Junior Toots VOWS TO CONTINUE TOOTS’ LEGACY
Says father knew Grammy Award-winning ‘Got to be Tough’ was ‘well-needed in hard time’
ADREAM about his father woke Junior Toots up in the middle of the night, and left him feeling reinvigorated with new ideas for music. The singer and youngest son of the secondtime Grammy Award winner Frederick ‘Toots’ Hibbert says it was vivid – shifting through scenes on a stage in California to performing in front of a large crowd in South America.
“In this particular dream, he was visiting me, but we spoke about unfinished business. Of course, it i ncluded t he performance and getting on a plane to go to South America. It was hard to fall back asleep; I have been awake since 2 a.m. working on a song to honour him for once again winning an award for his work,” Junior Toots shared with The Gleaner.
He had no other words to describe the vision, except that it is the “manifestation” of the work and wisdom required to maintain a legacy of survival.
“Personally, I have not cried or can’t say that I have been sad with the passing of my dad, while I was very close to him – all of us [children] are – what has happened for me is realisation,” he said. “I am more conscious of the hard work and sacrifice he put into music and the reasons he didn’t raise me to weep and moan during hard times, rather urged me to take the wheel and to know when to answer the call.”
Though not looking to fill the musical pioneer’s shoes, Junior Toots, born Clayton Hibbert, said he is further inspired to continue writing and recording music that can push the people who listen to the final product forward and into thinking forward.
He said, “For the Got To Be Tough album to win the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album, it has catapulted me to work, and I believe that is what he would want me to do as he did in his own life. Last year, I released a recording of Sweet and Dandy with dad’s blessings, but I wasn’t intending on doing a medley of dad’s music; now that has all changed.”
The tribute recording of Sweet and Dandy was released on December 8, 2020, on the birthday of Toots Hibbert, which is one day after Junior Toots celebrates his birthday. The original Sweet and Dandy vinyl album was released in 1969 on the Beverley’s Records label; however, Pressure Drop and 54-46 (That’s My Number) were bigger than the title track.
RESPECT TO JAMAICA
Junior Toots says that he would also like to do a compilation that pays respect to Jamaica. “There is a deep connection to my dad, both us being Sagittarians, and there is music that I have done with him from a younger age, somewhere in the archives, but we’ll see what happens. I am thinking an album titled Respect Jamaica,” Junior Toots shared, as he created a vision board for the blossoming project. “While so much is going on, the generational gap between the young and old, I believe the country and peoples of all ages have given my dad and Toots and The Maytals the respect they are deserving of,” he said.
He added, “Remember it is not a career or catalogue built overnight, but a lifetime achievement. He has the resting place in Heroes Park, he was given the keys to the city of Kingston and so many honours.”
Junior Toots has an ever-growing fanbase, having shared the stage with Toots and The Maytals, as well as other veterans including Yellowman, The Wailers, Barrington Levy and Lee Scratch Perry and gracing the stages of festivals such as the Sierra Nevada World Music Fest, San Francisco Reggae Fest and Seattle Hempfest, to name a few.“As dad would say, in show business, the show must go on, and this is it. Right now, I am grateful to see him being an inspiration to everyone that needs inspiration. He must have known that Got To Be Tough was well-needed in the hard time given the spiritually grounded and connected singer he was,” he said.