Interview with Al Anderson – Bob Marley Guitarist
Brad Cooney: Alright, Brad Cooney.com with a welcome to the show Mr Al Anderson of course,
former guitarist for the legendary Bob Marley and The Wailers. Al, thank you very much, actually,
its an honour to talk to you.
Al Anderson: Likewise, yes, thank you for this time.
BC: Really appreciate you coming on the show. Alright, so before we talk about your concert, just
tell me a little bit about – I want to go way back. I mean I know of course the whole Bob Marley
thing but I want to focus more so on your current projects, but I do want to touch a little bit on your
early days like when you go back to when you were a kid, and what was introduced to you as far as
musically? Like when did you first become interested in making music?
AA: Man, it was at Ed Sullivans show. I saw, like, Chuck Berry and James Brown, The Beatles,
you know, all the incredible artists that came on and sold that show and it was Hee Haw. Hee Haw
had cats like Vince Gill when he was like 14 and, uh, all these incredible guitar players. You know,
Ted Ainkins...
BC: Yeah!
AA: And so, Hee Haw and Ed Sullivan. And then I saw Elvis and The Beach Boys and I just was
like hey man, this is acing, you know? The world of entertainment had so many, uh, it was a big
puzzle that all comes together when you see a group of guys singing and rhythmically playing in
harmony. And thats what I wanted to do, I figured it out that, you know, I wouldn’t be into sports all
my life, you know? And uh, a little bit, um, it really wouldn’t – when I get older and I have all these
injuries... Somebody just came into the room, let me just get that..
BC: No problem
AA: Yeah, it was like this is what I want to do and I was totally satisfied with my humble
beginnings of, uh, sports – you know – football, basketball, baseball can only take you so far. Music
took me around the world when sports didn’t, so...
BC: Right
AA: I was really thankful just to fall into being a performer and a guitar player.
BC: When did you first play guitar and, and like, what was your first guitar all about? Like, who
gave you your first guitar and did you take lessons or were you self taught?
AA: Um, man, my thing was, uh, it started kinda like, in high school where I was in the Glee Club
and I had a really cool vocal trainer who was teaching us harmony and melody and stuff. And like,
during when Christmas would come around and the Marvel Comics would have, like, sell these 10
Christmas cards and send your coupons in and you can get, like, a football, a trumpet, a bugle, a
drum or something. I chose a, a bugle. And I sold the cards and I figured out, oh, like I’m getting
basically something for free for the elbow grease of selling these cards for Marvel Comics. And I
got a bugle and I learned *imitates bugle sounds*...
BC: *Laughs* Okay
AA: Cats and all that shit.
BC: Yeah
AA: *Imitates bugle sounds* .. You know. All the kinda early morning things that you could play
on a bugle. And I learned that it was nice, but you know, then everybody played an instrument in
my family. My mother was a pianist, my father was...
BC: Okay
AA: Bass player, my aunt played the organ. My cousins, my uncle, everybody played guitar, violin
– and – my uncle Ulysses was a B52 jet bomber pilot but he was a concert pianist before that...
BC: Oh wow
AA: I always had, like, somebody intellectually who was really into music, you know, intellectual
music, classical, jazz or rock or funk family back in the day and I wasn’t interested until I started
going to high school from junior high school, ‘cause the bugle was in high school. Now I’m in
junior high school – I mean, Im sorry, I meant – the bugle started junior high school...
BC: Right
AA: High school is when, you see I’m so old I’m forgetting the tradition of these things
BC: *Laughs* No, you’re good
AA: So high school came around and a guy across the street with a friend of mine named
Douglas’s mother was a, uh, English teacher and she taught piano in the music school. And she said,
look, the state is giving free lessons and free instruments to city, city folks here and you should
jump on it ‘cause its for free. You know, so, but by the time I got to the program, the only thing that
was left was a trombone. So me and my friend got the trombone and started studying trombone.
Trombone was too spitty and it smelled and shit. And you know, i didnt want, didn’t want to pay
trombone so then I started hanging out with my cousin who was a really great guitar player. He did
a lot of sessions around the East Coast area, and Clarence, really cool guy. And so one winter he just
put a guitar in my hands and said, hey man, try this, check this out. But my father always let me
play his bass and I could play a little bass. And before guitar, bass was the instrument I was really
interested in. But one day my cousin said, hey, check out guitar man. Its two more strings, its a little
bit more encompassing – check it out. So I checked it out. It was alright but it started killing my
fingers and I was like, now you’ve bent these fingers(?). What the hells going on? So he goes, like,
hey man, you know, you got to build, build your hands – build you callous. And then he said, before
you go home, let me play this record for you. And then he put on some vinyl music that I had never
had any idea that it was a guitar and it was Jimi Hendrix’s first record.
BC: Oh my God. Yeah, yeah.
AA: I’m sitting there listening to it and I’m going, like, I cant comprehend anything.
BC: *laughs* I mean Jimi can make that thing talk man
AA: But I did understand the language, you know? When he started talking about the purple haze
and stuff, and I was like, what is on this guys mind? ‘Cause the guitar that my uncle and cousins
were playing had nothing to do with the sound that Jimi had and I was like, wow, that’s, that’s kinda
hip. And so as years went on, I’ve been, I got a job in a, with the Centurions playing in a disco-tech,
was a disco group. And, uh, Raymond Floyd, he lived around the corner from me. He was a
drummer and a singer, and I loved this guy. He was just like, he was just the quintessential friend
that you need when you’re young, and, he’s more experienced. He’s a couple years older. He was
finishing, you know, he was graduating. He kinda mentored me into soul music, funk and sly
because in my house, my mother was into Coltrane and she was into jazz. My father was into
Chuck Berry, James Brown, in which, you know, James Brown’s bass player didn’t make one of the
gigs and my father opened for James Brown
BC: Oh cool
AA: And James asked my father to sit in until his bass player could get to the gig.
BC: Wow
AA: So when taking all that in, so, the Centurions needed a bass player and they said look man,
learn these 15 songs and I’ll give you $400 a week and I was like what?!
BC: Right
AA: Because I was working in a Swedish meat packing plant and it was, like, 3 degrees below all
day and night man, I had to do 8 to 10 hours there and, you know, do my homework and all that
shit. It was crazy, so, I learned those 15 songs. I got that gig playing bass and from playing bass one
of the guitar players left in the same group and I got that call again – Hey, learn these 15 tunes on
guitar and you’re gonna, I’ll give you another $400. So I learned 15 songs, played bass and then the
guitar came along. I had that opportunity and I bought my first guitar that I bought was butterscotch
telecaster with a black guard, pick guard, and a (inaudible) and a maple neck. I bought it from
Mannys for 350 bucks.
BC: Wow
AA: And then I got a Clyde McCoy Wah-Wah and a Tone Bender. And man, I thought I was like,
you know, the British Rockstar and all that shit because I had the Telecaster, the Wah-Wah, the Tone
Bender. And thats the instruments that clapped and Hendrix was using back in the day, and so I
grabbed all that stuff. I was influenced by a lot of Blues guitar players first, like, Albert King, you
know, Muddy, Albert Howlin’ Wolf.
BC: Yeah
AA: But he got all these guys, yeah.
BC: Yeah
AA: They really, it sunk into me. Then I met Albert King at the Bitter End Cafe. He drove up in a
bus, had a pipe in his mouth. I knew he smoked Captain Black Tobacco so I went out and got some
Jack Daniels and Captain Black Tobacco. He got off the bus and I said man I’m one of your biggest
fans here, man. (indaudible). He saw the JD, he saw the Captain Black.
He’s like, “oh, thank you young man”. He says you, you need a ticket to get in? I said I sure, I sure
do.
BC: *Laughs*
AA: He says hey, “hang on a minute, I’ll get you in”. So then he went to the back of the bus and he
started pulling out his super reverb and I said “I’ll help you with that”. And I helped him bring his
amp in and I watched him do soundcheck.
BC: Nice!
AA: An hour with him, all by myself and then I just, he was so, uh, magnetic that when I saw him
play for two hours I said, man, I want to play like that! And then, you know, things started progress,
you know, I met George Benson and Pat Martino, John McLaughlin. A friend of mine that lives in
North (inaudible) named Larry Young was playing with Miles and Tony Williams..
BC: Wow!
AA: Yeah, so he used to take me to all the, the shows and small little, you know, joints he was
playing in and I just started getting into Jazz, Blues, Rock and that was my start to really focus in on
like guitar can take me around the world and it was my, uh, it was my passport I’d Say.
BC: Wow, that was quite a, that’s quite a journey. You met some, some key players and good
timing and, um, when you were talking about great guitar players, Stanley Jordan came to mind.
He’s, he’s not quite that era but he’s....
AA: I used to see him, I used to see him outside of Manny’s..
BC: Really?
AA: On the street. Yeah, he’d be, he’d be like on 48th street and he’d just be, he’d have his little
amp out there, his delco, he was, he’d just be playing like I’ve never seen anybody play overhand.
BC: Oh man, that two hand technique. Unbelievable!
AA: Its like, wow, holy, he’s playing Beatles songs, he’s playing jazz..
BC: Yeah
AA: Everything classical. A really intelligent dude. And got to, didn’t know him, but, you know,
just knew him by name and say “hey man, Stanley”. And he was always on the street there. Yeah,
he, he is super. Super duper.
BC: Yeah, I play guitar myself but I’m not as good as you. I’m not good as, certainly not good as...
AA: I’m not good as anybody else we’ve named, so it doesn’t matter, does it.
BC: Well, I, I enjoy playing and, you know, I was giggling a few times because some of the stuff
you were talking about I can relate to especially about your part where you’re talking about you got,
well, your, I think it was your friend that told you you have to put calluses on your fingers.
AA: My cousin.
BC: That was your cousin. Because I remember when I first picked up a guitar I was like, how in
the F am I going to do this? Man, my fingers were like, freaking almost bleeding. Yeah, thats a fact,
you got to get the fingers, got to get them calluses on ‘em for sure.
AA: Muscle memory
BC: Yeah! Now, now can you bridge us from that point to where you were introduced into Bob
Marley’s path, um, and then after that we’ll get right into your current project.
AA: We’re talking the 70’s and, you know, I was in the Motown era. It’s like, Stone, Filmore,
Filmore East – I knew all the people, Billy Graham. So I got to meet all the British groups because I
lived on St Marks Place off 8th Avenue. So I can literally walk from my apartment with a whole
bunch of weed, takes me 5 minutes to get into from my house in Filmore East. It’d be guys like
Albert King, like I said, BB King playing there. Johnny Winter, I got to meet him. He taught me
how to play sliding guitar from just hanging out. Because I used to go to the Filmore to get all the
artists that were on the Bill of Stones. I smoked with Johnny Winter, I smoked with this guy, I
smoked with Buddy Miles. ‘Cause, you know, I just wanted to get stoned with all the, I wanted to
pick these guys brains. How did you get that, because I started , I started to figure out that, hey man,
I want to be a performer and I want to be professional, and these guys were super professionals.
And I got really close with Johnny Winter and Duane Allman. They, they, Johnny, when I was about
17/18/19, you know, around there, he – I sat on top of a garbage can and I gave him a couple of
joints, we smoked and he whipped out a slide and brought my guitar. I used to sneak backstage into
Filmore East when Billy Graham hated my guts ‘cause he knew exactly I was smoking weed with
people, giving guys grass and he didn’t want his artists to be stoned.
BC: *Laugs* Yup!
AA: So he’d always throw me out and the artists would get me back in. They’d throw me out, I’d
get back in
BC: *Laughs* Okay
AA: So by the end of the night he just threw his fucking hands up and says “Man, I’m going to kill
you dude”. So I got to know him really well and I eventually did a show with thim at Filmore West
and I said “Do you remember me?”. He says “I remember everything about you” and that was a real
high point of my life but I used to get into the Filmore where I find that, like, you know, all the
British groups, all the Soul groups that played there. All the Folk groups. Joni Mitchell and Joan
Baez, you know, all these incredible artists. And I got close with people like Terry Kath and I got to
talk to him from Chicago. But he was in Chicago, pretty much the producer and singer, writer as
well. He had a really strong – along with Peter Cetera and these guys so I really, really liked to be
around entertainment people. So I had to get this Filmore East and that was my stepping stones to,
uh, the British rock scene because people like Slade, like Noddy Holder was there - I got to talk
with him. Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood, Paul Kossoff, you know, from Free and all
these, you know, incredible bands at that time. Mike Farner, Mountain. And I knew (inaudble)
really well and I got to just hundreds of incredible artists and musicians who were playing at the
Filmore that I got to meet. Until I met Maynard Ferguson and I met Chris Blackwell – and he had a
band called Traffic.
BC: Oh yeah, of course, yup.
AA: yeah, and African drummer named Riva Kwakuba. So I became friends with him and Steve
Winwood and all these guys and they said “Hey, come over to England”. And during the 70’s there
was a lot of racism happening in the..
BC: Oh yeah
AA:.. On the East Coast, you know. You know, the blacks, the Peurto Ricans, Italians, the Irish and
the Greeks were trying to get their act together, you know, and there was a lot of hatred towards
each other. And I just don’t come from that foundation of hate. My mother and father never, I never
heard my mother and father say anything about China man this, Black man that. White, black,
yellow, brown – they never put the, you know, the mustard and mayonnaise on any group of, of
people. And so I didn’t, I never had that in me because all the schools I went to, it was all
multiracial. We had Chinese people, people of India, people from all over Italy, yeah, South
America. So we didn’t, we never had, our family and friends never had the problem with racism.
But when you went to school and when you were in New York City and the major cities, you could
feel the tension between everyone and I just got tired of hearing certain words, you know.
You know, the Italians and the blacks weren’t doing well. The Irish and the blacks... you know, I
just got tired of it and decided that, you know, I’m going to save some money and just go to Europe
and find myself. And so I met Chris Blackwell and Paul Kossoff and Stevie Winwood and, and
Woody and Kings Mason and these guys and they, they became friends. And then, you know,
Maynard Fergusons trumpet player Bud Parks, lead trumpet player said, “Look man, I’ve got a
room in, in Raynes Park for just give me, like, 100 bucks a week. 100 pounds a week and you can
just stay in – I got a room for you. Just come on over man. You know, maybe you can get a
session”. And so I came over, got the room, got the session but I needed a job because I didn’t want
to live off of friends, you know, newly aquainted friends. So I went, you know, I ended up being in
the group that Richard Branson was producing.
BC: Oh wow, Okay
AA: Richard had just had a huge success with Tubular Bells from Mike Oldfield, which kind of
really made Virgin, like, close to the number one distribution companies in Europe and in the world
‘cause Tubular Bells sold around 8 million vinyl copies and that was a huge record during the 70’s
when that was being released. So I got out of the States because of all the nonsense with racism and
race bureaucracy and went over to Europe. Knew Chris Blackwell but met Richard Branson and he
put me in the group called I Sus with Delroy Washington, which was pre Aswad, and Aswad was
one of my favourite bands and the only bands I was really familiar with. I had no idea about
Reggae. Didn’t know really anything about Reggae other than what I was hearing in London
because at home it just didn’t hit me, you know. It was Jimmy Cliff – I Can See Clearly Now and
Johnny Nash did a version of it too. And Bob Marley wrote that song.
And the funny thing is, is that after we did the I Sus album, I got to work with pre Aswad and
became friends with a bunch of musicians over there. And then Island Records was always the hip
record company because the CEO was Jamaican. So he always had these parties, there was weed,
rice and peas and plantains and stewed fish and chicken, you know, stew, he had all the cuisine
going on. So I wondered after there was no more I Sus, because Delroy didn’t want to be a pop star
because he had a number one song. You know it’s one of these guys, he gets a number one song
from one of the biggest distribution companies in England and then he doesn’t want to do music
anymore. He wants to be a martial art teacher.
BC: Wow
AA: So the band broke up. He had a number one album, hit album actually. It was the number one
single in London for a short time. The band broke up. Aswad became Aswad with Angus Gaye and
Brinsley, Brinsley Forde and Tony Gad. And I had this short stint working with them, with Delroy.
But then I wandered over to Island and and became friends with, you know, I was already friends
with Paul Kossoff, Woody, you know, you go to Chris Woods house and both go to Paul Kossoffs
house. There’s somebody like Andy Fraser there, Mitch Mitchell – I’m going, like, that’s fucking
Hendrix’s drummer!
BC: *Laughs*
AA: That’s one of the baddest dudes on the planet, he’s so cool! I’m having a joint with him, I’m
having a drink. I’m with Paul. Paul’s like my all time favourite rock guitar player ‘cause his
simplicity, his acoustic rock sound. I think he even influenced Angus to get that vibrato he has.
BC: Really? Angus Young, ACDC’s?
AA: Yeah
BC: Oh wow!
AA: That was Pauls thing
BC: Wow!
AA: Angus, Angus nicked it. Angus said hey, this fucking guy got something. Angus got his own
thing too, don’t get me wrong.
BC: Oh yeah, I understand, but Angus kind of, kind of piggybacked off the other guy though
AA: Yeah, Paul Kossoff, he did that *sings* “Alright now baby its alright now”. So I was a friend
with him. I wondered into the Island parties. It was a, you know, I didn’t know of Basing Street
Studios but I knew of Hammersmith Studios because Basing Street studios for Island was first and
then Hammersmith came later after he opened up all these labels because he had Roxy Music which
was one of my favourite, you know, I was just seeing those guys walking around the building. It
was like, wow! When I, when I got into, when I left Virgin to go to Island to get a job – so I was a
Tape Op. I used to clean the desk, the monitor desk, vacuum, make sandwiches, roll joints for the
artists and make tea, right, I’m not really – English people got a specific way how they make there
tea...
BC: *Laughs* Yes
AA: And everybody didn’t want my tea ‘til I figured it out, figured out how to pour tea. And I
wanted to be a producer and engineer so you basically become a Tape Op at Island or any of the
studios there, that’s your beginning.
BC: Yeah
AA: You set on, on the recorder. They teach you by cleaning the monitor, the recording desk, you
get to see where all the channels are so you get to learn everything from just cleaning all the pot
ashes out of the channels, you know? And so that’s how I started and I did a session for John
Martin, for Steve Winwood and so people got to acknowledge that I was a Tape Op there. An
American kid that was learning the desk and also I could play a little bass and guitar. So I played
bass on a track for John Martin, and that Steve Winwood was producing. And so people started to
say, hey, you know, he an play a little guitar and bass. And so Paul Kossoff was, he lived, they
called him the Backstreet Crawler because he lived in the Ladbroke Grove area, was one of my
favourite areas, so I’d always be with Paul having a jar of beer, smoking on a hash joint. So one
night I was with him and the phone rang, and it was Chris Blackwell asking him to come down to
the studio down at Basing Street because Bob Marley had just got to town and he’s not playing with
Peter and Bunny anymore. He’s doing a solo album called Natty Dread.
And so Paul said look, I’m, I’m with a friend of mine, I’ve been drinking and having smoke and I
really don’t want to go to work because I’m not in a, you know, we had, Paul could drink, you
know, he could handle it too. And so, you know, I was more of a smoker these times. And now I’m
an alcoholic – no, not really *laughs*. But I, you know, got an opportunity to spend a lot of time
with Paul. So Chris asked Paul to come to the studio to do the Natty Dread album for Bob Marley.
He said no, but I have a subsitute. I have an American kid here who can handle it. He said “what’s
his name?”, he says “Al”. He says “I think I know him, he’s a Tape Op. He played bass on John
Martins album”. And so he said “we’re going to send a minicab down for him”. He sent a minicab,
which is a taxi. Jumped in a taxi, with my guitar, my WahWah. Walked straight into the studio,
plugged into the amp and I said, look, I was so scared because, and I was, Paul goes “do you know
anything about Reggae?” And I said “No”, you know, I’d heard Jimmy Cliff, I’d heard Alton Ellis
and, and Dennis Brown. These guys were really big on the BBC. They had hit John Holt really
really big and, but, I didn’t know Bob, Peter and Bunny’s music. I didn’t know reggae. I knew
Matumbi and Osibisa. These were my friends but they were more progressive than a roots Reggae
that Paul had played for me before I went to the session to substitute him because it was Catch A
Fire and Burning was released and Paul loved Catch A Fire and Burning because Wayne Perkins
was the guitarist, was the first Blues Rock guitarist that played with Bob and gave Bob that Blues
Rock sound. Wayne Perkins and myself are one of the first Blues Rock guitarists from America that
helped break, break in music along with Eric Clapton, I Shot The Sheriff internationally and
Wayne’s, Wayne was a Nashville Wiz Supercat and he played with Bobby Womack. So Paul played
Catch A Fire, he played Burning, but he, I didn’t have time to hear the whole record. He played just
pieces. He played Concrete Jungle and I heart that and went “Holy moly, thats fucking good!”. So,
you know, I’ve got a lot to look forward to but I heard the rock guitar sound so I, I had a good
introduction. Went down to the studio after Paul, left Paul’s house, walked into the studio – I saw, I
saw a short brother with a lot of hair. He was smiling, gave me a fist and then there was Chris and
him and an engineer and I said look, I really want to hear, I was ecstatic on what this guy had
recorded, had pre recorded for me to overdub on. So they gave me a shot on, like, 3 or 4 songs. I
heard Roadblock, So Jah Seh, No Woman No Cry and said okay, give me, give me anything, let me
try it. So I think they gave me Roadblock or So Jah Seh, one of these songs, one of the first ones.
So, I played Roadblock. I played too much Jazz rock guitar. Bob didn’t want it, said “hey man,
what’s that?”. I was wondering why, why? So Chris said to Bob “that’s distortions, too much
distortions”. And I was like, hey, this is what’s happening over in America, you know, cats are like
stomping on boxes and getting, like, big ratty sounds. He says “we don’t want to hear it here”. Ok,
so then I said “let me hear more of your music”. So they played 3/4/5 songs in its entirety. And I
went, like, this is Country Music basically. This is 145 progression and it’s got major and minor
keys and a little bit of major 7, so I said “let me try it again”. So I played Roadblock, straight
through, the second time. He said “Ok, move on. Move on to Talking Blues”. I think I played
acoustic guitar, slide guitar. And they said “Really like that”. And then we got to No Woman No
Cry. I took one shot. I’m on the third song, it’s No Woman No Cry – I’m unsure. And then I, I
played it through and I said let me, let me do it one more time. And he said “no, no we really like
it”. I said please, I don’t have the idea for this song, this is just, I’m just improvising now. So I
played it again and I played it perfect, the way I wanted to hear it, you know, I was like “thats it!”.
And Bob goes no, that’s not the first one. I said no, I think its the second one. So then will go, its
the first one. Lets move on.
BC: Oh my God! Hold one, let me jump in here for a second. So you had some freaking cojones.
You, you had some cojones on you back then. Listening to this story, I mean, here you are – this,
this basically, you know, you’re not a rookie because you’ve been playing music for a while but
you’ve got this legend Bob Marley, his music and you’re like, you’re like, you know, in a little tit
for tat with the guy about, like, your version.
AA: *laughs*
BC: I mean that, that takes a lot of balls man – I love that though!
AA: it didn’t get me anywhere because they took the first takes of everything I did and maybe one
or two of the seven songs, the second take. And I felt so comfortable playing the music that i heard
that Bob had written, that I think it took about 40 minutes to finish like 6/7/8 songs of what they
kept, about 7, and I think, like, 4 or 5 of them were number 1’s. So that was my, Paul Kossoff, I
love this guy, I love you Paul, always will. You and your family were so kind to me, were so
friendly. He got me, if it wasn’t for Paul Kossoff I would have never met Bob Marley and wouldn’t
have had the opportunity to tour with the Wailers and play with Bob Marley. Paul Kossoff, number
1 friend and number 1 guitar player in my world.
BC: Wow, what an amazing, man. And then, and then after that, you just started, you became a part
of Bob Marley’s group?
AA: Well, you know, we finished the session, then I went in and met Chris again ‘cause I knew
Chris from the Filmore East. And then i got to meet Bob for the first time. And then I never, I had
never seen the Rasta man. Oh he, he was like Tarzan, you know, he had all his hair and he was fit.
He had a massive spliff in his hand and he, he told me how much he really dug what, where his
music is at with, you know, the overdubs from, you know, they gave me the opportunity to play on
his music and he really dug what he heard. And so he said “I’ll be in touch, give me your telephone
number”. So about a week later I got a call from Island Records to come and have a meeting with
Bob and Chris and they, they cut me a deal to leave England and immediately go to Jamaica with
him and start producing and rehearsing for the Natty Dreads, you know, album and tour to come.
BC: Wow! What did your parents, what did your family think of this? This, this is an amazing, I
mean, here’s this guy, I mean, I’m not sure how old you were in the 70’s, but you take this leap of
faith and just leave America...
AA: Early, like, late teens, like...
BC: Yeah, you’re still a kid in life really, basically...
AA: Basically yeah
BC: You go over to Europe and you forge this path and end up playing with, like, one of the most
iconic legends in music, ever. That’s kind of a cool resume, man!
AA: It was, it was really interesting. More of it was an adventure because I got fed up of, I come
from a dysfunctional family. Nobody got along. Alot of fussing and fighting. And I had a Buddhist
background. I took Martial Arts from a teacher who was into spiritual awakening, you know,
kindness, humility. And he could destroy anything. I think this guy could just take a lion out.
BC: Oh wow
AA: He was one of those national champion, champions that taught us Jiu Jitsu, could be multi
talented martial artists but he also taught me how to be humble and forgive. And my parents and all
of my family members seemed to be really greedy on their egos of wanting to control all the
children, you know?
BC: Ah, yeah.
AA: And, you know, I was born in the 50’s and it wasn’t a great time, man, for us – it wasn’t a
great time for anybody. If it was immigrant or you’re, I come from a poor family, you know, we,
we didn’t have a lot of money, man. My father got really lucky, he was a musician, he made some
money. My mother was a bookkeeper for Hoffa
BC: Jimmy Hoffa?
AA: Yeah, on the wharf in Newark New Jersey with all the Sicillian Mafia and all that
BC: Wow!
AA: My mother was a gangster, my father a marine and a musician. My mother used to run
numbers for the, for the mob and stuff then.
BC: Wow interesting, interesting.
AA: When I left from such a dysfunction, my father was a marine and he was tough on everybody
but me because I’m number 3. I’m Albert Anderson the 3rd. So he, he took to me and he didn’t take
to anyone else in the family. So then he eventually left my mother. And when my father left, I
didn’t want to be in the middle so I ran away from home, 16, came back 17/18/19 I’m in England. I
dont want to deal with....
BC: Yeah
AA: ... Racist, dysfunctional family, I need to find myself. So i took my Buddha nature and went on
that long Buddhist journey and found all these incredible people and incredible friends. And then
found internationally travelling with Bob, Peter, and performing with Stevie Wonder and Michael
Jackson. And so things started to really, really happen so abruptly and quickly that I had to catch up
to the rhythm of, let’s say, I don’t know if it’s success or luck. So its either or either. I just went
along with the wave. And I was always extremely subordinate in every venture of recording and
touring and just being a subordinate figure in a group. I wasn’t one of these guys that came into
your band and all of a sudden I’m the second start. And you got a lot of that in music where an artist
will make an addition to the band and then its a bad choice, although it, it works, you know, I
always got in where I fit in, in the Reggae world and I never came to be a superstar or expect fame
and fortune. It just was inevitable that Bob Marley was going to be a big force of nature in the
music world. And I had the opportunity to help play and produce some of the music that my period
of, and opportunity with him was very successful because we’re travelling around the world now
and, man, we’re selling – I’m, I just got a platinum record. I just got 3-4 gold albums first, then I
got a platinum record, then i got a diamond jubilee for...
BC: Wow!
AA: ... You know, it just, it started to go, like, wait a minute, you see, we were so busy as Bob
Marley and the Wailers – I mean, as in Carlton Barrett, Aston Barrett, the head cornerstones of
Bob’s music because I came in after. And then it was Peter and Bunny and Wya and Tyrone and
Seeco and the I-Threes, you know. And then we brought the horns in and percussion later on,
because when we were doing, like, really big shows Bob wanted a bigger band to, to make the
sound fuller because we’re playing for 20/10,20/ 30/40/50 thousand
BC: Yeah, I was going to ask you what’s the biggest crowd you played in front of?
AA: In Morocco with my original Wailers 150 000 and with Bob about 130
BC: Wow, that’s a lot of people, man.
AA: That was in Milan Arena, where we did a gig with Fleetwood Mac, Average White man, a
whole bunch of Latin artists – I mean, Italian artists, and Frank Zappa. But in the Milan Arena,
there’s 100 000 on the inside and maybe 20 or 30 000 on the outside trying to get in.
BC: Oh wow!
AA: This was one of those chaos shows where it was, like ok, it’s already full and it’s already full
outside so there’s only so much security that could handle 100 and some, 30 000 people. So people
were smashing gates, crawling in windows as they did at the Lyceum, and they, some we had, some
shows at Zealand and Australia and some tribal couldn’t get tickets ‘cause it was sold out. They
smashed walls and...
BC: Oh!
AA: It became, like, our shows became chaos, bus conscious, you know, it wasn’t like that’s what
we wanted. People wanted to see Bob Marley and The Wailers and we were becoming so much
more successful every tour, every album. Because Bob was a very poetic, charismatic person who
could put words and music together like few others, like Beatles.
BC: Yeah, once, once every 100 years kind of, I mean, artist, you know. Did you have, can you
remember, like, one of your first surreal moments, like holy shit, I cant believe – I cant believe I’m
up here, you know, is there any particular time where you have, like, a flash surreal moment?
AA: We, Bob decided that we were going to go to independence ceremonies in South Africa. And
the only way that we could do that was Bob was going to be responsible with all the money that
was made in South Africa to pretty much go out there and handle all the expenses. You know, the
plane, the hotels, the groundwork, everything it takes to perform. So when we got to the airport, the
most, the moment you spoke of - the most exciting moment for me, it wasn’t on stage with Bob
playing music in front of thousands of people, it was Prince Charles wanting to meet Bob Marley in
the airport.
BC: *Laughs* Wow
AA: We arrived the same time King Charles did
BC: Wow!
AA: He was – and so all the MI 5 and our little posse, Prince Charles had one of his representatives
come over to our manager and say, like, I’d like to meet Bob and have a word with him because I’m
going to the performance at the independence ceremonies with the lowering of the Rhodesian flag
and the raising of the Zimbabwe flag. So he says “I’m going and I’d like to meet you”. And so he
met Bob and I’m standing right there with Prince Charles and Box – King Charles – Like, what the
hell is going on here? Like, what? *laughs*
And so that was for me, that was really heavy. And then it proved to me Bob was no pop star. He
was really using his revolutionary integrity to rub shoulders with, shoulders with politicians –
telling them how the world and the Caribbean and Africa really, you know, from the ground level
what was happening, you know, politically with people that he came to support. So for me, that
meeting, seeing Bob meeting King Charles was really a big moment for all of us.
BC: When you were, you know, we were just discussing a little while ago about, like, how young
you were when all this stuff was going down in life. And now that you’re where you are in life,
when you look back, do, do you remember, like, when you were right there with Bob Marley, did
you really fully grasp just how iconic and how, how huge he was not only as a, as a musician and a
singer but as a political figure also? Did all, did all that sink in your did you learn, did you kind of
learn more about that and really grasp it more as you got older?
AA: If you look at some of the performances that I’m on stage close to Bob, I was close to Tyrone,
Carlton Barrett and Bob. That was the pyramid for me and there was so much music. We rehearsed
all the time. We used to do 3 hour rehearsals.
BC: Oh wow
AA: Only because we wanted the sound to be perfect for the audience that was paying their money
to come see us perform. Bob was really adamant about the sound has to be perfect. Lauren Hill was
like that too, that’s what I loved about her.
BC: Oh Fugees, she’s one of my favourites!
AA: Oh man, I spent 3, 2 and a half years with her. Year and a half on the road. It was another Bob
Marley moment where you go, like, wait a minute – it’s like 30, 40 000 people here and they’re all
singing her songs.
BC: Yeah
AA: They’re dressing like her, they look like her. I’d look in the audience and I saw Lauren,
thousands of Lauren Hills, you know?
BC: Wow!
AA: So I just said, she’s on her way so, so...
BC: She’s so beautiful too. Just so so beautiful.
AA: Man she so sexy
BC: Just beautiful, just knockout, man, yeah.
AA: She was a track star too, she’s a bullet.
BC: Yeah, wow.
AA: She could run like a, like a cheetah. And, you know, because for me, it was about being
subordinate. And I’m a servant to whoever I work with, I’m not coming in to shake the tree..
BC: Right
AA: ...And get the best fruits from the top, even if they were sour, I had to work with it. So for me,
I was always in the mix, you know, coming up with parts. I was, me Tyrone and Carlton and the
guys, we were so busy backing Bob. It wasn’t getting in front of him, it was always being
locomotive. He was the, the locomotive that was pulling at the trains. And so we just gave him
steam all, at all times, because you were always busy. You’re always in love with the fact that the
bass player is going to play something unbelievable I’ve never heard before. The drummers going
to make a roll. Tyrones going to put an intro, he’s going to produce an intro to, like, this Reggae
music *sings* “Play us some music”. There was always something like that going on that captured
me more than the excitement of being in front of a whole bunch of people and who I was playing
with – I didn’t, I didn’t even think about when I was on stage with Peter, Bob and Bunny and
Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder. It was just the fact I’m so lucky to be here. Don’t make any
mistakes and don’t be fucking stupid
BC: *Laughs* Yeah, that’s great!
AA: You know, and so we, we achieved that agenda time and time after we produced all the songs,
you know, from the 70s to his journey. And the saddest part about it is that they’ve cut everybody
out of the picture that had anything to do with hoisting the flag, which was really sad.
And, man, you know, they, Bob had really bad management, unfortunately. So these are the
negative things that go with all the positive things.
BC: Yeah, there always is with, you know, music.
AA: Oh any successful business, any business, even monkey business. There’s nothing successful
about monkey business. It’s really crazy that we didn’t get paid for the live albums. We lost a lot of
electricity with guys that wrote and produced parts for Bob as we were in the production part of
Bob’s songwriting. And then when he passed, the really bad lawyers and the accountants had to get
rid of the band so that they could fill their pockets, feed the family and feed all the, the publishing
people that Bob had bad contracts with, feed the egos. And they just forgot about Peter, Bunny –
Peter and Bunny and the band. They just...
BC: Wow!
AA: They just had another picture and it’s all about the flag and not all the red, white and blue, the
blood, everything else that it took to get us all there to get, you know -
BC: That’s unfortunate. Do you all, do you remember... Oh I’m sorry, go ahead, finish your
thought.
AA: It’s in every successful situation
BC: 100% if you, if you research, like, bands – rock bands, hip hop, it doesn’t matter, there’s
stories that are very similar to what you just expressed, man. Just people getting ripped off in bad
contracts, shady managers, snakes. I mean, It’s just like peanut butter and jelly, man, you know?
AA: Yeah, it’s not peaches and creams but all matter. Bob was a revolutionary that used music to
enlighten people that the world needs to come together with words, sound and heart.
It’s all about the coordination of words and sound. When children hear the right words, when you
hear the right songs, they respond. It’s a very celestial thing. And that’s why Bob Marley has, Bob
Marley and the Wailers has all these young kids singing One Love in the car.
It’s so simple, it’s so easy and it’s very effective – it’s almost like medicine. And I saw that in him,
and I saw that in a couple of artists that I had the opportunity to work with. And that’s what I kind
of gravitated more to than just wanting to be successful, financially well off and safe. I always was,
it was always a risk. You’re walking in the ring and, hey, I can get knocked out. And a couple times
they had to leave the band because Bob’s manager wasn’t looking after him properly. Bob deserved
so much more, and then, people like Stevie Wonder, Stones, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones – they
wanted to have something to do with the Rasta Man Trilogy, you know, and the Wailers. And it
never happened because a lot of ego with the record company people and cutting him out and
adding him in, it’s, it’s very complicated once you’ve reached that plateau. I don’t know how Taylor
Swift can handle her success because what is thrown at you, you know, it’s not like off, roses, you
know? Its really tough. And it’s really good to see that a young person can be so responsible for
their career to that level because Bob had reached that level, but it was, it was taken away from him
because of the situation that he encountered, you know?
BC: Wow. Do you remember where you were? Like, what were you doing when you got word that
he had passed away? Like where were you at when you got that news?
AA: I was with his mother.
BC: Oh wow
AA: He was, he was leaving Germany and I didn’t, you know, I spent the last 5 months with Bob
as he was going through his therapy. And the doctors told him that he wasn’t responding to, he, it
was, it was off and on. So then one day Bob said to the doctor, he said, look, am I going to beat
this? The doctor said “no”. So Bob said “Mom, come here, pack everything, I’m leaving
tomorrow”. I said “Bob you can’t go in the air. There’s no way you’re going to handle the pressure
to get anywhere, where your condition is. You need to wait and really think this out”. And man, he
told his mother to pack within, like, 3 or 4 days. He packed everything and he was on his way back
to Jamaica. So I was living in Hamburg. That’s why I came over to - because when he got ill, there
was no more touring – it was, and he just shut down. And he went for his therapy where he wanted
to be alone and, and get through this because all he wanted to do was get well. Get back to playing
music and writing songs, and touring with his group and his family, and his real friends. That’s all
he ever wanted. He told me that he just wanted to get well. His strength was diminishing because
of the amount of therapy he was undergoing. So he made that – I saw him to the airport. Before he
left, I gave him a big hug and said “I’ll see you in Miami”. He went up in the air and I went to
Hamburg. And then as I heard that things weren’t going so well when he reached home. I flew to
Miami and lived with his mother and she showed me what was left of our good friend.
BC: Wow. Wow. I appreciate you sharing that. The fans that listen to this would be very
appreciative that you shared that story. Wow.
AA: Yeah, it was, it was the altitude from – I mean, it was like 6 foot snowdrifts in Bavaria. I think
we were in (inaudible). We were, like, about a mile and a half away from Hitlers bunker.
BC: Oh wow
AA: With Hitlers doctor. Hitlers youngest doctor, Josef Issels.
BC: Geez
AA: And they treated us really nice there though, you know, up in (inaudible), the, the lady used to
give me hot cocoa with French ballchen which is like a cinnamon doughnut that the Germans made.
It was fresh food, and, but it was just freezing cold for Bob. It was like 20 below 0 at night, thick
snowdrifts. It wasn’t, it just wasn’t a comfort zone for him.
BC: Right
AA: And his mother and me would go to the clinic to pick him up and bring him back to his
chateau where he was staying. And I could see that things were changing physically for him. And
so we just prayed until he decided that he wanted to go back home. He was on his, he was on his
journey to go home and he went home.
BC: Yup, he knew. He knew, man. He knew what he wanted to do. He knew, you know, you know,
honestly, I always thought about that myself. If I ever got diagnosed with Cancer and the doctors
tod me there’s, there’s nothing, there’s nothing we can do anymore. I wouldn’t, I don’t think I’d
want the treatment anymore either. I would just like, because my mom passed away from Cancer
and I’ve known a lot of people who have Cancer and lost their lives..
AA: Me too
BC: ... And it’s, like, the radiation and, and the chemo that they put – it’s almost like, it’s almost
like that’s doing more damage than the Cancer is in some cases, it seems like.
AA: I couldn’t, you know, because I, you know, I met Bob in 70 – I say 74. I say 73 all the time
buy it was December so it was 74. It was 73 when I met him, into 74. Now I’m living in Jamaica
with him. I saw a guy eat the most impeccable fruits, vegetables, coconut water. He had spring
water all the time. He was up a cane river washing in, like, mineral water. And he, he, if you looked
at Bob’s structure, his calves, his knees, and I’m taller than him. He had way more muscle mass
than me. He was fit, man.
BC: He was!
AA: Skill was fit, Bob was fit. Everybody that played ball in that yard was reasonably fit because
Jamaicans play hard, man. They tackle hard, bro! But they were teaching me soccer and one day I
thought I’d be cheeky. I went up and tried to take the ball away from Bob and I did because I was
starting to learn. Man, biggest mistake I ever made. All I realised is like, oh, I’m not going to play
soccer for the next couple of weeks.
BC: Got knocked on your ass or what?
AA: Man, when he kicked that thing out of my foot, that was it. Fucking guy got a fucking Bruce
Lee foot and so, you know, they taught me how to play soccer and he was fit and it just didn’t make
sense to see how things started changing for him from such an immaculately fit guy. I was with Bob
when someone that, you know, when you have an old football shoe? Remember we used to play
football and it was cleats?
BC: Yeah
AA: With, it was a screw and you took a plastic cleat and screwed it on to your shoes. This guy had
on really old shoes and it was at the House of Dredd in Kingston. We were all playing, Gilly was
there, Skill was there. A whole bunch of people, Neville was there, I was there and I’m watching
Bob play ball. This guy, he pushes up on Bob and a tight thing with a ball. And I’m looking at this
guys shoes and they’re, they’re from the 30s, man, and this is the 70s, you know, and he didn’t have
no cleats on – they were all spikes. So he stepped right through Bob’s big toe, and then he started
limping around and he kept playing! And this is a serious injury, serious. Its dirt and, so,
everything’s in his toe, he’s still playing. And he continued to play everyday afterwards. He got a
little better, he put a bandage on it. He just kept playing. He kept forcing the toe, kept forcing it, and
then it got infected. And then we found out all these other things. We fucking had no idea of that.
And we got our results when we were in Ireland. And we decided that, you know, Bob couldn’t
perform at the level he was performing at because he said he didn’t feel well enough to sing. He
said “This is going to be my last show here in Ireland and after, I want to go home and have an
analysis on my condition. Because I don’t, I’m not feeling good to perform in front of all these
people”, that, because he’s, it was a struggle, but he did very well. And when we got to New York
City, he passed out in Central Park with Skill, after the Commodore Show at the Madison Square
Garden. Then his manager – then manager, his publisher and manager Don Taylor and Danny Sims
took him to Sloane Kettering hospital where we got his evaluation. And when he heard that he
couldn’t perform anymore and he had to go through therapies and so on, we realised that we were in
a serious position of either keeping Bob or Bob going to get the help that he needed to continue his
life.
BC: Wow, phew man this is deep stuff, man. But I, I really appreciate you sharing all of this
history. We’re going to, we’re going to segway into your concert that you, that you were at and it’s
going to drop on YouTube, I guess, today, I think that happens.
AA: Yeah, Song of the Divine is released right now. There’s a, there’s a video of it if you look on
YouTube of Song of the Divine that we did, a movie, basically a video, and, in Bali at a Buddhist.
We got with a Buddhist Abbot and asked him “Could we come and film inside the temple?”. And he
gave us access to his whole temple, his whole...
BC: Oh wow!
AA: ... his congregation. And so we did the video there and we did it in the mountains, and rice
fields and, and Bali and it’s, It’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever been associated with.
Its called Song of the Divine and it’s on YouTube and it’s a video of the original Wailers featuring
myself, Al Anderson. So you can go there and see that and now we have on the Sugar Shack
YouTube channel, Song of the Divine, an acoustic unplugged version, which has never been done
by us before. It’s been released from early this afternoon. It’s available on all YouTube channels and
it’s one of those songs that was written by myself and Chet Samuel. Chet Samuel and myself wrote
Song of the Divine. It’s a spiritual song. It encompasses humility and humbleness and love, for, it’s
a humanity, its a very spiritual humanity song. Some people want to hear that consciousness, some
people want to rock a little bit more – so I hope people see the significance and the Buddha nature
of what this video represents for the song.
BC: I got to listen to it today and I was, I’m glad you mentioned Chet Samuel because I’ve never
heard him sing until, until the song that I listened to today. And I was like, wow, this guy can really
sing! Yeah, the song, it’s not, you know, it’s not a rock – it’s not going to, it’s not going to be the
kind of song that’s going to get you pulled over by the cops because you’re speeding *laughs*, but
it’s, but it’s a very, it’s almost like a spiritual ride. I got, I got very soothed and it’s just a beautiful
song to listen to, I think the fans will love it.
AA: Yeah, it’s, it’s something that I, I think that even Bob would give us the head nod for, you
know
BC: Yeah, I think so to. Now there’s also, also I was reading the notes on, when I was reading up
on you about a video of your Rendition of Redemption song. What’s that about?
AA: Yeah, basically Bob and Wire Lindo put that song together and there was, when I was with
Wire, he played this song different from the was Bob played it because he had a lot to do with the
other half of the writing for it. Basically, the Redemption song is written by Wire Lindo and Bob
had some, his piece to do with it also, his part of it, of writing. So he had a young daughter born
and he lived next door to me at the Terranova Hotel. I came over to his room and he said “I just
wrote this song when my daughter was, was born and it’s, uh, Redemption song”. So I said “Let me
hear it”. So he played the intro and then he goes into the verse and I’m like, wow, this is
Shakespeare, unbelievable!
BC: Oh wow
AA: I just couldn’t believe it. And it had a little intro, so I wanted to make an extension to the intro
that him and Bob used to play. So I added that little piece to the song to get the verse started. So we
do it sometimes and sometimes we don’t. You know, there’s something that we, you know, I’ve
never done an unplugged version of any of this stuff. And, you know, with the Shack, Sugar Shack
channel giving us the opportunity to do it, we couldn’t say no.
BC: I don’t blame you there. Good stuff, man. So what about, what is this surprise during the
concert that I was reading about?
AA: Um, two new songs. You know, we, there’s a lot of imitators that are, like, really bad Elvises
when it comes to imitating Bob. Bob told me, he said don’t let anybody imitate me, don’t let
anybody imitate me. Because, you know, a lot of the people who have decided that the Wailers,
Bob Marley and the Wailers are so popular in the one luck, everything is so, so much popularity
around the Bob Marley and the Wailers brand name that it’s time to have a tribute to Bob to make
things easier for them – you know, whoever wants to do that. But there’s, there’s still living
members from the Wailers around that had made a contribution to all these songs that I, there’s so
many tribute bands and imitators. That’s not what Al Anderson, the original Wailer wants to do.
But he said, he said it clear to me – don’t have anybody, because, he said you’re going to need a
lead singer, you’re going to need a song writer. Let’s look at the truth. If I can’t perform with the
band anymore, get somebody who’s not going to copy me. And it just made sense.
BC: It does make sense.
AA: It just really did because It’s, there’s, you know, I’ve been on, I’ve gone to shows where
people are playing, like, you know, No Woman No Cry before me. And there’s, there’s an opening
act and they, they just say, oh, we’re going to do one of Bob Marley’s songs. And they didn’t say
hey Al, can I play one of them? What about me?
BC: Oh Really? That’s, that’s insane!
AA: So, there’s a lot of imitation. There’s a lot of, there’s just a lot of mixed up things happening
because everything is so pronounced and successful now that people want to take advantage of the
suffering of all that went down with Bob Marley and the Wailers. You know, we never saw the light
of day in court when people decided that, like, our bass player, he had a girlfriend and they said,
hey, we’re going to sue the (inaudible) and I said, well, don’t include me. And I said, because
there’s, there’s nothing here that I want other than for Bob and his family to get what they deserve.
And then the Wailers will get what they what they rightfully deserve because they played on all
these albums. They did all these, they did all these live albums. But what people don’t know is, is
that we had really bad lawyers and accountants and management. And they took all of the crumbs
out of the mouths of the suffering band members. You know, they killed our drummer. It’s a very
unfortunate thing. Tyrone died mysteriously, with nothing. And he produces so much music for
Island Records and we expected a lot more from the lawyers and the company. And then when,
when Bob went on his journey, the bass player and his girlfriend decided that they were going to go
after hundreds of millions of dollars that they didn’t deserve. And so I wasn’t going to be a part of
it, but the estate thought that, oh, Al Anderson’s in on it too, so, he’s going to get fucking crunched
too. So they subpoenaed me to go to England...
BC: Oh my God!
AA: ... To fight against Universal, Def Jam Island and Chris Blackwell Island Records. There was
no way that they were going to win a lawsuit on behalf of the Wailers band. Two people, and,
Family Man and his girlfriend were the only two people that were on the affidavit to receive any
money along with his manager, crooked manager. So the, the judge saw through everything. They
subpeonaed me. You know what subpoena means, you got to go. And I said, why would you
subpoena me because you have to speak on behalf of the band. I said I don’t have anything to do
with, I have to do with Bob Marley. I don’t have anything to do with the band now that Bob has
passed. Let Bob and his family figure this out first and then we’ll, we’ll get the rights to the all the
live recordings that we played on because, you know, the band members like Family and Carly, they
played on everything. They played on all the hits, they played on all the live albums, but they didn’t
get paid for it. So they were going to get that money with a lawsuit or without a lawsuit. All you
need is a really good lawyer to go to the estate and all these crooked lawyers and crooked managers
and say, look, these guys didn’t sign any contract with you. They’re responsible for this and you
take the lions share and just give them what they’re responsible for, live albums and recordings.
And that’s enough to go around the world with. But unfortunately, because of the power of Island
Records, a lot of crooked people like the lawyers, and the accountants, like the lawyer and the
accountant that represented Bob Marley and the Wailers music and success – they got disbarred
from the Bar Association.
BC: Oh wow
AA: Because they were stealing millions of dollars from us. You know, they would satisfy Bob but
take the band members money, like, the manager would take all the crumbs. They wouldn’t give us
a (inaudible). And it’s still today that the band members have never seen the right in court, what
they deserved. And then now there’s only a couple of original band members left. They’re all the
people that needed that funding for their health and their future, they’re all, they’re all passed and
never forget they killed our drummer.
BC: Unbelievable, man.
AA: They killed Peter Tosh!
BC: People should’ve went to jail. Lawyers that were stealing that money, they should’ve went to
jail too – not just disbarred. They should’ve went to jail.
AA: You know, you know what happened? It’s really funny, they disbarred them, they paid back
the money that they robbed from the band before we were getting, or, finally getting our couple of
royalty checks because they would, it would be even odd. They, they pay you 6 months and then
they wouldn’t pay you 6 months because they were waiting for the interest rate to go up on the 6/9
months that you get interest for. So they always paid us late, so we didn’t know what we were
getting paid for. All we wanted was statements: Ok, you played on live; you played on Babylon by
Bus; you did the lyceum; you did, you know, Crystal Powers; you did all these shows. (inaudible)
Just pay them. But the lawyer and that, the accountants and the management didn’t want us to be
independent. So it became slave labour. And that’s one of the major problems that when we went to
court, it was really difficult to prove that the record company had taken advantage of everything
along with the lawyers and the accountants. It’s just really sad. And, you know, the family and the
estate deserves their just desserts. And so everybody that really had a big piece of, to do with getting
all the records and billboard and success never prospered from anything.
BC: Unbelievable
AA: That’s the sad story.
BC: Yeah
AA: And I really don’t, and I really don’t want to dwell on that, I’ll tell you that, but I don’t want
this interview to make it look like, this guys angry, he’s frustrated, because I’m not. These are the
things that I would like to tell all the musicians and the young artists and young prodigies that
people are starting to take major interest. There’s a lot of young talented kids. They, they need to
know they have to protect themselves with either a union, some sort of management, family
management – somebody that’s telling you the truth and your rights because whatever you write
and produce, belongs to you. I don’t care who you are.
BC: Yup, that’s true!
AA: You could be the king of bernine. I know you, like, got a lot of gold but, you know, this
belongs to me. This little piece of gold belongs to me and you, you keep all the rest. That was kind
of hard to prove because Jamaicans, in Jamaica and in the world, they don’t have a performing
rights society, like, we do have unions and publishing like ASCAP and BMI to look after their
publishing so they can pass on their generational wealth to their children, which is the most fair
thing in the history of what music stands for. Take that generational wealth that was made from
your fathers song, singing and songwriting and pass it on to their children.
BC: You know, one of the things that’s a lot different now with, with music, the music industry as
opposed to when you were doing your thing in 70s, in the 80s and even the 90s, now the musicians
with social media, a lot more very successful independent artists because of social media.
AA: Unfortunately, this is the unfortunate thing. You literally have to be a psychologist and a genius
to figure out how you’re going to get that, those residuals from Spotify and all the platforms.
Because, to me, that’s, that was the most complicated thing that, holy fuck, you know, we,we just
came from the slavery of royalties from the 30s, 40s and 50s and Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis,
all the way up to Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin and the Beatles and so on, they got ripped off too.
So it’s just, it’s part of the entertainment world is to take advantage of the uneducated ones. The
kids today, like, Reggae bands, let’s say, and my genre, Stick Figure, Slightly Stoopid, 311. All
these guys are so successful, man. You know, they got that whole platform together when a lot of
Jamaican artists that the genre belongs to have not yet found that plateau of how to reach the
multimedia and the digital marketing of what music is all about today. Music today is about digital
marketing and how intelligent your management and agencies are. That’s what success is today. It’s
not, it’s not really the artists anymore. The artists have to have content, you know, like Weekend
and, you know, Dua Lipa, all these artists that are fucking massive. They have the talent but they
also, they’re tied into this. The multimedia success comes from knowing how to sell. Knowing that
merchandise, performances and that agency that got you on TV that, and that marketing company
that it’s, it’s a full time job that we never expected because it was back in the days in 60s, 70s, 80s,
90s from, it was about raw talent and then this, the digital era came in and just ruined all the organic
abilities for artists that weren’t educated in digital marketing to make money, because that’s how
you make money today, with music, agencies, management, lawyers, accountants in the digital
marketing platform of the international digital marketing world. And once you tied into that, you
might have a better life as a, as an artist.
BC: Yeah, its changed. It’s not the same, for sure. It’s changed.
AA: No I come from the Phil Maurice in the Motown era. Ask any Motown artist, they, ask them –
did you get ripped off? I sure did!
BC: *Laughs* Yeah exactly, everybody did.
AA: And I, I was, I was on TV everyday. I travelled around the world. I was on a bus, plane and
train. I did my job. I don’t have anything.
BC: Yup, yup. There’s a lot of vultures out there in the music industry especially. The same thing
with films, a lot of them.
AA: Now it’s culture vultures. They want to find a culture and just...
BC: Right
AA:... Devour it.
BC: Alright, couple more things and we’ll wrap this up. I really, first of all, I really, really enjoyed
listening to you. It’s been a pleasure to have you on the show. But let’s touch on a few more quick
things.
AA: You’re asking me really good stuff too because some people dont know...
BC: Oh I appreciated that, it means a lot coming from you. It really does, it really does. Alright, so
there’s a music set, a complete music set, right? That, that’s available?
AA: There’s the Sugar Shack unplugged...
BC: Yeah
AA: ... On the YouTube channel that we have original Wailers featuring Al Anderson – has 8 songs,
2 are which originals, the other 6 are Bob Marley and the Wailers compositions. So we did that
because we, I love to play the catalogue that I’m feature on from Bob, you know, and Peter and, you
know, Bunny. I, I love the fact that I had the opportunity to work with them. And anytime I have
the opportunity to perform, I just don’t encumference just Bob, I encumference all three of them.
So it’s, it’s more of a salute than a tribute of what these artists taught me. They taught me their
music and I was able to eat food and live and go around the world and have my family and I have
all these things from Paul Kossoff, all the companies and all the people that I worked with. It’s all
like a piece, it’s like a, it’s like a circle. It keeps turning and it’s just become bigger and bigger as
Bob said, and more successful. And it’s, it’s unbelievable to see how successful the word Bob
Marley and the Wailers is and how Bob Marley has completely taken off in the Reggae world all on
his own to be the most successful venture of all time.
BC: Of all time. And that can be seen on YouTube and I have the link. I’ll make sure I drop the link
for everybody to go check that out on YouTube. Now also the last thing I got before we wrap it up is
the EP. You guys are working on an EP, is that right?
AA: The name of the EP...
BC: Mirror of Heaven
AA: Mirror of Heaven. We have 3 songs recorded, 2 have been released:
Song of the Divine
Si Tu Me Lo Das.
We only have 3 songs of a 9 song EP to come, but look out for the other 6 songs. And 3 or 4 of the
songs on the Mirror of Heaven album will be in Espanol because Chet is from Puerto Rico.
Omar Lopez, our bass player, is from Mexico. Papa Niako, our keyboard player is from Africa and
Ross Caliper, Steven Stewart are from Jamaica, with the keyboard players that help us put this
together.
BC: Alright. Well, Al, we’re at the point of the interview where I’m gonna wrap this up, man. Just,
is there any closing thoughts you want to share with the fans out there? Do you, I mean, I’ll have
all your social media, all your links, I’ll have that in the article. Is there anything verbal you want
to say for the fans before we wrap it up?
AA: Yeah, blessings to everybody on this wonderful Valentines Day. Take a listen to Song of the
Divine because it has a, it has a Valentine Divine Spirit of love inspired in that you’ll be connected
to. And look for Empress Amiga, which comes out next Thursday.
BC: Next Thursday, everybody. I appreciate you so much. I hope we can stay in touch and I’d love
to have you come back on the show, I really would. This has been fantastic.
AA: Do me a favour, man, just call me anytime. Say hello, send me a text. Where are you from?
BC: I’m originally from upstate New York.
AA: Man, when we’re in upstate New York, let’s get together and grind on some food and come to
the show and roll, roll something up man.
*SPECIAL THNKS TO JO-ANNE IHLENFELDT SKINNER FOR HER ASSISTANCE WITH THIS INTERVIEW.
