Throwback Thursdays: Peter Tosh on “Behind The Music”

Words by Jesse Serwer/Photo by Richard E. Aaron

James Brown, Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix… It seems like every iconic artist is getting a biopic these days. It’s only a matter of time before Bob Marley inevitably gets the Hollywood treatment, but we’ve always thought Peter Tosh’s story would make for a great movie. Much of Tosh’s story remains untold, and those re-tellings tend to center around “Legalize It”/weed, his relationship with Bob, and anecdotal stuff like the infamous bumbaclot interview. Somewhere in there the person himself seems to have gotten lost.

Until then, there’s the 1993 documentary Stepping Razor Red X and Tosh’s overlooked episode on the VH1 series Behind The Music, which aired in 1999. Seen that one? We hadn’t either, until recently–it seems to have slipped through cracks. It’s no replacement for a movie but if you’ve got 43 minutes to spare on a Thursday morning, it’s worth a watch. Or better yet: Wait until this Sunday, Oct. 19, when the world celebrates what would have been Tosh’s 70th birthday.