Romeo was born as Maxie Smith in Jamaica in 1944 and worked as a teenager on a sugar plantation. He won a talent competition at the age of 18 and moved to Kingston, where he joined the group The Emotions.
His song "Wet dreams" was banned by the BBC in 1968 because it was deemed to have sexual content, but Max Romeo himself claimed that the song was about a leaking roof and the song became a top 10 hit in the UK.
His album "War ina Babylon" was released on Island Records in 1976 and the song "Chase the devil" has been sampled by many artists, including Prodigy and Kanye West.
Romeo moved to New York two years later and wrote the musical "Reggae", which he also starred in. In 1980, he contributed to "Dance" on the Rolling Stones' album "Emotional rescue", and the following year Keith Richards returned the favor by guesting on Romeo's album "Holding out my love to you".
His latest album was released in 2019. Max Romeo turned 80 years old.
