IT'S ALL ABOUT DESTINY BUNNY WAILER LOOKS BEYOND THE TRAGEDY.

Byline: Fred Shuster Music Writer

Bunny Wailer, a founder of the Wailers with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh and the trio's only living member, acknowledges the recent lawsuit in which a member of Marley's band unsuccessfully sought royalty payments from the late reggae legend's estate.

But he says the attempt by Wailers bass player Aston ``Family Man'' Barrett in a British court to receive more than $125 million for himself and his late brother, drummer Carlton Barrett, was wasted effort.

``It was futile, mon,'' said Wailer, who was born Neville Livingston in 1947. ``There's no way they going to win. It wasted time. If they were smart ...''

Wailer trails off, but we can guess the rest: Barrett should have aligned himself with the Marley family, as Wailer has done, and the brilliant and apparently broke Jamaican bassist might've found himself at the Hollywood Bowl on Sunday as part of the Bob Marley: Roots, Rock, Reggae Festival 2006, headlined by Bob's sons, Ziggy and Stephen Marley, and Wailer.

``They were never going to win that case,'' Wailer said of Barrett's claim that Marley, who died of cancer in 1981 without having written a will, had promised members of his backing band equal shares of the royalties from albums including ``Natty Dread,'' ``Rastaman Vibration'' and ``Babylon by Bus.''

In the ruling, a British judge rejected Barrett's case and agreed with the Marley family and Island/Universal Records, which claimed Barrett had surrendered his rights to further royalties when he accepted a cash settlement of several hundred thousand dollars in 1994.

``If Bob was alive, none of this happen,'' Wailer said.

Bunny Wailer and Tosh left the Wailers in 1974, after recording the breakthrough albums ``Catch A Fire'' and ``Burnin'.'' Wailer's post-Marley career began with the widely acclaimed ``Blackheart Man'' disc in 1976, followed by nearly two-dozen solo albums of hard roots-reggae as well as current dancehall styles, many issued on Wailer's own Solomonic label.

Today, Wailer, who has won three Grammy Awards and performs only sporadically, lives in Kingston and on a farm located in the interior of Jamaica. Tosh was murdered at his home in Jamaica in 1987, a result of the bloody street violence that continues to plague the country and has snuffed out the lives of a string of important reggae musicians and producers.

``There's trouble there,'' Wailer said. ``The people desperate for money. Kingston has always been like that. People are poor and angry.''

Wailer grew up there with Marley and Tosh and together formed the Wailers in the mid-'60s. Bunny's strong tenor vocals were used primarily for harmonies, but he also sang lead on some tunes. The Bowl show is the first time Ziggy, Stephen and Bunny Wailer have joined forces for a tour.

`It was destined,'' Wailer said. ``It's worth going out there together with the sons and family. That's the will of the most high. We don't make plans, we fall into plans.''

Articulate and well-spoken, Wailer is a lifelong Rastafarian who takes omens and signs seriously. A couple of weeks ago, he left hundreds of fans in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, disappointed when he failed to show up for a concert there.

Wailer's explanation, according to the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper, was said to be a dream his daughter had about his plane crashing on the way to the island.

Fred Shuster, [phone]

fred.shuster(at)dailynews.com

BUNNY WAILER

What: The only surviving member of the original Wailers appears at the Bob Marley: Roots, Rock, Reggae Festival 2006 with Ziggy and Stephen Marley, and Ozomatli. KCRW's Garth Trinidad hosts.

Where: Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood.

When: 7 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets: $5 to $111. [phone]; ticketmaster.com.

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``It was destined. ... We don't make plans, we fall into plans,'' says Bunny Wailer, who will perform at the Roots, Rock, Reggae Festival 2006 on Sunday at the Hollywood Bowl.