Reggae Icon, Bunny Wailer Is Dead

Bunny Wailer

Three-time Grammy winner and reggae icon, Bunny Wailer,  has lost his life at 73.

The Jamaican singer, who was a founding member of The Wailers, alongside Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, died on Tuesday, March 2, at the Andrews Memorial Hospital in the Jamaican parish of St. Andrew, his manager, Maxine Stowe, told The Associated Press.

His cause of death is yet to revealed but Local newspapers had reported that the singer whose real name was Neville O'Riley Livingston, suffered his second stroke in July 2020 and has been in and out of the hospital since.

The Wailers were founded by Marley, Wailer, and Peter Tosh in 1963.Wailer was the last surviving founding member after Marley and Tosh died in 1981 and 1987, respectively.

During an interview with NPR in 2016, Wailer explained why he chose to keep his last name long after leaving the band in 1974.

"Because I didn't leave the Wailers," he said. "I'm still here, representing the Wailers."

Wailer won three Grammys for his work on "Hall Of Fame - A Tribute To Bob Marley's 50th Anniversary," "Time Will Tell - A Tribute To Bob Marley" and "Liberation (Album)."