Bunny Wailer, named Neville O’Riley Livingston at birth, came to prominence as a reggae artist, a percussionist, and one of three singers who made up The Wailers, an iconic reggae trio. The group was co-founded with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh in Jamaica in 1963. The Wailers achieved international success with their album “Catch a Fire”, a classic known for helping popularize reggae music and rastafarianism around the world.
Three-time Grammy winner Wailer was the last surviving member of the original group before he died on Tuesday, March 2, at Andrews Memorial Hospital in Jamaica. The cause of death was not announced; however, Wailer’s health was in decline for the last several years and he had a stroke this past July.
In 2017, Wailer received an Order of Merit from the Jamaican Government and the Reggae Gold Award in 2019.
Jamaica’s Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sports, Olivia Grange, spoke of Wailer’s contributions, “What Bunny Wailer has done for reggae, as one of the pioneers and standard-bearers of our country’s music, lives on. Let us hold dear Bunny’s music, his memory and his family.”
