Few musicians have lived inside the history of reggae quite like Al Anderson.
His guitar helped shape landmark recordings with Bob Marley & The Wailers, including Natty Dread, Live!, Babylon by Bus, Survival and Uprising. He also brought his distinct blend of blues, jazz, country and rock to Peter Tosh’s essential albums Legalize It and Equal Rights.
Those achievements alone would be enough to secure his place in music history, but Al has never appeared interested in treating that history like a finished chapter.
When I caught up with him for our third conversation, the focus was not simply on returning to the past. It was about continuing the music, completing new material, reconnecting with Australian audiences and carrying the spirit of One Love into a world that feels increasingly divided.
The Original Wailers will return to Australia in March 2027 for the One Love Tour, bringing a catalogue that has crossed generations, cultures and musical boundaries.
For Al Anderson, however, the tour represents much more than a collection of famous songs.
It is another step in a promise he has spent decades trying to honour.
The Next Chapter Is Still Being Written
The first time I spoke with Al, we explored the remarkable journey that took him from America to London, into the world of Island Records and eventually to Jamaica with Bob Marley.
Our second conversation moved deeper into the music industry, the struggles surrounding the Wailers legacy and the new music he was developing with The Original Wailers.
This time, I wanted to know what chapter of the Al Anderson story we were entering now.
The answer was clear. The next chapter is centred on completing the band’s long-awaited new EP.
The project has developed across several years, partly because The Original Wailers have been funding the recording, production, merchandise and promotion through their work on the road. Rather than rushing the material out, Al has remained committed to creating something that represents the band properly.
The new music continues the international direction heard through songs such as “Song of the Divine” and “Si Tu Me Lo Das,” bringing reggae into conversation with Latin music, African rhythms and the different cultural backgrounds within the current lineup.
There is also a major collaboration being prepared for the release. Al was not ready to reveal the names involved, but he confirmed that a well-known guitarist and singer are expected to contribute to the new recording.
He clearly enjoyed keeping that card close to his chest.
Australian and New Zealand audiences may be among the first to experience some of those surprises when the band returns in 2027.
Why Australia Continues to Matter
Al’s connection with Australia stretches back decades, and his affection for the country has been obvious every time we have spoken.
When I asked what continued to bring him back, his answer came down to something simple: Australian audiences understand the music.
They do not merely recognise the songs. They respond to the musicians playing them.
Al spoke about hearing people call out to individual members of the band, recognising the bassist, the drummer and the personalities helping bring the performance to life. That connection matters to him because The Original Wailers are not intended to be a faceless backing group orbiting a famous catalogue.
They are a living band.
Australia also holds memories from the days when Bob Marley & The Wailers arrived to find crowds that were significantly larger than many of the audiences they were playing to back home. The scale may have changed over the years, but Al still feels the same energy when the music reaches people who genuinely understand its emotional and spiritual foundation.
That is the connection he is returning for.
One Love Beyond the Slogan
“One Love” may be one of the most widely recognised phrases in popular music, but constant repetition can sometimes strip important words of their deeper meaning.
For Al, One Love begins with the energy people carry into a concert.
He described attending performances by artists he admires, including Carlos Santana, already knowing the kind of emotional and spiritual experience he hopes to receive. He enters with love, feels that energy returned through the music and carries it home with him afterwards.
That is what The Original Wailers want to create on this tour.
It is not only about singing familiar choruses together. It is about entering a shared space, temporarily leaving behind the divisions outside and remembering that music can connect people who may otherwise believe they have very little in common.
The message feels especially urgent now.
Governments, political movements and military powers repeatedly claim to act on behalf of humanity while continuing to deepen division. Al believes that meaningful progress requires better leadership, greater understanding and genuine respect for different cultures.
One Love cannot remain a convenient phrase printed on merchandise.
It must become something people practise.
Honouring a Promise to Bob Marley
The One Love Tour announcement includes an account of Bob Marley speaking to Al during the final period of his life.
“Al, I’m going on my journey. Please honour the music that we made together and make sure the band stays together.”
That request has remained with Al ever since.
When I asked whether those words return to him before he walks onto a stage, he explained that the responsibility never truly disappears. It is always present, but so are the memories of the people who originally created the music beside him.
Al misses the original musicians.
He misses knowing precisely how a song would feel once the band locked together. He misses the familiarity that came from playing with musicians who had shared the same studios, stages, struggles and experiences.
The current members of The Original Wailers are accomplished musicians who have earned his confidence, but Al does not pretend that replacing a musician automatically recreates the person who came before them.
The original players remain the original players.
That honesty is important because honouring history should never require rewriting it.
The First Take Had the Feeling
One of the most revealing moments in our conversation came when we discussed the guitar voice within “No Woman, No Cry.”
Al’s playing has always worked like another singer within the arrangement. His phrases respond to the emotion of the song rather than interrupting it, giving the guitar a human quality that remains recognisable decades later.
He recalled playing two versions of a guitar passage for Bob.
The first was instinctive and improvised. Al was still searching, listening and reacting without completely knowing where he was going. The second attempt felt more polished to him. He believed he had finally played it exactly the way he wanted.
Bob preferred the first.
Al had thought the second version was perfect, but Bob heard something more valuable in the uncertainty and emotion of the original pass. The first performance had movement, freedom and an honesty that could not be recreated once Al already knew the destination.
It is a story that captures the difference between technical perfection and emotional truth.
The cleaner take may have contained the notes Al intended to play, but the first contained the feeling Bob wanted.
Learning When Not to Play
Al entered reggae with a musical vocabulary shaped by jazz, blues, rock and country.
That background gave him a broad range of sounds and techniques, but playing reggae required him to understand restraint. A guitarist cannot fill every available space without disrupting the relationship between bass, drums, keyboards, rhythm guitar and vocals.
Al had to learn his place within the arrangement.
That did not mean abandoning his personality. He brought effects, pedals and a guitar tone that expanded what lead guitar could sound like within reggae. Bob was open to those ideas, although Al admitted that the experiments occasionally became excessive once his collection of effects began growing.
There still had to be balance.
The equipment and sound could be new, but the song remained more important than the guitarist.
That principle continued to shape Al’s work even when the musical environment changed around him.
Playing Harder With Peter Tosh
Moving between Bob Marley and Peter Tosh required Al to adjust his attack.
The two artists came from the same original foundation, but their personalities and musical energies were very different.
With Peter Tosh, Al could play harder and louder.
The rhythm section of Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare created a heavier physical foundation than the more refined and controlled pulse Al associated with Carlton and Aston “Family Man” Barrett.
Sly and Robbie could hit with the force of a bulldozer, giving Al more room to push the guitar forward.
That heavier environment suited the confrontational power of records such as Legalize It and Equal Rights. Peter’s music carried anger, resistance and direct political challenge, and the guitar could reflect that intensity.
Bob required greater caution and space. Peter allowed Al to open the amplifier further.
Both approaches became essential parts of his musical identity.
That harder edge also appeared within Bob Marley & The Wailers when the band recorded Babylon by Bus. Al remembered Bob telling the musicians they were making a live album and encouraging him to play with as much force as possible.
The result captured a band pushing reggae towards the scale and energy of a major international rock performance without losing its foundation.
Legacy Without Imitation
The Original Wailers do not exist to reproduce the past note for note.
Al has repeatedly spoken about Bob’s desire that any future singer should avoid becoming an impersonator. Bob did not want somebody attempting to copy his voice, appearance and mannerisms like a poor Elvis imitation.
The aim was to find musicians capable of honouring the catalogue while creating original songs of their own.
That remains Al’s philosophy.
The Original Wailers perform music that deserves to be preserved, but preservation does not mean freezing it in time. The songs need air, improvisation and the personalities of the musicians currently performing them.
The challenge is maintaining the sound without reducing it to imitation.
For Al, even that process begins with something practical: the equipment has to be right.
A guitarist cannot recreate decades of emotional memory through an amplifier that sounds lifeless. The right instruments and stage sound allow him to reconnect with songs such as “Exodus,” where the drum patterns and rhythmic movement can instantly return him to the original musicians.
The recreation will never be one hundred per cent the same.
It should not be.
What matters is getting close enough to the spirit that the music continues to feel alive.
The Luckiest Guy in the Room
Near the end of our conversation, I asked Al what he hoped people understood about him beyond the famous names attached to his career.
His response was not built around awards, status or historical importance.
He described himself as one of the funniest people in the room, but more importantly, the luckiest.
Paul Kossoff of Free had originally been considered for the Natty Dread sessions. When Kossoff could not take the opportunity, Al was given the chance instead.
That unexpected opening connected him with Bob Marley, Jamaica and a musical family that transformed his life.
Al had been moving towards Africa and the world of jazz rock. He could never have predicted that reggae would become the centre of his career.
He still speaks about the journey with gratitude.
That gratitude does not erase the difficult chapters, the industry disputes, the losses or the people he misses. It simply means that after everything, Al Anderson can still look back and recognise how extraordinary the journey has been.
He remains the guitarist who arrived from outside reggae, learned to listen to the spaces within it and helped give some of its greatest songs another melodic voice.
Now he is bringing that voice back to Australia.
Not to imitate history.
To continue it.
The Original Wailers “One Love” Australian Tour 2027
Saturday, March 13
Perth, Astor Theatre
Monday, March 15
Adelaide, The Gov
Thursday, March 18
Wollongong, Anita’s Theatre
Friday, March 19
Sydney, Enmore Theatre
Saturday, March 20
Melbourne, Northcote Theatre
Thursday, March 25
Brisbane, The Tivoli
Friday, March 26
Gold Coast, Twin Towns
Tickets:
