Former guitarist for Bob Marley and the Wailers, Al Anderson, has disclosed that the management team of Bob Marley and the Wailers did not compensate band members for their work after Bob’s death.
AI Anderson recounted that while band members received payment for live albums when Bob Marley was alive, the narrative changed after the passing of the legendary Reggae musician.
AI Anderson made these revelations in an interview with GhanaWeb TV on Friday, February 7, 2025.
“We were having a lot of problems with management because a lot of money was being made. The record company was making theirs, and all the lawyers were making theirs. Bob was making his portion too. But they kind of took advantage of the band members,” he said.
“That meaning the Barrett Brothers, Wire, Tyrone, myself, I-Trees, and everybody in the band, no one got paid on the live albums. No residual for any of the album that we recorded until now,” he stated.
Anderson added that the situation worsened after Bob Marley’s death, when the lawyers and accountants began perceiving the band as “slaves.”
“There was a period when we were getting money when Bob was in the flesh but when he passed, the lawyers and accountants went crazy. They lost their minds. They just thought we were a bunch of slaves.
“And they were going to handle us like plantation owners. Chris Blackwell, Bob’s lawyer, and his accountants, Marvin Zoltan, David Steinberg, and his manager, Don Taylor, he was a sharp guy but he was along for the ride. Not to make the group strong enough to be independent as a band. He was all about the money that he could protect Bob from and not pay us,” he added.
AI Anderson noted that in he left the group because of the attitude of Don Taylor in 1977 to 1978 but returned in 1979 and spent the last three years till Bob’s death in 1981.
Bob Marley died on May 11, 1981, of skin cancer in Miami, Florida.
