Bob Marley.

Bob Marley’s father Norval, a European Caribbean man, left soon after his son’s birth on February 6, 1945 in Nine Miles, Saint Ann, Jamaica. He saw his son only a few times before dying in 1957. Raised by his mother Cedella Booker, Marley grew up in rural Jamaica and attended Stepney Primary and Junior High School.

In 1963, Marley formed the Wailers with Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston. They collaborated with Lee Scratch Perry, producing tracks like Soul Rebel and Small Axe. The collaboration ended in a dispute; the Wailers signed with Island Records and released Catch a Fire in 1973, followed by Burnin’ which included I Shot the Sheriff — later covered by Eric Clapton for a US number one. Tosh and Livingston left in 1974; Marley formed Bob Marley and the Wailers with his wife Rita as a backup singer. The albums Natty Dread and Rastaman Vibration followed. After an assassination attempt in 1976, he self-exiled to England where he produced Exodus, which remained on UK charts for 56 weeks. He returned to Jamaica in 1978 and released Survival in 1979, then toured Europe. In 1980 he performed at Zimbabwe’s independence ceremony and began a US tour, but collapsed while jogging in Central Park on September 21, 1980 due to cancer.

Marley married Rita Marley in February 1966; she introduced him to Rastafarianism, which he fully embraced by 1969. He had many children: with Rita, including Ziggy, Cedella, Stephen, and adopted Sharon and Stephanie. He also had children with other women, including Damian Marley with Cindy Breakspeare and Ky-Mani Marley with Anita Belnavis. During his exile in England, he lived with beauty queen Cindy Breakspeare, not with Rita, and wrote Turn Your Lights Down Low for her. He was an avid footballer and a Rastafarian who refused amputation of his cancer-affected toe due to religious beliefs.

Bob Marley brought reggae to a worldwide audience. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 and posthumously received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. Time magazine chose Exodus as the greatest album of the 20th century. He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Order of Merit in Jamaica. His posthumous compilation Legend remains one of the best-selling greatest hits albums. In 2006, New York City renamed a portion of Church Avenue in Brooklyn as Bob Marley Boulevard. He was the first superstar from the Third World and remains a symbol of peace and Rastafari culture.