Andrew Tosh

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Andrew Tosh (born Andrew McIntosh, 19 June 1967, Kingston, Jamaica), is a reggae singer and the son of the late Peter Tosh.  He is the nephew of reggae singer Bunny Wailer, also an original member of The Wailers. Andrew has strong resemblance of his late father and like his father he rides the unicycle.

Tosh was exposed to the music of his father's group The Wailers from an early age, his mother, Shirley Livingstone, also being the sister of Bunny Wailer.  His first recording session was in 1985, produced by Charlie Chaplin, and resulting in the single "Vanity Love".  After his father was shot dead in 1987, he performed two songs at his funeral, "Jah Guide" and "Equal Rights".  He moved on to work with producer Winston Holness on his debut album, Original Man. This was followed in 1989 by a second album, Make Place For The Youth, which was recorded in the United States and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album.  He toured with The Wailers Band in 1991.

Albums

• Original Man (1987) Attack
• Make Place For The Youth (1989) Tomato
• Message From Jah (2000) Dressed to Kill
• Andrew Tosh (2001) Dressed to Kill
• Andrew Sings Tosh: He Never Died (2004) Paras
• Legacy: An Acoustic Tribute To Peter Tosh (2010) Box 10 Entertainment / Tuff Gong
• Eye to Eye (2011)

Film, Video

• Peter Tosh Band with Andrew Tosh: Live

See the full gallery on Posterous

Andrew_Tosh_-_Tribute_to_Peter_Tosh_2006_(Recorded_in_Salvador_-_Bahia,_BRAZIL).mp4 Watch on Posterous

"I've been singing away my heart since basic school," recalls 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 produced a major tribute to his father with executive-producer Bunny Wailer.

In 2004, he recorded an album of songs by his father, Andrew Sings Tosh: He Never Died.

In 2007, he announced that he was working on his fourth studio album, Focus.

2010, he release an acoustic album dedicated to his father, Legacy An Acoustic Tribute to Peter Tosh produced by himself, his girlfriend Dawn Simpson and legendary Handel Tucker. The album features a duet with Andrew and Kymani Marley a rendition of Lessons in My Life and song entitle I Am which features Bunny Wailer. The album was nominated for 2011 Grammy.

In 2011, he announced that he was working on a new album, named "Eye to Eye", featuring Kymani Marley and a few other guest artists, expecting a 2012 release date.