Something you might not know about me… I’m a HUGE Bob Marley fan. If I’m going to listen to some tunes in the car or while I’m working around the house, I almost always go for either Bob Marley (or Michael Buble)!
I was really excited to hear that Grammy-nominated musician Ky-Mani Marley, the son of the legendary Bob Marley, authored a new memoir, โDear Dadโ.
Time Magazine called Bob Marley the Artist of the 20th Century, but to Ky-Mani Marley he is โDad.โ The reggae superstar died when Ky-Mani was just 5, but nearly 30 years later, Marley still looms large in his life, as seen in Ky-Maniโs new memoir, โDear Dadโ (Farrah Gray Publishing).
“I told my story from my heart and soul. After writing the book and reading over the first edit, I didn’t realize some of the stuff I had bottled up inside of me. So this book, for me, became therapy,” Ky-Mani said. โIf I was to follow in my father’s footsteps, then what would they say? ‘Oh, he’s trying to be like his dad.’ Then if I take a different path, they say, ‘He’s supposed to be like his father.’ So you can’t please everybody. I just have to be true to myself and true to my art and do what comes naturally to me.”
โDear Dadโ is an arresting narrative of a son who was locked out of his iconic fatherโs estate after his death. Ky-Mani and his mother Anita Belnavis left Jamaica for the United States, where he was forced to survive the poverty-stricken, predator-infested streets of one of Miamiโs most violent ghettos, Liberty City. Ky-Mani was initially estranged from his siblings and cut off from any financial benefit by the Marley estate executor.
From that crucible came the Ky-Mani Marley you see today โ musician, actor, author, philanthropist and a father himself. He has recorded four studio albums (ranging from reggae to hip-hop), was nominated for a Grammy Award, performed to sellout crowds (one concert was beamed live to 36 countries), and has been cast in several major feature films, including โHaven,โ which starred Bill Paxton and Orlando Bloom. Ky-Mani and his good friend Julian Lennon were jointly named Philanthropist of the Year by Prince Albert II of the Monaco Foundation, Better World Awards.
Some of Bob Marleyโs words echo through the years with new meaning for Ky-Mani: โThe harder the battle, the sweet of jah victoryโ โฆ โOne good thing about music, when it hits, you feel no painโ โฆ โDonโt forget your history nor your destiny.โ
โDear Dadโ is available online and in bookstores everywhere and online at Amazon.com.
For additional information visit the website www.kymani-marley.com.
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