10 Real Truths You Never Knew About Bob Marley

Bob Marley, the most culturally recognizable reggae musician, Tragically, he was lost in 1981 to complications stemming from the spread of melanoma to his lungs and brain.

Much the way that Che Gueverra was usurped, Marley’s identity has been appropriated by modern pop culture. We project assumptions and wear t-shirts with his face on them, but do we represent him accurately? Do we acknoweldge the man, or just who we’ve decided he was?

In honor of truth, honor and justice, here are ten things you need to know about Bob Marley:

1) Bob Marley Could Predict The Future

Lost in the millionth spin of “No Woman, No Cry” is the understanding of just how mystical Marley really was. As a small boy, he was deadly accurate at palm reading, and the predictions he made would often come true. People would get really freaked out at the time, but they should have just known that a prophet was among them.

2) He Had A Weird Way Of Recognizing His Children

No one knows exactly how many children Bob Marley had, but it’s approximated to be around 20. With all those kids, and with people claiming to be your children all the time, you have to use special skills to identify your progeny. In Marley’s case, he said he could always tell when someone was his kid because they talked out of the side of their mouth just like he did.

3) His Original First Name, Nesta, Was Switched With Robert

No one knows why Bob Marley’s father, a 50-year-old white British naval captain named Norval Sinclair Marley, named his son Nesta Robert Marley. He was very specific about Nesta, and how it was to be spelled. At some point in Marley’s childhood, though, people told him that Nesta sounded like a girl’s name and he swapped it with Robert, becoming Robert Nesta Marley.

For such a brave, rebellious guy, it seems strange he’d give into hetero-normative distractions like that. But Marley’s life was one of contradictions, dealing with the different parts of himself and the worlds that were at war with each other.

4) When He Was 21, Bob Moved To Delaware For Seven Months

Imagine the culture shock of leaving beautiful Jamaica for droll, dreary Delaware? Even worse, Marley didn’t come for some glorious musical opportunity; instead, he worked a night shift at Chrysler, drove a forklift at a factory and was also a lab assistant. Marley learned that hard work pays off, but perhaps not in the way he expected, with his music career exploding in the following years.

5) He Spent A Month In Jail For Weed

Over some weed?!? That’s right; we lost a month of potential output from one of the world’s greatest musicians over pot possession. These days you might spend a night in jail for pot, unless you’re carrying weight, but to think that it was a month at one point is ludicrous. Stop jailing the people! At least his time in prison made Marley more politically aware and active.

6) He Was Buried In Jamaica

…with a soccer ball, his Gibson Les Paul guitar and a bud of marijuana — the holy trinity.

7) He Drove A BMW

You might think Bob was anti-corporate, but he loved him some German engineering. Also, it seemed fated: Bob interpreted it as standing for “Bob Marley and the Wailers.”

8) Bob Marley Conspiracy

Some people believe that the CIA, which was doing heavy work to destabilize Jamaica in the 1970s, conspired and succeeded in getting Bob Marley shot, in the hopes that his death would result in chaos and violence on the island. While unproven, it definitely sounds like the kind of thing the 1970s CIA would be into.

9) He Had The Best Quote About America, Perhaps Ever

“America is pure deviltry, dem t’ings dat go on there. Dem just work with force and brutality. Dem lock out the punk thing because they see something happening. So the oppressors bring another man to blind the youth to the truth, and dem call him-John Tra-vol-ta.”

If that doesn’t sum up existence perfectly, nothing will. John Travolta, Bob Marley predicted your creepy, blinding future first.

10) Lee Scratch Perry, Marley’s Greatest Producer, Still Lives On

Grammy winner and mad-genius producer, Lee Scratch Perry burns pounds of weed in his fireplace, defecates in his cups and dishes, and is known as the innovative wunderkind that helped develop the sound of reggae more than anyone else. At 77, Perry is one of the last remaining conduits of Marley and his music, and should be revered as such.