Sixty-seven years is a long time in the music industry, a business that has been unkind to countless artists. For Audley Rollen, his six decades as a singer\/songwriter have been enjoyable.<\/p>\n
On March 30, the International Reggae and World Music Awards (IRAWMA) recognizes his contribution by presenting Rollen with a Special Diamond Award. He will receive the accolade during the ceremony at Coral Springs Center for The Arts in South Florida.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m humbled to be recognized for over 65 years in the entertainment industry. First off, 65 years is a lifetime, and not many people get to do something they love and enjoy doing for such a long time,\u201d said Rollen. \u201cLooking back on all the lives I\u2019ve touched and the contribution I\u2019ve made that has helped to shape the development and growth of reggae music, I give thanks to IRAMWA.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 73-year-old artist has a storied, yet understated career. Rollen is among a handful of surviving acts who performed on the Vere Johns Opportunity Hour, a groundbreaking talent contest that gave famous acts like Alton Ellis and John Holt their start.<\/p>\n
In the 1960s and 1970s, he recorded songs for producers such as Keith Hudson and Lloyd \u201cMatador\u201d Daley. Rollen was also a member of The Hippy Boys and Youth Professionals, bands that included musicians like bassist Aston \u201cFamilyman\u201d Barrett, his brother, drummer Carlton Barrett, bassist Robbie Shakespeare and keyboardist Bernard \u201cTouter\u201d Harvey.<\/p>\n
Since the mid-1970s, Rollen has lived in the United States. He currently resides in South Florida where he is an ordained minister of religion and continues to record music.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe secret to my longevity is first off being blessed by God, who had a purpose for my life and watched over me as I grew up in almost every town in Kingston, where I honed the skills and the love of my craft that enabled me to remain consistent and relevant musically,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sixty-seven years is a long time in the music industry, a business that has been unkind to countless artists. For Audley Rollen, his six decades as a singer\/songwriter have been enjoyable. On March 30, the International Reggae and World Music Awards (IRAWMA) recognizes his contribution by presenting Rollen with a Special Diamond Award. He will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[239],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10073"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10074,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10073\/revisions\/10074"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}