Peter Tosh
biography
Reggae artist Peter Tosh was born in rural Jamaica on October 19, 1944. There, he started the band the Wailers with Bob Marley
and Bunny Wailer, and the three rose to fame as successful musicians. Tosh
enjoyed musical success after leaving the Wailers and embarking on a solo
career. Tosh was killed during an attempted robbery at his Jamaica home in 1987.
Early life
Internationally renowned reggae artist Peter Tosh was born Winston
Hubert McIntosh on October 19, 1944, in Westmoreland, Jamaica, to a pair of
parents too young to raise him. Instead, Tosh was raised by his aunt in Grange
Hill. Early in his childhood, and inspired by American radio stations, Tosh
exhibited a talent for singing and learned how to play guitar — one he stole
from his mother's church, according to a review by the Los Angeles Review of
Books of Colin Grant's The Natural Mystics: Marley, Tosh and Walker.
In the early 1960s, Tosh moved from the countryside to the Trench Town
slum of Kingston and began selling sugarcane juice from a cart. In was then
that he met Robert Nesta Marley (Bob Marley) and
Neville O'Riley Livingston (Bunny Wailer). All three
began visiting voice teacher Joe Higgs, and, as they developed their musical
talents, decided to form a band called The Wailers in 1962.
The trio started out playing covers of American pop hits. As they slowly
rose to fame, The Wailers' sound changed and they became "masters of the
slinky, driving rhythm known as reggae," according to the Review of Books.
By the early 1970s, The Wailers, who had expanded by several new members, were,
according to an article in The New York Times, "the most popular and
admired of all reggae groups."
From its inception to the present, The Wailers band has sold more than
250 million albums worldwide and, in England alone, released more than 20 chart
hits, including seven Top 10 entries. But Tosh, along with Bunny Wailer, left
the group in 1973. Tosh began producing his own music. He released his solo
debut, Legalize It, in 1976 with CBS Records company. The
following year he released the album Equal Rights. Both albums were a testament
to Tosh's belief in the Rastafari religion, to which
he had converted in years prior, and his endorsement of marijuana legalization.
Tosh's solo work caught the attention of Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, who signed him to their own
label in 1978. They also appeared with him on his Bush Doctor album; Jagger performed a duet with Tosh on the Temptations' hit
"(You've Got to Walk and) Don't Look Back." The collaboration
introduced Tosh to a larger audience.
As his career took off, Tosh began traveling
the world, but he returned to Jamaica often to see family and friends. He was
killed there on September 11, 1987, at the age of 42.
According to the Associated Press, at around 8:30 p.m. that day, three
armed men on motorcycles arrived at Tosh's home in the Kingston suburb of St.
Andrew, entered the house and attempted to rob its occupants, Tosh and six
others, including his common-law wife Andrea Marlene Brown and health-food
maker Wilton "Doc" Brown; The gunmen shot all seven after they
refused to give up their money, the AP said.
Legacy
Reggae fans and artists mourned Tosh's death, but celebrated his legacy.
He is still known as the most controversial member of The Wailers, according to
The Jamaica Gleaner newspaper, which wrote that "he ruffled many a feather
with his unapologetic stance on issues [such as] black liberation and the
legalization of marijuana."