Born in Jamaica and raised in London, Junior Marvin played all around the world with Bob Marley and the Wailers. But it takes only a local call to get him on the phone — from Alexandria, where he’s lived for a decade.
It’s home base for the inventive guitarist as he records and tours and sometimes plays close to home, as he does this week when he returns to the Hamilton with his band.
Marvin, 69, has had quite an accomplished career, as a teen actor with a bit part in the Beatles movie “Help!” and the London production of “Hair”; touring with T-Bone Walker; and playing with Ike and Tina Turner, Billy Preston and Traffic before joining Marley’s Wailers in 1977 and staying with him for his final four studio albums.
Marvin talked recently about his career, his promise to Marley and the various names under which he has recorded, including the one that made people think he had died.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
Q: Had you played reggae before you met Bob Marley?
A: I was mostly playing rock/blues/pop. But I had the opportunity to work with Toots and the Maytals. I played on a track called “Reggae’s Got Soul.” That was my first opportunity to play on a reggae track, and then I got a lot of calls from a lot of people, the Heptones and Burning Spear and Jimmy Cliff. I did a lot of session work, for Alpha Blondy. But my first real dive into reggae was with Bob Marley.
Before I met him, I really admired how he spearheaded the reggae movement, and I was really blown away when I was given the opportunity to play with him. It worked out really well. Funnily enough, the same day that I got the call from [Island Records founder] Chris Blackwell, I also got a call from Stevie Wonder and I ended up having to choose one of the two. My family and friends advised me that because I was from Jamaica, I should really sign with the Jamaican.
Q: Have you thought about what it would have been like if you had chosen Stevie Wonder?
A: I think it would have been awesome in any event, if I went either way. Because Stevie Wonder is just a great writer, great singer, and his music, to me, is quite complex. I’m sure I would have learned a lot from Stevie. But Bob at that time was very dynamic, and his music was also very spiritual and it had a great message that appealed to me.
Q: Did Marley’s music take you back to your roots? Had you heard that music as a child?
A: My family were all basically piano players. My grandparents had their own church in Jamaica, so we were very much affiliated with gospel music. My aunt played piano, and everybody in my family learned piano. So I was more into classical and gospel music in the beginning. But my uncle was like a Jamaican DJ. He’d brought his sound system to London, and had all the latest Jamaican records, and I kept in tune with the Jamaican music scene through him. Though I hadn’t played on any records at the time, I was very much in the loop at what was going on in the reggae music scene.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
Q: What got you from piano into guitar?
A: Definitely Jimi Hendrix. I had the opportunity to meet him when I was growing up in London, and he was very shy. We never even spoke. We just shook hands and said hi to each other. He was so dynamic and outstanding. He got me into the guitar. So I practiced like crazy, every day, driving my sister crazy. . . . She kept saying, “Will you stop that? Will you turn that down?”
Q: What is it about Marley’s music that has kept it alive for so many generations?
A: I think it was very honest. He believed in what he was doing. It wasn’t hype, or jive, just a way to get across. He didn’t think like, “I’m going to do this to get people to like me.” He just felt bringing people together was basically his job.
Q: It must have been difficult to watch him in his decline.
A: It came on really fast. We never saw any physical signs of it while we were touring. until basically near the end, when he collapsed in Central Park one time on his way to play soccer. That was like in 1980 and he passed in ’81. . . . Before he passed, he told us to keep the Wailers together and by doing that you keep me alive through the music.
Bob Marley
So basically we tried to fulfill our promise to him and keep the music going and keep its message alive. The response has really been good all over the world. It inspired a lot of other reggae bands and traveling throughout the world, you find reggae everywhere now. So it’s beautiful to see it grow.
Q: You’ve had several names over your career.
A: When I first started playing I used my family name, which was Kerr, so I started out as Junior Kerr. When I formed one of my rock bands, I called it Hanson because that was one of my middle names and I was called Junior Hanson. When that band broke up and I met Bob Marley, it was Junior Marvin, Julian Junior Marvin. So there’s basically been three different names over the years.
Q: And your original name was what?
A: Arnold Hanson Marvin Kerr Jr.
Q: I understand there was a mix-up when the reggae singer Junior Murvin, famous for the song “Police and Thieves,” died in late 2013.
Junior Murvin
A: Oh, yeah. My mom got a lot of phone calls. I felt so bad for her, because she was in shock. People were calling her with condolences.
When I first joined the Wailers, my name was Julian Junior Marvin. Then, somebody in the office thought it was too long and they just put Junior Marvin for the records that followed that. So a lot of people believed that Junior Murvin had joined the Wailers. I would show up at concerts and people would say, “Is Bob going to let you sing ‘Police and Thieves’ tonight?” Even when I put music on iTunes they decided I made the mistake. It took a long time to correct it.
It was very sad when he passed. I sent condolences to his family. But that’s another thing that happens in the music business — people mix people up because the names might be similar. But if Island Records left it as Julian Junior Marvin there never would have been that problem.
Junior Marvin Aug. 13 at the Hamilton, 600 14th St. NW. Tickets: $30-$35. 202-787-1000. thehamiltondc.com/live.
