Bunny Wailer

Born Neville O'Riley Livingston on April 10, 1947, in Kingston, Jamaica, he grew up alongside Bob Marley — their parents had a relationship and lived together for a period. Like Marley and Peter Tosh, he was drawn to Trench Town's Third Street yard, where veteran singer Joe Higgs gave free harmony lessons to aspiring young vocalists in the early 1960s, developing the vocal blend that would define The Wailers.

The trio formally established The Wailers in 1963, recording their earliest ska sides for producer Coxsone Dodd's Studio One. The group evolved through rocksteady into roots reggae over the following decade, signing with Island Records in 1972 and releasing "Catch a Fire" and "Burnin'." In 1973 Wailer left the group, declining to join an international touring schedule he felt conflicted with his Rastafari beliefs, and began a solo career.

His solo debut, "Blackheart Man" (1976), is widely regarded as one of the essential roots reggae albums. He went on to win Best Reggae Album three times in the 1990s — for tribute albums to Bob Marley — and later received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and Jamaica's Order of Merit (2017). In 2013 he publicly clashed with Snoop Dogg over the rapper's reggae persona "Snoop Lion," accusing him of exploiting Rastafari culture for commercial gain.

As the last surviving original Wailer, he served for decades as a guardian of Rastafari orthodoxy and roots reggae's musical integrity, before dying on March 2, 2021, in Kingston at age 73, a death that marked the end of the founding Wailers generation.