Bob Marley Interview | UCLA | 1979

The following interview took place at UCLA on November 23, 1979 during the Bob Marley and the Wailers Survival tour.  The interview was marketed in 1998 by an unscrupulous bootlegger who claimed that this was “Marley’s Final Interview.” The producers of the video claimed, on the cover of the video, that the interview took place in Los Angeles in 1981, three weeks before Marley died in Miami of brain cancer.  They claimed that it was “the last known in-depth interview of the man and his religion.”  This couldn’t be further from the truth.

The interview is one of the longest that Marley would ever give, lasting nearly 45 minutes.  I am not able to identify the interviewer, however, I assume he was a professor or graduate student at UCLA.  The interviewer deserves much credit, as this is one of the most revealing interviews of Marley ever captured.

An interesting note: Marley looks extremely fatigued and washed out during this interview.  I do not know if it is because of his progressing illness, exhaustion from the tour, or a combination of both.  However, you can clearly see that his bandmates, Tyrone Downie in particular, attempt to take some of the heat off of him by attempting to answer many of the questions for him.  They also feed him answers throughout the interview.  At least that’s what I think I am observing when I watch this.

Anyway, that’s enough from me.  Enjoy the interview.