What Happened To The Wailers After Bob Marley Died?

The late, great Bob Marley was more than just the most iconic reggae artist of all time — he virtually personified the genre. Before him, reggae was a purely Jamaican form, extremely limited in its global reach; after his rise to fame, it became a global phenomenon, making him the rising tide that lifted the boats of every reggae artist to come after him. As a songwriter, performer, and lyricist, he was simply extraordinary — but even though he was reggae's most recognizable and accomplished ambassador, he wasn't alone in elevating reggae from the slums of Trenchtown to the world stage.

Since Marley's first professional dabblings in music in 1963, he partnered with some of the greatest musicians to ever play reggae — and after cycling through a couple of early monikers, Marley's band became known as the Wailers. The band underwent several lineup changes even before Marley's death from cancer in 1981, and after his passing, virtually everyone who had ever been a Wailer had at least some degree of continued success either as a solo artist or with other outfits. Some lived to a ripe old age, more than one died tragically young, and some are still living today — and all of them, in their own ways, honored the legacy of the man who shined a light on their talents for the world to see.

Born Neville Livingston, Bunny Wailer — the only member of the band to christen himself as such — had been close with Bob Marley since the two were children. They were both teenage musicians under the tutelage of Joe Higgs, a Jamaican musician considered to be the "Godfather of Reggae," when they met Peter Tosh and took on several other members, including Franklin "Junior" Braithwaite and a pair of backing vocalists, to form the first iteration of the Wailers. 

Livingston also departed the band around the same time as Tosh, after the strain of their first international tour caused tensions within the band to come to a boiling point. Over the course of a quarter-century both before and after Marley's death, he recorded no fewer than 18 albums, scoring himself three Grammy awards (two of which were for Marley tribute albums). Since 2000, he had been retired from recording, although he had a difficult time staying off the stage. Asked about his legacy in a 2016 interview with Afropop, he said, "I would just like to keep on singing. That's my legacy. To be here to sing for you people, and to teach you people of what I've known by singing this music." In 2020, Livingston was hospitalized after suffering a stroke — his second — and he passed away in March 2021 at the age of 73.

Even though he left the band before the period of their greatest success, the credentials of Franklin "Junior" Braithwaite as a Wailer are unimpeachable. The fourth founding member of the group, Braithwaite lent his strong lead vocal to "It Hurts To Be Alone," the stellar follow-up to their breakthrough hit in Jamaica, "Simmer Down" (which featured Bob Marley on lead). Braithwaite appeared on dozens of early Wailers tracks produced by Coxsone Dodd, who presided over the boards for the legendary Jamaican record label Studio One — but despite his regular presence (and the contributions of backup vocalists Beverley Kelso and Cherry Smith), the Wailers were often billed as a trio, which may have something to do with why Braithwaite chose to relocate to the U.S. to pursue a medical career in the mid-'60s. 

Unfortunately, that didn't work out, and Braithwaite foundered in the United States. After Marley's death, he returned to Jamaica to take part in a new Wailers project, an LP titled "The Never Ending Wailers," with Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh. That LP failed to set the world on fire, but Braithwaite was doggedly pursuing a return to reggae stardom when he was tragically murdered in 1999, at the home of a friend in Kingston who was apparently the target of a robbery. According to MTV News, Kingston Police spokesman Roland Layne said that Braithwaite was simply "in the wrong place at the wrong time" — a sad end to a man whose exclusion from the spotlight during the Wailers' glory years was perhaps undeserved.

In the late '70s, the Wailers already had one extraordinary keyboard player in Tyrone Downie — but when Earl "Wya" Lindo, who had played with the band on their 1973 release "Burnin'," decided he wanted back into the fold, Bob Marley couldn't say no. Wya (from the Jamaican pronunciation of "wire," as Lindo was a skinny dude) had taken off in 1974 to play for Taj Mahal, but he rejoined the Wailers four years later to contribute his own special brand of keyboard magic, alongside Downie, to three of the band's most iconic LPs: 1978's "Babylon By Bus," 1979's "Survival," and 1980's "Uprising." 

After Marley's death, Wya remained with the Wailers — playing on several LPs for the incarnation of the outfit known as the Wailers Band — while carving out side work as a session player for the likes of Delroy Wilson, Alpha Blondy, and even the late, great singer-songwriter John Denver. Unfortunately, Wya struggled with drug addiction, and in 2017, he was admitted to a London hospital, where he died of heart failure at the age of 64. Speaking with the Jamaica Observer, Marcia Griffiths — a backing vocalist for the Wailers — had praise for his singular talent. "He had a signature sound ... He was the best musician," she said. "Bob Marley did love [his] sound, that's why he had two keyboard players, Tyrone Downie and Wya."

American Al Anderson was a session guitarist for Island Records in the early '70s, with experience working with the likes of Aerosmith and Traffic, when he received a daunting appointment: He had been tapped to play lead guitar on the Wailers' album "Natty Dread," for which Bob Marley and producer Chris Blackwell were in search of a little international flavor to expand the band's sound. In a 2010 interview, Anderson revealed that with the tracks mostly finished, he showed up for what he called one of the hardest sessions of his career, a session during which he learned to orient his playing style — which leaned toward bluesy rock — to the context of each song. "I geared on what I heard and how [Marley] worded the song, where the emotion of the song was," he said. "It was a real tough session for me."

It was one that paid off. He went on to play on a number of classic Wailers records including "Survival" and "Uprising," and he remained with the band after Marley's death, accompanying them on a European tour alongside Black Uhuru. In 2008, after a falling out with Aston Barrett, he convened a band he called "The Original Wailers" — which, as he explained in the 2010 sitdown, refers more to the original spirit of Marley's music than to the band's membership, which in fact features no actual original Wailers. The band received a Grammy nod for its album "Miracle" in 2013, and continues to perform to this day.

It may not surprise you to learn that Bob Marley's wife Rita is known as the "First Lady of Reggae," and she has earned the title. As one-third of the I-Threes, the Wailers' backing vocal combo, she helped to lend an expansive, soulful sound to their recordings; the group was put together by Rita in 1974 in response to Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer (and their distinctive harmony vocals) departing the band. In the wake of her husband's death, Rita was often consumed with handling the legal issues associated with his estate — but she found the time to continue on as a solo artist, making her debut with the 1981 LP "Who Knows It Feels It."

The same year, she garnered her first Grammy nomination for "Reggae Sunsplash '81: A Tribute to Bob Marley," a feat she repeated with her 1991 effort "We Must Carry On." In between, she helped to guide her son Ziggy Marley in his musical endeavors, which worked out pretty well; to date, he has recorded no fewer than 19 albums, taking home eight Grammy awards on 15 nominations. In a 2022 Guardian interview, Ziggy Marley acknowledged his mother's pivotal role in his father's life and career, saying simply, "Bob wouldn't be Bob without Rita." Rita Marley released her last studio album in 2004, and has essentially retired, performing live for the last time in 2012.

Alvin "Seeco" Patterson (pictured left) became acquainted with Bob Marley when the latter was just a teenager; 15 years Marley's senior, he developed a paternal attitude toward the young man, and he could hardly have played a more pivotal role in his journey. Patterson was the man who dragged the newly formed Wailers into Studio One for an audition, leading to the recording of "Simmer Down" — the outfit's first hit record. A miner by trade, Patterson was convinced to leave his dangerous profession behind as the Wailers grew in prominence, accepting an invitation to join the band as a percussionist.

When Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer exited the band, Patterson's musical contributions grew, and he entrenched himself as a core member of the outfit, remaining so until Marley's death. Patterson was actually with Marley when the latter collapsed while jogging in New York's Central Park ahead of his first big U.S. tour, which led to his cancer diagnosis, and he stayed by his friend's side throughout his treatment. Patterson continued on with the Wailers after Marley's passing, but his musical career was cut short by a medical issue of his own — a 1990 brain hemorrhage, which prompted his near-complete retirement from music. Patterson passed away at the age of 90 in 2021.