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BOB MARLEY, WHO DIED OF cancer in 1981, would have turned sixty on February 6th. In commemoration, his estate has announced a yearlong slate of new projects - starting with a massive birthday concert in Ethiopia and culminating in a musical that will open on a London stage next year. Marley's estate (controlled by the singer's widow, Rita Marley, and his eleven children) was reported to be worth $30 million in 1981. It's far more valuable today: In 2004 alone, according to a Forbes estimate, it earned $7 million. "He said in one of his interviews it's going to get bigger and bigger and bigger until it reaches the right people," says Rita via phone from the Bahamas, where she's overseeing construction of the Marley Resort and Spa, scheduled to open in 2006. The reggae legend's sixtieth-birthday celebration officially kicks off with the Africa Unite concert in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. Expected to draw 200,000 fans, it will star the Marley family, dancehall stars such as Buju Banton and African singers Youssou N'Dour, Angelique Kidjo and Baaba Maal. Events will continue all year, including a DVD release in February of the 1977 concert film Live at the Rainbow and a disc of rare unreleased material due out in the spring. Marleys posthumous selling power ranks just below that of Elvis Presley and the Beatles. Financier David Pullman, who created the $55 million bond issue for David Bowie's back catalog in 1997, estimates Marley's catalog would be worth $100 million on the open market. And, he says, the market for Marley memorabilia might be worth even more than the Beatles'. "Think about Paul McCartney on a T-Shirt," he says. "It's not the same." |