Andrew Tosh, the tall, slender third son of reggae legend Peter
Tosh.
Born on June 19, 1967 in Kingston, Jamaica, Andrew seemed
preordained for a life in music. Among his earliest memories are
trips to the countryside of Westmoreland on the rural western end
of the island. There, along the lush banks of a swiftly running
river, he and his father would sing songs together - not just
Peter's militant compositions, but also pop classics by the likes
of Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and Kenny Rogers. Andrew notes that
"Peter always knew I would do something in the music business, so
he encouraged me to study piano, 'cause he knew I loved it. From
the start it was inside me to sing and play instruments." The first
song he learned was Peter's composition "You Can't Blame the
Youth," and from that point forward, he says, "I knew that my
heartbeat was music and one day it would just be music out of my
mouth, and writing and singing my own songs."
Throughout his elementary and high school days in Duhaney Park
on the outskirts of Kingston, Andrew was constantly pulled to the
forefront of the class and made to sing lead. At 14, in emulation
of his father, Andrew began to ride a unicycle too. Although Peter
was often on the road, performing tours that remain to this day
reggae's most lengthy and successful ones, Andrew spent much of his
childhood living in Peter's house, especially between the critical
ages of 12 and 15.
His first recording came in 1985, when he cut a song he wrote
called "Vanity Lover" for Neville Lee's Gorgon label. A keen
observer of the vibrant music scene in Kingston, Andrew was
checking out some of the new talent at that city's famous Skateland
dancehall on the evening his father was murdered - Friday,
September 11, 1987. "I felt my father's spirit come right there at
Skateland where I was," he says, "and the spirit said leave that
place right now." The impact of the elder Tosh's passing made an
immediate and life-changing impression. "I tell myself that Peter
Tosh is gone and it's my need to carry on. Not for want, and not
for the lust of fame and the glamor and want to be rich. No, for
the love of my art and the love of my people, because love carry no
color. Love is love and that's what Jah say, make a joyful noise
unto Me."
Ironically, the first glimpse the public got of Andrew's
nascent talent came when he sang at his father's funeral in the
National Arena in Kingston. His version of Peter's "Jah Guide"
stunned the mourners. "I was astonished myself on stage," he
recalls. "The other song I did was 'Equal Rights,' because everyone
is crying out for peace but none is crying out for justice. When I
came down off the stage, I couldn't stop crying."
Late the following year, he tested the international waters
with a pair of memorable performances in Southern California,
including a show-stopping turn on the stage of Burbank's Starlight
Amphitheater, the site of the final appearance together of Bob
Marley and Peter Tosh. Was he nervous? "I felt elevension," he
laughs, engaging in some of the crafty wordplay for which his
father was notorious. "It was way beyond tension."
From that point, Andrew began working under the guidance of
keyboardist Keith Sterling and his bandmates, Fully Fullwood and
Santa Davis, the bass and drum team from Peter's most ferocious
backing group, Word Sound and Power. Andrew began to tour, wowing
audiences in Europe as well as North and South America. He has been
especially successful in Brazil, where he has appeared several
times in Sao Paulo, Rio, and Curitiba. His first album, Original
Man, was a mixture of his tracks and those of his father. The
follow-up, Make Place for the Youth, indicated a new maturity to
his song-writing, and was well received, earning him a Grammy
nomination.
Currently, he has some new tracks as he seeks to fully assert his own identity and legacy, even while preserving the indelible mark left by his illustrious Dad.
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