Bob Marley Backup Singer Gets Saved

CBN.com JUDY MOWATT: I was unbearable. My friends could not cope with me because I just wanted to sing and I wanted them to sing with me. Nobody liked singing. I used to sing to the trees, and I used to beat them when they would not harmonize. I used to have a piece of stick and beat them when they wouldnt sing. I remember dreaming one night in a huge place like the National Stadium and my grandmother was there. Im saying, 'What is this, Grandma?' And she said, 'You are going to be a great singer.'

VICTOR OLADOKUN: When did you get your big break?

JUDY: The big break started when I started working with Bob Marley and the Wailers. I remember rehearsing out of the Ward Theater. I was singing a song titled 'Suspicious Mind,' and I heard someone behind me harmonizing that was about two octaves up from where I was singing. When I looked around for the first time, that was Bob Marley.

VICTOR (reporting): The chance meeting soon opened doors to record backup vocals for Bob Marley. Not long after, Judy teamed up with the already legendary Rita Marley and Marcia Griffiths. Together they formed the "i-3s". Bob Marley was so impressed he invited them to be his permanent backup vocal group.

VICTOR: What kind of person was he?

JUDY: He was a loving person, very serious, very regimented, hard working. After we finished working on stage at night, we would pass his room and he was always playing a song. There were nights when Bob would call us from our rooms when we were sleeping in our nightclothes. A song would come to him, and he would want to work out everything. On the bus in the evenings before we would leave for the venue, Bob would be the first on the bus.

VICTOR (reporting): Tragically, Bob Marleys musical career ended as suddenly as it had all begun. In 1981, at the age of 36, Bob Marley died of cancer.

VICTOR: One of the things Ive heard over the years, and I do not know that its true, is that just before Bob Marley died in 1981, he came to know Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.

JUDY: That makes two of us. Ive heard the same thing. His wife, Rita Marley, said to me when he was in so much excruciating pain that he said 'Jesus, take me.' He stretched out his hands and said 'Jesus, take me.' Now, Im saying to myself, he could have said 'Selassie take me,' but he said 'Jesus, take me.'

VICTOR (reporting): Little did she know at the time that she would one day question her own faith as a Rastafarian.

JUDY: My father was not there. My mother was a teenager when she had us. When we went to her for love, she would push us away because she herself did not know love. I found Rasta as the answer.

VICTOR (reporting): The Rastafarian movement began in Jamaica. Most followers of the religion believe that His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, is god almighty. Others believe Selassie is the messiah who will lead the black race to the promised land.

VICTOR: What was the turning point in your life?

JUDY: As a Rasta, I never had the peace. I yearned for peace. My childrens father would beat up on me. He would hurt me. I could not handle it. I said, 'Lord, for 22 years I really do not know You. I need to know You tonight. If you are Rastafari, I want you to reveal yourself, and if You are Jesus Christ, I want You to reveal Yourself. And Jesus reached down and picked me out of the miry clay. I had no desire for anything else that was outside of God.

VICTOR: What would you say to Rastafarians watching this program today, based on what you now know about Jesus Christ?

JUDY: Truth is a person: Jesus Christ. I have come to understand through listening to an interview with His Imperial Majesty the interviewer asked His Majesty, 'Why do people all over the world say you are the returned Messiah?' His Imperial Majestys answer was, 'I am a mere man. I will be replaced by the oncoming generation, and a human being should not be emulated for a deity.' I have that cassette. I did not see anything about Haile Selassie in the Bible. I saw Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ lives. Tell the world that He is the conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the King of kings and the Lord of lords.