And I don’t think he knew where the threat was coming from. Because although you had the Jamaican posse, there was another outfit of bad guys. Then you had another crew of Jamaican government bad guys. So I think he was a little leery after being shot and he wanted security and he got it.
ERROL BROWN: I hear Danny Sims say there were death threats against Bob but no, that’s not true—not Bob Marley, it was Skill Cole. He was with us, I don’t know about the politics of that part, but I know security was doubled up. ’Cause New York is New York; whole heap of bad men there. But it was cool, nothing no go on at all. It was smooth.
ROGER STEFFENS: Gilly Gilbert could sense the change in mood,
however.
GILLY GILBERT: That fall ’80 tour, the opening was just fucked up. The whole scene was just fucked up. The whole vibe with the people—something was wrong. They separated Bob from us, put him in the Essex House and we were staying at the Gramercy. The first tour we been on where Bob stayed at a different hotel than us, it was just weird.
ROGER STEFFENS: Meantime, the addition of Marley to the Garden show changed the whole dynamic of the event, as Sims had predicted.
DANNY SIMS: So just what I told Bob was going to happen, I said, “Bob, the Commodores are not drawing, and when they draw they only draw black people.” As soon as the tickets went on sale, the tickets sold out that day. Now isn’t that amazing, that now Bob Marley was added to the show and the tickets sold out? So guess who bought the tickets? White people.
GILLY GILBERT: At Madison Square Garden, Bob just hit them with his music and them feel no pain. It seemed to me that the American people were ready now for reggae music. Something is on its way: something good is going to happen for reggae and for reggae people. But there was something wrong during those times. Some weird vibes. But they were dynamite shows both nights.
DANNY SIMS: During the shows I was backstage part of the time, I was patrolling. I wasn’t worried as much as Bob was, but I don’t see how anyone would have been able to get to him, because we had the security there. And it wasn’t hard to get the guys, everybody lived in New York. So to come to the show and to be backstage, if you were a gangster, that’s great. You’re having fun, everybody’s sniffing cocaine and smoking marijuana, the place was full. So I think that that was incredible.
ROGER STEFFENS: His performances were ferociously received, but intimidating to his costars.
DANNY SIMS: When Bob Marley did that hour the black people in the audience got a chance to see him; there were a lot of Jamaicans there. So what happened was, by the time Bob Marley started to go off with the show, the audience was hypnotized, they just went crazy. And by the time he got to the last song—I think it was “Get Up Stand Up,” that was always a great closer—by the time he got to that last song, Bob Marley took the audience into a hypnotic state. And I felt bad for the Commodores. They came on to do three hours, and the audience walked out. Only their diehard fans, the black people, stayed. You know the Jamaicans aren’t going to stay for an R & B show, and the white people certainly they were not going to stay there, because they wanted to hear some rock and roll. More than half the audience left.
ERROL BROWN: The two shows we opened for the Commodores at Madison Square Garden, the first show Bob Marley and the Wailers had the audience on their heels and time was running out. The Commodores’ manager look at Vivian Phillips (Bob’s tour manager) and say, “Cut. Cut!” And Vivian told Bob he had to come off the stage, so he did, not doing “Could You Be Loved.” Pure noise. Pure screaming, they were forced to put Bob Marley and the Wailers back onstage, so Junior Marvin started that guitar intro. I could not hear the P.A., the audience was so loud, you can’t imagine. Madison Square Garden tore down! And when the Commodores came on with all their laser beams effects and explosions in the center of the stage, they just couldn’t move the audience, they were burnt out by Bob Marley and the Wailers, all the lasers and explosions in the center of the stage couldn’t wake them up. Lionel Richie asking them to “Get up! Get up! Let’s dance! Let’s party!” But they all sat down burnt out, burnt out by Bob Marley and the Wailers. It was something else. I could see people leaving too.
ALVIN “SEECO” PATTERSON: I remember when Bob finish, everybody walked out, nobody was even watching, just a couple of people.
JUNIOR MARVIN: I think a lot of people came expecting it to be just the Wailers. And when we performed, we played first. They thought the show was over.
DANNY SIMS: Bob opened the second night too. The Commodores’ ego—the headline in the New York Times was that it looked like a ghost town after Bob left the stage. The smartest thing that we did, for me to get Bob to agree, that if the lineup for the show was right the Commodores couldn’t follow him. And Bob knew that. So I think Bob played on that a little bit too. But the radio station didn’t know that. They just wanted to sell out the tickets and Commodores is their act. I don’t think that anybody other than Bob and me knew what was going to happen. But we didn’t know it was going to turn out as good as it did.
ROGER STEFFENS: Marley got the headlines and rumors abounded that there was much bad blood backstage because Marley had blown away the Commodores. Junior Marvin disagrees.
JUNIOR MARVIN: A lot of rumors go around about the vibes between us and the Commodores. We had a great time with them and they respected our music and we respected them. Timewise, it was difficult to get a sound check, but it was a great performance, everyone had a great time.
SEGREE WESLEY: I went both nights. I remember the Friday night when I went, paid for my wife and my daughter ’cause they wanted to go. I said once I get in I know I would just go down where the artists were. I didn’t get a good seat. I remember I said to my ex-wife, I’m gonna go around the back. And I walk out there and I saw Seeco and he says, “Segree, what you doing here?” He says, “Man, we’ve been looking for you.” So, then I went around the back and then, as a matter of fact, the duration of the show I was in the back with the group and Family Man and the rest. Well, that night he did me proud, you know? Because he stole the show from the featured artist, which was Lionel Richie and the Commodores. And when they were through, more than half of the audience walked. Both nights. The only difference, I would say the Saturday night had more of a mixed crowd than the first night. The first night was mostly whites. The second night was more mixed. But the first night, why it will always be embedded in the back of my head is that he was singing and he had the Garden, people in the Garden, standing up in unison. I mean, one section after another without, I mean like a rehearsal or such. He had them standing up before he even went into the song, which was “Get Up Stand Up.” And when he was through with it, I mean, they stood for a while before he even finished the next song. He doing the wo-yo-yo chant? And his jeans, as usual. I even teased him, I says, boy you love them jeans.
SEECO PATTERSON: That was a special one in Madison Square Garden, the last one, that was great, man, that was the best. I’m telling you bwoi, that was good. The performance, people appreciate it.
ROGER STEFFENS: The Garden shows represent Marley’s penultimate triumphs. With a series of shows with Stevie Wonder coming up, Bob seemed to be at the height of his powers. But fate had other plans.
DESSIE SMITH: After the show in Providence, prior to the Garden shows, there were no signs that Bob was sick. We were running around. The night before we went and got ice cream, just as usual. He was so happy. I remember I run a little joke with him because we used to stay in the same suite, so I said to him, “Bob, your friends stay up too late. You stay up all night. I need to get some rest. I need my own place.” And he lift up him sneakers and I say, “Bob, where you going?” Say him going upstairs. He went in the closet, he was moving. I say, “I move! Change me apartment.” So I got a big suite to myself! That’s how we are, like we love each other. But no, he showed no sign of sickness then.
Sunday, after the Garden shows, there were four or five guys there, Danny Sims and some of his friends. Shorts, sne
akers. They were going across the road to jog in Central Park. Everybody went: Skill Cole, Biggs. When he’s in New York, Biggs take care of Bob, bring him Jamaican kind of food stuff. But l had to stay in the hotel to monitor the phone. So where I was in the Essex House, I could see them going over the park. And when he came back he was with that kind of bad-man type of walk. He walks like a hot stepper! And he walked back. So when he came in the room I could tell that there was like a frightened look on his face. He didn’t say anything, he keep pacing back and forth, spinning round and round. Then he said, “Dessie, you hear what happened?” I said, “No.” Then he told me that him hook up [became paralyzed]. Then Skill tell me that he had fallen back and hooked up.
DANNY SIMS: You see, the tragedy next day, what happened, my brother Eddie was with us and every day we went to Central Park to play soccer. Although I don’t play soccer, I would exercise by running around the park, and my brother didn’t play either, but we were there in the park with him. Eddie was working for Sony at that time working on promotion. We were in the park now with Bob. Allan “Skill” Cole and Bob’s band formed his team. We were jogging to the soccer field, and as we approached it and started to play, all of a sudden Bob Marley had an epileptic-type fit, foaming at the mouth, and he said, “Allan, Allan.” He was like delirious, and the only thing he could say was, “Allan, Allan.” Allan took him in his arms and we walked him to Mount Sinai hospital next to where I lived and where he was staying with me.
DESSIE SMITH: When Bob told me, like, he had a seizure, that’s what he said. Anyhow, they decided to take him to the doctor to check him out because it was so serious. And when he came back, he was just like out of it. That’s the thing that surprised me really, he was just like limp. He wasn’t saying nothing. You could feel like something was wrong. There was this look on his face, you could tell that something serious, and him didn’t even tell me at the time. But Skill Cole came to me and told me don’t give Bob no weed to smoke. I still didn’t query anything further. Well, I know something is wrong, putting one and one together.
GILLY GILBERT: Seeco called me on Sunday and said, “Gilly, come to the hotel fast because trouble, boss.” So he started explaining to me that Bob went over to Central Park with some of the guys and he was jogging and while jogging he had like a relapse, he just collapse, had like a seizure, like when someone had epilepsy type of fits. Seeco told me that they tried to render help and stretch him out and let him deep breathe and he come around. Immediately they took him to the hospital for observation and they had him there for quite a while.
DANNY SIMS: Dr. Rothman then made an appointment at Sloan Kettering, the number one cancer hospital in the world. We saw the most renowned cancer doctor on the planet. They took Bob in and told us to come back: Milton Rothman my lawyer, Dr. Rothman’s brother, Allan “Skill” Cole and me and Bob Marley. They did a scan on him. But the doctor called us in another room to talk to the lawyer, Allan and myself. Now this is the first time I found out about the cancer; he said, “Bob Marley is probably the strongest man I’ve ever seen. I could see how he played soccer, and you’re getting ready for this soccer tour.” And he said, “But Bob Marley has more cancer in him than I’ve seen with a live human being.” He said his head was full of cancer, melanoma. And he knew Bob’s father had white origins. And he said that he had found out about the toe. He said that if Bob Marley had followed the instruction after he found out he had the cancer and cut off half of his toe, he’d live longer than all of us. He said, “Who’s going to tell him, Allan, you?” Allan said, “I can’t tell him.” He said, “You, Danny, or you, Milton?” So Bob was waiting for us to give him the results. And I don’t remember which one of us told him, but it wasn’t Allan. I think it was me. He said nothing. He held his head down, and I never saw him raise his head up again.
SEGREE WESLEY: I was in his hotel, I was by the hotel room on Monday. I remember I was there and he says to me he was going to Pittsburgh. He said he was going on tour and the bus was outside, you know? And I didn’t go to work that day. Then he was telling me he was having some problem with the keyboardist, Wya Lindo, ’cause he says he brought this girl from wherever, she was an American. And he says, well, it’s like they fighting and he told him that he’s either gonna have to get rid of the girl or he’s not gonna finish up the tour with them. But he never mentioned collapsing the day before in Central Park. He looked smaller, like he lost a lot of weight, ’cause I even said to myself, man Rasta, how you so maga [scrawny, sickly]—in Jamaican terms, it’s maga. He says to me, “Man, I’m not like you no more, you know, I man just eat fish and vegetables.” I said, “But Rasta, you look maga.” He said, “No, I’m all right. It’s only this toe.” Bob says it was only this toe give him some problems. Another thing we talk about is, he asked me which was the best song he ever sing? I said to him, “War.” He shook my hand and says, “Rasta, only you can know that ’cause I tell anybody out there, that is the best song, I don’t care what nobody say, you know. It’s that song.” But, I mean, he’s dead and gone but today I would say the best song now is “Redemption Song.” ’Cause the words are great. That’s my favorite song of Bob’s, yeah, “Redemption Song.”
GILLY GILBERT: Everything was kind of hushed, they tried to keep it down, keep things cool until they get the final results of the tests. We didn’t know anything until he flew into Pittsburgh. We had a meeting before the show. He told us everything that went down. We all knew that this was going to be the final show.
DESSIE SMITH: We didn’t know how sick he was until Pittsburgh. ’Cause I was in the changing room before the show and he was in the chair, out of it. I was there, cleaning off his shoe, and he was leaning all the way back in his chair. So him say, “Give me a little spliff.” And I give it to him. And you know what he did? Like he hide and did it. He took it and he finished it in the bathroom, he didn’t want nobody to see him. So it was showtime now and I walk to the side of the stage first, and he came up behind me and he said, “Dessie, keep an eye on me.” When he start playing, Skill Cole came up behind me, and I remember distinctly he said, “Dessie, this might be the last show Bob doing.” So I say, “Why?” And Skill say, “The doctor say he’s filled with cancer.” When I heard that, me knee just buckle. ’Cause I know something was wrong. I never seen Bob how he took it that hard. He had realized the reality of it, to really take it like that. ’Cause he was out from that day, saying nothing to me or to Neville. So it’s really after that show they decided to end the tour.
DENNIS THOMPSON: The final sound check in Pittsburgh lasted about an hour. I remember him singing “Another One Bites The Dust,” song by Queen. He just start the sound check with it, and I said to him, “Why you keep singing this song?” I say, “Is this your song?” And him say, “No.” I never heard Queen songs. I never know Queen. But Bob went to a concert by Queen at Madison Square Garden, and he said to me to come to the Garden and me say no. He went and that’s where he must have heard it. He kept singing this song, “Another One Bites The Dust,” and he laugh. At the time I didn’t even know about the incident in Central Park. I knew nothing about it. Even if the band knew, I wasn’t looking at them for that. For me it was business, getting my things right. If there was a problem before, I didn’t even know about it. I didn’t notice any sign of strain in his performance.
JUNIOR MARVIN: I think Bob went to Pittsburgh instead of going right into the hospital because Bob had a lot of determination. And he had a lot of faith in what he was doing. If he could have done a dozen more shows after that, he would have done it. If it was up to him, he would have kept on going. The reason why we stopped in Pittsburgh was because everyone was saying to him, “Bob, let’s go check out a doctor. Cut the tour.” I think Allan Cole convinced him that he should stop the tour. And because physically he was sorta run down, he accepted the idea.
Yet at that show in Pittsburgh you would never have known that he was sick. At the sound check that afternoon I remember he did “(Lord, I Gotta) Keep
On Moving,” but I think he did others as well. I remember that we had an intense sound check, because every sound check we do is always intense. We try to make sure that everything works properly, that everything is fitted right, that all the sound is balanced properly, and that we’re gonna give the best show we can give. And we went through the sound check just like any other sound check. There was no negative vibe about Bob or anything, you know? What happened after the sound check was that Allan Cole came to us and said, “We gonna cut this tour. We gonna finish this tour. This is the last concert for Bob Marley and the Wailers.” So we knew that this was the final show that we were about to play.
All I can remember is that I prayed, and I said to God, “If this is the show that You want us to go out with Bob with, please help me to do the best I could ever possibly do.” And I think every member of the band felt the same way. Let’s just do the best we could ever do, and let’s hope that it’s not the last show. To tell you the truth, during the show, the thought that this was the last show never crossed my mind once. Bob never made any kind of movement that would make you think that. He sang every song great. Every song was sung perfect. It was like any other show—he gave 110 percent. The show went flawless. Everyone tried not to make any mistakes at all. Not even half a note! And we were all totally behind Bob, totally in tune with Bob, it was just like magic, the audience went wild. In fact, I don’t even think that Bob believed that anything was really wrong with him. It was like he was trying to prove that, hey, nothing’s really wrong with me! And it was a great show. He did a perfect show.
So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley Page 39
