Peter Tosh was a Jamaican musician and reggae singer. Along with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer, he was one of the core members of the band the Wailers (1963–1976), after which he established himself as a successful solo artist and a promoter of Rastafari.
Tosh was murdered in 1987 during a home invasion.
real name: Winston Hubert McIntosh
labels: Studio One, Columbia Records, Rolling Stones Records, EMI
genres: reggae, ska, rocksteady
awards: Order of Merit
plays: guitar, violin, voice, melodica, keyboard instrument, percussion guitare
member of: Bob Marley & The Wailers, The Wailers
Facts from Wikidata and Discogs, free to use.
Tosh was born Winston Hubert McIntosh on 19 October 1944 in Westmoreland, the westernmost parish of Jamaica. He was abandoned by his parents and "shuffled among relatives". When McIntosh was 15, his aunt died and he moved to Trenchtown in Kingston, Jamaica. McIntosh was educated in Bluefields up to age 17, then moved to Kingston to live with another aunt. He began an apprenticeship as a welder.
By 1964, Tosh, Marley, and Bunny had formed the Wailing Wailers, with falsetto singer Junior Braithwaite, and backup singers Beverley Kelso and Cherry Smith. Initially, Tosh was the only one in the group who could play musical instruments. According to Bunny Wailer, Tosh was critical to the band because he was a self-taught guitarist and keyboardist, and thus became an inspiration for the other band members to learn to play. The Wailing Wailers had a major ska hit with their first single, "Simmer Down", and recorded several more successful singles before Braithwaite, Kelso and Smith left the band in late 1965. Marley spent much of 1966 in Delaware in the United States with his mother, Cedella (née Malcolm) Marley-Booker, and for a brief...
Tosh's debut solo album, Legalize It, was recorded in 1975–76 at Treasure Isle. It was released in June 1976 on CBS Records. The title track soon became popular among endorsers of cannabis legalization, reggae music lovers and Rastafari all over the world, and was a favourite at Tosh's concerts. Also in 1976, Tosh organised a backing band, Word, Sound and Power, who were to accompany him on tour for the next few years, and many of whom performed on his albums of this period. Tosh's second album, Equal Rights, was released in 1977. It featured his recording of a song co-written with Marley, "Get Up, Stand Up", and a cover of "Stepping Razor" that would also appear on the soundtrack to the film Rockers.
In 1979, a 1964 photograph of Tosh in sunglasses and a suit, also featuring Bob Marley and the Wailers, was the inspiration for the logo of 2 Tone Records. The label released albums from ska bands such as The Specials. The logo featured a stylized man in a suit based on the photo of Tosh, although the figure was called "Walt Jabsco". The logo in turn was the inspiration for a character in a Webdings font designed by Vincent Connare in 1997 ("Man in Business Suit Levitating emoji" in the Emoji system). Connare changed the design to facing forward and floating. Tosh's children Andrew Tosh and Niambe McIntosh both praised the emoji in a 2021 BBC interview, with Andrew stating that "[Peter Tosh] wanted [people] to dance to their own...