Danny Sims, former manager of Bob Marley and the Wailers, died last Wednesday in Los Angeles at the age of 72, after a long battle with colon cancer.
A former manager of the soul singer Johnny Nash, Danny Sims was also his business partner. Together with the producer Arthur Jenkins, they co-owned the label JAD Records (the name is made up of the initials of their first names).
In 1967, the Mississippi native had signed Marley and the Wailers to a five-year contract, which he sold on to Chris Blackwell in 1972. He worked with Marley again as his manager some time before the latter's death in 1981.
"(Sims and Nash) took Bob and Peter (Tosh) to high international standards, both in the studio and on stage", reggae historian Roger Steffens, who worked with Sims on the compilation "The Complete Bob Marley & The Wailers : 1967-1972", told the Jamaica Observer.
"(Sims) was a man of very strong personality, who knew what he wanted. Danny was a great organiser, a disciplined businessman", says former international footballer Allan "Skill" Cole, a childhood friend of Bob Marley and close to Danny Sims, with whom he was working on the release of his biography "The Bob Marley I know".
In recent years, Danny Sims had been working on the release of previously unreleased Bob Marley songs. He claimed to hold a large number of Marley's musical treasures.