Reggae Icon dies at 73

By Kuti Hammed

Reggae Icon Bunny Wailer, a founding member of the Wailers and a reggae music giant whose career spanned seven decades, dies at 73. 

Maxine Stowe, confirmed that Wailer died on Tuesday at the Medical Associates Hospital in Kingston, Jamaica.Wailer, born Neville Livingston before his rise to stardom, he was known as Bunny Livingston and a he was a member of the original Wailers trio with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh.He was also the last surviving original member of the group, which also featured Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. Together they helped spread the music of Jamaica worldwide.Bunny Wailer was part of the founders of the seminal reggae group the Wailers, in performance in 2016.

A three-time Grammy Award winner, he is considered one of the longtime standard-bearers of reggae music. He was also known as Bunny Livingston and Jah B.Neville Livingston was born on 10 April 1947. He spent his earliest years in the village of Nine Mile in St. Ann Parish. It was there that he first met Bob Marley, and the two toddlers befriended each other quickly. The boys both came from single-parent families; Livingston was brought up by his father, Marley by his mother. Later, Wailer's father Thaddeus "Thaddy Shut" Livingston lived with Marley's mother Cedella Booker in Trench Town and had a daughter with her named Pearl Livingston.

In October 2018, Wailer suffered a minor stroke, resulting in speech problems. After suffering another stroke in July 2020, he was hospitalized at Andrews Memorial Hospital in St. Andrew Parish, Jamaica, where he eventually died on 2 March 2021 at the age of 73.