Roger Steffens

Raised in Westwood, New Jersey, Steffens graduated in 1960 from Bergen Catholic High School, where he had competed in public speaking competitions.[3][4]

Steffens served in Vietnam and spent a year in Morocco before visiting Jamaica for the first time in 1976. He has a large collection of photographs covering his Vietnam service and Jamaican musicians, including many slides which were digitized and released via Instagram in 2013.[1]

In early 2015 the BBC did a report on Steffens' first collection of photographs, "The Family Acid" [S_U_N_). The Sunday New York Times Style and The Observer both featured his photographs. His work has been exhibited at Paris Photo LA and Art Basel.

"The Family Acid presents his often transcendent vision and life as a psychedelic pioneer on the order of Timothy Leary and Hunter S. Thompson beginning with his work in Vietnam and moving through his ever revolving circle of friends and characters made up of Rastas, beatniks, musicians, artists, gonzo journalists, his family, and himself. The portraits, scenes, and freewheeling experimentation with the medium of photography coalesce into a body of work that both parallels and defines the countercultural ethos of Steffens’ generation."[5]

Steffens has been involved with a large amount of acting and narration work, both credited and uncredited. He provided narration in The Flight of the Gossamer Condor and the television documentary Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam,[6] and he portrayed Ben Veelchez in Dean Quixote, Daniel Golan in the 1999 film Deterrence, and a radio technician in Rollercoaster. In addition, Steffens has been involved with many other films and television shows in an uncredited role, including Forrest Gump, Ghosts of Mississippi, CHiPS, and Empty Nest.[7]

Steffens co-hosted Reggae Beat on KCRW from 1979-87, and Reggae Beat International from 1983-87, which was syndicated internationally to 130 stations.[1]

He served as a syndicated weekly contributor from 1993-97 for Planet Reggae on the radio station Groove Radio 103 in Los Angeles. Steffens also worked on several other radio shows, including Offbeat: The Roger Steffens Show (Host, 1987–89), Sound of the Sixties (Host, 1984–1986), Morning Goes Makossa (co-host, 1980–84), Future Forward (ethnic music commentator, 1985–86), and Poetry For People Who Hate Poetry (1983, 1987).

Steffens was named "Most Popular Reggae DJ in the World" by Martin's International Awards in Chicago, 1985, and "One of the Forty Who Matter in L.A." by the Los Angeles Reader.

Steffens has contributed to countless music anthologies as a writer and photographer. But surely his most important contribution to the reggae legacy is the ten-CD series entitled The Complete Bob Marley & the Wailers 1967 to 1972. Released in 1998-2003, this 220-track series revealed over a hundred rare Bob Marley & the Wailers recordings to the world, including major songs like Selassie Is the Chapel, and many of them previously unreleased, such as Rock to the Rock.

Steffens was a reader for the audiobooks Bill Gates' Business @ the Speed of Thought (Time Warner), The Man From St. Petersburg (Warner Audio), Big Two Hearted River: The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway (North Star), and Mother Earth Father Sky (North Star). He also provided the corporate voice (all wrap-arounds) for Time Warner Audio Books from 1996 until 2003.

Steffens' stage experience includes work with the Pittsburgh Playhouse, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and his one-man show, Poetry for People Who Hate Poetry which was performed to over two million people from 1966 to 1976 and was used as the basis of TV series 1968-69 Armed Forces Vietnam Network.

Steffens has been interviewed and served as an advisor on many television programs, including American Masters three times (on the subjects Rebel Music, James Brown, and Waldo Salt), VH1's Behind the Music four times (for the subjects Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Alan Freed, and 1970), VH1 Confidential: Tosh & Marley, VH1 Ultimate Albums: Bob Marely's Legend, Stand And Be Counted, The Voice on Channel Four, and Soul Britainia on the BBC.

• Bob Marley: Spirit Dancer
• Bob Marley and The Wailers: The Definitive Discography - (first place award for Best Research in Folk, Ethnic or World Music from the Association of Recorded Sound Collections, 2006)
• The World of Reggae featuring Bob Marley: Treasures from Roger Steffens' Reggae Archives
• One Love: Life with Bob Marley and the Wailers
• Roger Steffens and Peter Simon's Reggae Scrapbook (winner, ForeWord Magazine Silver Medal for Best Music Book of 2007)
• The Family Acid (2015)
• So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley (2017)

• Miriam Makeba: The Sangoma Interview with Roger Steffens Warner Bros.
• World Music Sampler writer/narrator, Warner/Reprise/Sire
• David Byrne: Rei Momo: Words and Music, interviewer, Sire
• Occupy Los Angeles: Narration & Continuity, Reel Intellect/Good Feel Films

• National Promotions Director, Island Records, 1982–1983, in charge of all reggae and African music promotions including Bob Marley Confrontation, King Sunny Ade Juju Music and Synchro System, Gregory Isaacs Night Nurse, Black Uhuru, Michael Smith
• National Reggae Promotions, Elektra Records, 1982; Steel Pulse True Democracy and Sunsplash ’81: Tribute to Bob Marley
• National Reggae Promotions, EMI-America, 1985–1986, first two Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers albums
• National Reggae Promotions, Slash Records, 1986, Burning Spear People of the World

• Reggae
• Bob Marley

• The Roger Steffens Archive