By Peter Cooper • THE TENNESSEAN • November 11, 2008
East Tennessee would seem an unlikely place to spawn Bob Marley aficionados. No beach, no tides, and the accent is quite dissimilar from what you'd hear in Jamaica.
And yet Kenny Chesney heard Marley's music as a young East Tennessean and latched on tightly. Chesney recently hit No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart with "Everybody Wants To Go to Heaven," a song that featured backing from Marley's old compadres, The Wailers. Chesney and The Wailers will also perform together on the CMA Music Awards on Wednesday.
And Chesney's longstanding fascination with The Wailers led him to turn on a recorder during a trip down to Jamaica. With waves crashing in the background, Chesney — the reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year — spoke with Aston "Family Man" Barrett (an original Wailer) and with Junior Marvin, who joined Marley's band in 1977. Thus, we give you Kenny Chesney, music journalist:
Chesney: So, Fams, you were one of the original Wailers?
Barrett: Yeah, my man. I'm captain of the ship. I put the band together. I keep everyone together over the years. To make it happen.
Chesney: So, when I listen to your music, there's a lot of commonality. I think your music and Bob Marley's music is the most universal music ever made, in my opinion. Everybody relates to it.
Marvin: A friend of mine has a son who's 7 years old, in England. He says, "I am Bob Marley?" I said, "Why?" He says, "One love." Family Man was one of the architects, along with Bob, of rhythms and bass lines.
Chesney: This is as inspirational as any music gets. No doubt about it, man. This music, I've always been drawn to it.
Marvin: Family Man also did an album with John Denver.
Barrett: Yeah. Just one track really. The album is called It's About Time. The track we do is called "World Game." Said he "wanted to be in the world game." He wanted to "make it better than it's ever been before."
Chesney: You started. . .
Marvin: I think I started with a Toots and the Maytals album. That was my first track, with Chris Blackwell, in England. You know, Toots did a country album as well. He remade "Country Roads."
I was playing with my friends Chris Wood from Traffic and Steve Winwood, and jamming with them, and they introduced me to (Island Records Founder) Chris Blackwell. Chris introduced me to Family Man and Bob. They just came from Jamaica where they started Exodus.
There was a shooting event, where they tried to shoot the band. The guitar player, Donald Kingsley, from a blues family in Chicago, was playing with Bob. He was really good. But the shooting kind of freaked him out. So he went home. Bob came to England with Family Man, and we met up through Blackwell. We met up and it was like magic.
Chesney: So the Exodus record was your first?
Marvin: Yes. And that album was voted CD of the century. So I was proud, super proud, to be on it. We had a technician, Roger Mayer, that formerly worked for the great Jimi Hendrix, and he took all of our guitars and lined 'em all up. Got the necks right. And that was the first time we were perfectly in tune.
Chesney: I love being here in Jamaica with you guys. It's an honor to be here.
Marvin: It's a pleasure. And I look forward to jamming with you in the future.
Chesney: Hey, what do you think Bob would think if he could see how much his music has touched the world?
Marvin: Bob, when he was young, he was clairvoyant. He could read people's palms. I think when he became to maybe 11, he saw some stuff maybe he didn't want to tell people. So he stopped doing it. But he had a sense of things to come.
He used to say, "They're going to have plaques for this music, and put it on their walls. And this music will help free people's minds. And all people will be one. It won't be like black or white. It'll be just people." A lot of that has happened. I don't think he knew how big it would have gotten.
Now, he loved soccer. He'd say, "I used to vision myself playing for Manchester United, and here I am sitting down playing music. What's going on?"
Chesney: You guys touched the world.
Marvin: It wasn't accidental. We used to work 18 hours a day. Fams would set the instruments up and organize the rehearsal. We'd have a set time every day. Maybe play one song for a couple of hours. It was a lot of work. He put a lot of effort into it.
Chesney: It paid off. You guys did so much. I gave this kid a guitar, and he said, "I want you to play me a song." I started playing "No Woman, No Cry." He knew every word. And he was a little kid, probably
6 years old.
Marvin: We play a lot of family shows. Some of the kids say, "Yeah, I took my dad's LPs and put them on CDs." It's amazing to see how it has transcended among the different age groups. Beautiful.
Chesney: So are you guys.
Barrett: Thank you, man. Country music and reggae is one. It's a oneness. They both tell it uncut, without commercials.
Chesney: That is from the Family Man.
Barrett: Yes.
Chesney: Hey, Family, how did you meet Bob?
Barrett: The music brings us together.
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