David “Ziggy” Marley and Stephen Marley. While they were married, Marley had eight other children with eight other women, many of whom, like Ziggy and Stephen, have also gone on to be musicians. This includes Grammy nominee Julian and reggae artist Ky-Mani Marley, as well as the most high profile, Damian Marley, a Grammy-winner who was born in 1978 to Cindy Breakspeare, best-known for his hit “Welcome To Jamrock” and a collaborative album with rapper Nas. Marley’s grandchildren are getting in on the act, too, with Island Records reggae prodigy Skip Marley doing particularly well (see his recent collaboration with H.E.R for proof).
He was shot during an assassination attempt
On 3 December 1976, armed gunmen stormed Marley’s Hope Road in a politically-motivated assassination attempt that saw him shot in the chest and arm. Four others, including Rita Marley, were also shot and extraordinarily, there were no fatalities, although Marley’s manager Don Taylor was very seriously injured. Two days later, Marley was due to headline The Smile Jamaica concert, in an effort to promote national unity during a period of political violence in Jamaica.
The story behind 'Three Little Birds'
According to Marley’s long-time friend Tony Gilbert, the hit song has a sweet, simple origin: “Bob got inspired by a lot of things around him, he observed life. I remember the three little birds. They were pretty birds, canaries, who would come by the windowsill at Hope Road.” It might be some of his best-known work (“Don’t worry about a thing, because every little thing, gonna be all right” must surely be up there with the most referenced song lyrics in history) but, actually, this wasn’t released as a single until 1980 and it didn’t even make the Top 10 in the UK
Marley and marijuana
The godfather of ganja, Marley is closely associated with cannabis. The most enduring image of the reggae star in pop culture is with a spliff in hand, smoke billowing, and his face has been slapped on everything from T-shirts and hats to ashtrays and rolling papers. But his advocacy of herb was more serious than those university room posters would suggest. As a Rastafarian, smoking weed was a religious ritual for Marley, who believed wholeheartedly in its spiritual and medicinal properties. It’s rumoured that he smoked around 18 joints a day, saying, “Herb is a plant. Herb is good for everything.” The Marley estate launched its own brand of cannabis, Marley Natural Fine Cannabis, in 2016 in a bid to get in on the medical marijuana market.
Rastafarianism
An offshoot of christianity, Rastafarianism is a political and religious movement inspired by Ethiopianism and Pan-Africanism, which emerged in Jamaica in the 1930s. While Marley was raised a Catholic, he became interested in Rastafariansm when he moved to Kingston as a teenager, before converting during the 1960s (his wife Rita was also a devout Rasta). He was – and still is – by far the most famous Rastafarian of all time, taking its message of peace, unity and love to the world through his music. While there’s no formal creed, the most important doctrine within Rastafarianism relates to the Ethopian Emperor from 1930-1974, Haile Selassie, who many rastas believe was the second coming of Christ (and so God, or “Jah”, incarnate). Other well-known tenets are a focus on the natural, which includes a strict “ital” (vegetarian) diet and a ban on cutting your hair (hence: dreadlocks).
He was a huge football fan
Aside from music, football was Marley’s major passion in life, and he surrounded himself with people from the sport. In the 1970s, he made Jamaican international footballer Allan "Skill" Cole his tour manager, and was regularly spotted playing with his team in parks, fields, car parks and even in recording studios. Marley's club of choice is a subject of some debate, with many suggesting that he supported Tottenham Hotspur, although we know for sure that he was a huge Pelé fan, and was very into the Brazil team generally. He once told a journalist, “If you want to get to know me, you will have to play football against me and the Wailers.”
The United Nations gave him the Peace Medal
In June 1978, Marley was given the The United Nations Peace Medal of the Third World at a ceremony in New York. Held at the Waldorf Astoria, it was presented by African delegates in recognition of Marley's efforts on behalf of millions of disenfranchised black people around the world.
He's the fifth highest-earning posthumous celebrity
Marley ranks at number five on the Forbes list of top-earning dead celebrities, with his estate pulling in $20m in 2019 – more than the likes of Prince, Marliyn Monroe and John Lennon. Forbes puts it mostly down to the music, given that he raked in almost one billion streams in the US last year alone, saying it’s this that fuels sales of House of Marley products, from speakers to turntables.
How he died
There are many persisting rumours that surround Marley’s tragic death from cancer aged just 36, but the truth is quite simple. In July 1977, doctors found a malignant melanoma in his toe, which was discovered because of a football injury (contrary to urban legend, the injury did not cause the cancer, and was merely a symptom of). The doctors recommended he have the toe amputated, but he refused because of religious reasons, and by 1980 the cancer had spread throughout his body. Marley attempted an alternative cancer treatment at a Bavarian clinic, but when it became apparent it wasn’t helping, he decided to return to Jamaica to end his days. Sadly, Marley never made the full journey from Germany to Jamaica, and died on route in Miami in May 11, 1981. Marley was buried in his homeland along with a football, his Gibson Les Paul Guitar and a bud of marijuana.
