Peter Tosh

Born Winston Hubert McIntosh on October 19, 1944, in Grange Hill, Westmoreland Parish, Jamaica, Tosh was largely raised by his aunt in Trench Town, Kingston, after a childhood marked by poverty. He taught himself to play guitar and, in the early 1960s, joined the free vocal-coaching sessions run by veteran singer Joe Higgs in a Trench Town yard. There he met Bob Marley and Neville "Bunny" Livingston (later Bunny Wailer), and under Higgs's mentorship the three began harmonizing together, laying the foundation for what would become The Wailers.

In 1963 Tosh, Marley, and Wailer formally founded The Wailers, initially recording ska and rocksteady singles for producer Coxsone Dodd's Studio One. As the group evolved into roots reggae and signed with Chris Blackwell's Island Records, Tosh became a co-lead vocalist, guitarist, and the band's most overtly political songwriter, co-writing "Get Up, Stand Up" with Marley in 1973. Frustrated that Blackwell and Island were promoting Marley as the group's sole star, Tosh left in 1976 to go solo, signing with CBS Records and releasing his debut album "Legalize It" that year.

His 1977 follow-up "Equal Rights" is regarded as a landmark of political reggae, confronting apartheid and racial injustice. In 1978 he signed to Mick Jagger's Rolling Stones Records, releasing "Bush Doctor" and dueting with Jagger on "Don't Look Back." That same year, at the historic One Love Peace Concert in Kingston, Tosh used his set to publicly berate Prime Minister Michael Manley and opposition leader Edward Seaga over marijuana laws and social injustice; weeks later he was severely beaten by Jamaican police, sustaining a fractured skull. He received two Grammy nominations and won posthumously for his final album, "No Nuclear War."

On September 11, 1987, Tosh was shot and killed during a home invasion at his Kingston residence by Dennis "Leppo" Lobban, a man Tosh had previously helped after his release from prison. He was posthumously awarded Jamaica's Order of Merit in 2012. Known as "Steppin' Razor," Tosh is remembered as reggae's most unapologetically militant voice, using his platform to campaign for marijuana legalization, Pan-Africanism, and the end of apartheid at a time when such stances carried real personal risk.