TODAY (12/9/14) is 20 Years Since Garnett Silk Passed: Garnett Silk In Studio Interview With David Rodigan on Kiss 100 FM 1993 & by Peggy Quattro

The Jamaica Observer continues its 20-part series, 20 Days of Silk, which looks at the life of roots singer Garnet Silk. This month marks 20 years since his death.

Garnet Silk at home with his children
 (from left) Derron, Arrayma and Fabian
 on the day of the interview in
February 1994. At right: Garnet Silk
holding a baby while posing for
 picture with Reggae Report
magazine’s M Peggy Quattro.
 (PHOTO COURTESY REGGAE
 REPORT MAGAZINE)

PEGGY Quattro did not know what to expect when she arrived in Kingston to interview reggae star Garnet Silk for her Reggae Report magazine in February 1994.

The last time she saw the singer was five months earlier. He was being helped off the stage at a New York City nightclub, unable to complete a show due to what doctors later diagnosed as exhaustion.

Garnett with family

He had not performed in concert since.

When Quattro showed up at Silk's home in the St Andrew hills, his mood was completely different.

"He was gracious, he was funny. He was just being himself," Quattro told the Sunday Observer.

The Ohio-born Quattro spent most of the day with the Rastafarian artiste, who she said was prepared to discuss everything. Even rumours that his absence from the music scene was his addiction to hard drugs.

"He told me why he was not on a lot of shows and spoke about the drug stories. He said every man has faults but his wasn't drugs," she recalled. more