Bunny Wailer, the Jamaican reggae singer who founded the Wailers with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, and who was the last surviving founding member, has died in hospital at the age of 73 after a stroke
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Bunny Wailer, left, with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, right, in 1964. Born in 1947 in Kingston, he and Marley became friends as toddlers, and formed the Wailers in 1963, which settled into a core trio of the pair alongside Tosh
Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives
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The Wailers, from left, Bunny Wailer, Bob Marley, Carlton Barrett, Peter Tosh and Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett, photographed in the early 70s. Wailer’s given name was Neville O’Riley Livingston but he was known affectionately as Bunny Wailer, Bunny Livingston or Jah B. He came from Trench Town, a poor inner-city community of Kingston that went on to inspire one of the Wailers’ hits
Photograph: Charlie Gillett Collection/Redferns
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Bob Marley and the Wailers, from left, Peter Tosh, Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett, Bob Marley, Earl ‘Wire’ Lindo, Carlton ‘Carly’ Barrett and Bunny Wailer, pose for a portrait in 1973 in London
Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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Wailer penned a number of the Wailers songs, including what would become his signature song, Dreamland
Photograph: Gems/Redferns
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Bob Marley and the Wailers, including Wailer, second right, on the BBC’s Old Grey Whistle Test in 1973
Photograph: Alan Messer/Rex/Shutterstock
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Bunny Wailer, 1970s. The original trio split in 1974, when Wailer left alongside Tosh. He began a solo career, beginning with 1976’s acclaimed Blackheart Man
Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy
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A single by Bunny Wailer released on his own Solomonic label. Each of the three founding Wailers launched their own labels, including Bob Marley’s Tuff Gong, and Peter Tosh’s H.I.M. Intel Diplo
Photograph: Guy Lane
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Wailer maintained a steady release schedule for 40 years
Photograph: Jim Rankin/Toronto Star/Getty Images
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Wailer performing at the Henry J Kaiser Auditorium in Oakland in November 1986
Photograph: Clayton Call/Redferns
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Wailer in Notting Hill, London, in 1988
Photograph: David Corio/Redferns
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Wailer at the Beacon Theatre in New York City in 1997. He won the Grammy award for best reggae album three times, in 1991, 1995, and 1997
Photograph: David Corio/Redferns
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Wailer sings the songs of Bob Marley at the One Love concert to celebrate Marley’s 60th birthday, in Kingston, Jamaica, in 2005
Photograph: Collin Reid/AP
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Wailer smoking in a yard in Kingston in 2014. He received several of Jamaica’s highest honours, including the Order of Merit and the Order of Jamaica
Photograph: David McFadden/AP
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Wailer performing at Liverpool O2 Academy in 2015
Photograph: WENN Rights Ltd/Alamy
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Wailer in concert in Las Vegas in 2016
Photograph: MediaPunch/Rex/Shutterstock
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Wailer in New York City in 2019. ‘This is a great loss for Jamaica and for Reggae,’ said the Jamaican prime minister, Andrew Holness, calling the singer ‘a respected elder statesman of the Jamaican music scene’
Photograph: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images
