Following leader Bob Marley's death from cancer on May 11, 1981, the Wailers Band struggled nearly a decade for direction, hampered from releasing their own music by a Gordian knot of legal entanglements. Anchored by world-class bassist Family Man Barrett and his drummer brother Carlton (who was murdered by gunmen hired by his wife in April 1987), the Wailers Band performed well-received international tours almost constantly through the '80s.