Bob Marley’s Grandson Under The Gun While Legal Wrangling Over Reggae Star’s Legacy Continues

Bob Marley’s grandson, Matthew Prendergast, has found himself on the wrong side of Jamaican law after facing off with a security guard at the Bob Marley Museum, located in St Andrew on Hope Road.

The descendant of Bob and Rita Marley, the King and Queen of Reggae Music, is a 25 year-old musician himself, who reportedly resides in both Jamaica and Miami.

The charges against him, stemming from the altercation with the security guard, include illegal possession of a firearm and assault at common law.

He purportedly pointed a gun at the security guard on April 5, during a squabble on the Bob Marley Museum grounds, though no gun has been recovered.

The Marley offspring appeared before Justice Martin Gayle in the High Court Division of the Gun Court on Friday, and was offered $200,000 bail. Part of the conditions of his bail include surrendering his travel documents and a trial date has been set for September 24th.

According to Pendergrast’s attorney, Marley’s grandson did get into an altercation with the Bob Marley Museum security Guard but claims that no firearm ever entered the fray.

Lawyer, Christian Tavares-Finson told the Jamaica Observer that Prendergast will be vindicated at trial.

“We are happy that we were able to get bail today and we are confident that when the matter comes to trial in September that Matthew will be vindicated,” said Tavares-Finson.

Pendergrast is the son of Bob and Rita Marley’s daughter, Sharon Marley, and her husband, FIFA referee instructor Peter Pendergast.

In other legal wranglings related to Bob Marley:

As also recently reported here on The Inquisitr, Bob Marley producer, Chris Blackwell will be defending his Blue Mountain Music against Cayman Music, who is attempting to seize the rights to one of Bob Marley’s classics, No Woman, No Cry, and other Marley songs, under the guise of alleged misattribution and diversion of income, among other issues.

Judy Totton Publicity sent out a release announcing the landmark trial is scheduled to begin on May 12.

While the details and outcome of the trial will be interesting to watch, it is also fascinating that over 30 years after Marley’s passing, such contentious legal battles still exist.

The obvious answer is that Bob Marley’s music and persona still generate a healthy amount of money each year, but how much?

An April 10th story from the The Pittsburgh Courier reports that Bob Marley was named last year by Forbes magazine as the fifth top earning celebrity that is no longer with us. Marley is also the only Caribbean artist to grace a Forbes list.

So how much is Marley’s estate worth? Roughly $130 million dollars. As a singer, songwriter, activist and continued folk hero, Bob Marley enjoyed a very successful and storied career. But like many musicians and other artists, some of his biggest successes followed his passing.

The Bob Marley compilation album, Legend was released in 1984, three years after Marley tragically died from cancer at 36. Legend became the top selling reggae album of all time, going not just Gold or Platinum, but Diamond. Bob Marley’s album sales top 75 million in the past 20 years alone.

Bob Marley’s Legend album continues to top 250,000 sales a year, rare in this day and age of online music buying which results in a majority of single song purchases, not albums. But Bob Marley’s album and other merchandise sales remain steady, especially every year around February 6th, Bob Marley’s Birthday, reports the Courier.

A savvy annual campaign launched by the Marley estate called Bob Marley Week, results every year in a renewed focus on the reggae legend and lots of sales.

And as millions of Bob Marley fans, including this one, continue to rally around the music and continued positive vibrations generated by Bob Marley, so too will money be generated and the continued not-so-positive vibrations of competition for that money.

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