- Barnes Bunch, a production by Entertainment One Reality Productions and will air globally on WeTV.
- Anansa Sims, Daughter of Danny Sims, who discovered Bob Marley in 1967. Engaged to Matt Barnes, featuring in reality series “Barnes Bunch” on WeTV.
- Anansa inherits her parents’ legacy, including publishing rights to 300 Bob Marley songs.
- Marley’s 1972 deals with Danny Sims and CBS Records, including his first single “Reggae On Broadway” and subsequent legal battle with Chris Blackwell.
- Danny Sims’ mob ties during Marley’s time. Despite legal battles, Sims continued managing Marley until the artist’s death in 1981.
Anansa Sims, is the only daughter of Danny Sims, the first African-American music impresario who discovered the talents of Bob Marley in 1967. Danny died on October 7, 2012 but his legacy lives on in reggae music as well as in Hollywood through his daughter Anansa who is the Fiancé of retired basketball player Matt Barnes. Sims and Barnes will be the subjects of a reality series on WeTV titled the “Barnes Bunch.”
Supermodel Beverly Johnson is Anansa’s mother, with whom she has a close relationship. Johnson was the first black woman to grace the cover of Vogue Magazine and starred as “Miss Trinidad” on the hit TV comedy series Martin, which is enough glam and interest for a reality series set in Hollywood, but Anansa wants to include her father’s legacy and connection to Jamaican music in the family series.
World Music Views conducted an exclusive interview with Anansa from her California home as part of the Barnes Bunch narrative, where she delved into the legacy of her mother and father. This legacy; she says, includes the publishing rights to 300 Bob Marley and the Wailers songs recorded in the early days, some of which are mixed and released digitally on her father’s JAD Records, including a series called “The Complete Bob Marley and the Wailers: 1967 – 1972.”
Anansa discussed how she intends to preserve the rare cuts like “Selassie in The Chapel”, “Kaya”, “Tread Oh” and “Black Progress” for future generations.
The show is currently in production by Entertainment One Reality Productions and will be aired worldwide. Anansa shared the journey to television, stating, “My family and I have been featured on my Instagram page for years. We were approached by a good friend of mine who works with Jamie Foxx, and he said, ‘Anansa, your family is amazing; we need to get you guys on TV.’ I wasn’t sure if Matt was going to go for it, but after talking to him, we decided to create something positive, family-oriented, and something we can be proud of.”
She went on to reveal, “In March, we’ll be on WeTV, offering a glimpse into our blended family. The show will be called ‘Barnes Bunch,’ showcasing the beautiful side of our family and our experiences. Expect to laugh a little, cry a little, and maybe even learn some things.”
The 44-year-old, mother of six children exudes an air of grace and says she is the amalgamation of the best of both worlds. “I had a father who was a music mogul, with a reputation for being a tough guy, but on the flip side, I had a supermodel mother who is one of the most beautiful women in the world. Everything about my mom was about image and how you look because that was her career,” she explains.
“One of the things my dad always wanted to teach me was not to lead with my beauty but to lead with my brain, my wisdom, because that’s going to take you further in life. I was always grateful to have a lot of the features from my mom but also grateful to have a lot of the wisdom and mindset from my dad,” Anansa adds.
Bob Marley’s Publishing Before 1973
The long story of how Anansa came to own the Marley song book started in the year 1972, six years before she was born, when Marley signed two deals: one with her father, Danny Sims, and CBS Records, and another with Island Records, after Marley had written or recorded over 200 songs for Sims in exchange for a $100 per week retainer deal.
Songs such as ‘Stir It Up,’ which brought Marley his first international success, were recorded by Johnny Nash, Sims’ protégé, (who introduced him to Marley) making the song a Top 20 hit in the US and UK in April 1972, a full year before Marley released his Island Records debut “Catch A Fire.”
“I was out hustling songs,” Danny Sims told the UK’s Independent, adding that through his publishing connections he “got Eric Clapton to do ‘I Shot The Sheriff.’ Meanwhile, Barbra Streisand recorded ‘Guava Jelly,‘ among other early Marley compositions.
The first single by Marley under the deal with Sims and CBS was the funky guitar infused reggae song “Reggae On Broadway,” which did not take off.
Bob Marley Meets Chris Blackwell
Not long after Marley met Chris Blackwell in London after they were left stranded by Sims who had brought the Wailers to Sweeden to write the score for a film starring Johnny Nash “Want So Music To Believe”. The movie was underfunded and closed a day after its premiere and so The Wailers trio headed back to the UK on their way to Jamaica.
Blackwell used the opportunity to help the young musicians who wanted money to go back to Jamaica and he invited them to his London office.
“I knew I could do something with them — move them away from where they were and make their music attractive to college kids who were otherwise ignorant of or indifferent to Black music,” Blackwell stated in his Memoir. Although he made no mention of it in his book, after he gave The Wailers 4000 pounds to sign Marley, Peter Tosh and Neville Livingston (“Bunny Wailer”) as The Wailers (a contract they signed to their name; Sims sued Island Records and was awarded a percentage of Bob Marley’s publishing until 1976.
“In those days the manager owned the publishing,” Anansa who holds a Masters In Business (MBA) and a graduate of UCLA stated. Adding that she inherited the publishing rights of the Marley songs her father owned. Now she, along with her business partners manage the music assets and says she would consider private equity investment as music become an in demand Wall Street asset class. Much of Marley’s music rights is already owned by Universal Music Group and Primary Wave who bought 25% of Blackwell’s share in a deal with Blue Mountain Publishing for $50 million back in 2018.
Going back to the 60s however, when Marley learned that publishing royalties from “I Shot the Sheriff” were worth millions of dollars, he was allegedly worried he might not receive all his earnings because rumors were circulating about Sim’s mob ties.
Danny Sims and the Mob
Sims’ company, Cayman Music, had a silent partner in Paul Castellano, the head of New York’s Gambino crime family, and later Joe Armone, according to the Independent.
“Danny’s mob connections were no secret,” Roger Stephen, a Marley archivist, said in the 2012 interview. “He admitted to me that his partner in JAD Records for decades was Joe Armone, the head of one of the biggest crime families in America. ‘I’m a mobster,’ he told me proudly, more than once.”
In John Masouri’s book Wailing Blues, it’s suggested that the reason Danny Sims went to Jamaican was because he got in hot water. The music he produced and other activities at the time were viewed with suspicion by American authorities during the Civil Rights era. “We went down there (Jamaica) because we thought we were going to get killed by the CIA and FBI. For inciting a riot as they called it. Detroit went down, Chicago went down, and LA went down. The country just went up in flames and we were right in the midst of that. Jamaica was a place to get away from the shooting. I didn’t even know Bob Marley then. We had a distributor at Federal Records, but the biggest studio was four tracks. We had to bring equipment down there. We brought our whole production team down there,” Sims said.
”Regarding her father’s mob ties, Anansa said she was never privy to information or connected to the Mafia, but she would see her white Italian uncles around the house. She later learned that the Mafia was part of the entertainment business back then. “I was never connected to the Mafia; that was an extended family of my dad. In the industry, a lot of the Mafia ran the industry. It wasn’t uncommon, but as a little child, it wasn’t part of my world,” she said.
Marley’s signing to Island and the subsequent lawsuit against Island by Sims did not mark the end of Marley;s association with the Mississippi born and Chicago raised music impresario. Following the discovery in 1980 of manager Don Taylor’s embezzling of Marley’s money, Sims was hired by the Jamaican superstar to manage his affairs. He was Bob Marley’s last manager before Marley died in May 1981.
Anansa said, to her knowledge by way of her father, Bob Marley was going to leave Island Records after he completed his contractual obligations, as his working relationship with Sims was bearing fruit. Still, Blackwell made no mention of Marley leaving Island or the latter-day relationship with Sims in his 2022 book The Islander: My Life In Music And Beyond co-written with Paul Morley
Bob Marley Movie
Before he died Danny was actively searching for a show runner willing to pick up his version of a Bob Marley biopic, but with “Barnes Bunch” set to hit small screens one month before the February 14 global theatre release of Bob Marley: One Love biopic by Paramount, Anansa says she is excited about the movie. “I am very excited about it, I feel like it’s long over due,” she says.
The New York-born model, who has been on America’s Next Top Model and has been featured in several fashion magazines, says she is not worried if her father is not featured prominently in the Marley story produced by Tuff Gong Pictures. “I am not concerned because I feel like true Bob Marley fans and people who really research him know that nothing was going to be possible without my father Danny Sims. My father’s ties to the Mafia and stuff like that made him play in the background for more than one reason,” she explains pleasantly.
“I know the Marley catalog is invaluable,” Sims says, as she scouts for wedding locations in Jamaica ahead of the Barnes Bunch TV show spring premiere.
