by Howard Campbell
KINGSTON, Jamaica – Almost three months after he suffered a stroke, reggae legend Bunny Wailer continues to recover, according to his manager Maxine Stowe. She said he is responding well to therapy.
“He’s improving but the speech is still impaired. The process is a whole re-training of the brain; it’s like going back to kindergarten,” Stowe disclosed.
The 71-year-old singer/songwriter suffered the stroke on October 11 at his home in Kingston, Jamaica. Stowe said Wailer had just returned from his farm in Portland, east Jamaica, when she noticed his speech was slurred.
After observation by his personal doctor, it was discovered Wailer’s right side was affected and his speech impaired.
He is currently undergoing speech and physical therapy five times a week.
“He’s totally functional in his understanding. All the signs are progressing, we just have to make sure he doesn’t get another one,” said Stowe.
Wailer remains active with projects he is passionate about. One of them is commissioning a statue of the three most famous Wailers: himself, Bob Marley and Peter Tosh.
A maquette of the statue by Jamaican sculptor Paul Napier was unveiled in Kingston on December 14.
Wailer was born Neville Livingston. He is a founding member of The Wailers which started in 1963 as a harmony group in Trench Town, an expansive ghetto in Kingston.
With Marley and Tosh, he recorded a number of early reggae songs in the late 1960s that culminated in the albums, Catch A Fire and Burnin’, which were distributed by Island Records.
Wailer and Tosh left the group in 1973 for solo careers. His catalog includes the classic 1976 album, Blackheart Man.
