Copeland Forbes, the veteran booking agent and artist manager, says his autobiography will be finally released in 2020. He said the manuscript is complete and there are three potential distributors waiting in the wings.
The 72 year-old Forbes has touted his memoirs for several years. He stated that the time is right for the book to be released.
“It would have been nice for it to be out already but a lot of things have happened (in reggae) since then and I’m glad I can include those in the book,” he said.
The book’s title is inspired by Reggae Mylitis, a song by Peter Tosh, one of the numerous artists Forbes has worked with since he got involved in management over 40 years ago.
He said Reggae My Life Is covers his formative years in West Kingston where his friends and schoolmates included future reggae greats such as Marcia Griffiths and Bunny Wailer.
In addition to Tosh and Griffiths, Forbes has managed The Mighty Diamonds, Jimmy Cliff, Dennis Brown, Luciano and Black Uhuru. He also booked numerous package tours throughout the United States, Europe, North and South America, Japan and Africa.
According to Forbes, Reggae My Life Is recounts his globetrotting and relationships with artists. Some of the stories, he promised, are sensational.
“I have the facts and they can be proven,” he said.
The jocular Forbes has led a full life. Before he got into the music business, he was a prominent member of Jamaica’s Boy Scouts and a member of the party that welcomed Princess Margaret of the United Kingdom when she officially declared Jamaica’s independence from that country in August, 1962 at Kingston’s National Stadium.
He also accompanied Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia on official assignments when he made an official state visit to Jamaica in April, 1966.
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