Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s Wife Mireille Perry Says Reggae Legend ‘Was Not Sick’
Mireille Perry, the wife of Reggae legend Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry has absolved the medical staff at the Noel Holmes hospital of any wrongdoing in the dub pioneer’s death after a cryptic post she made that had conspiracy theorists salivating on Tuesday.
Perry died on Sunday morning (August 29) at the Western Jamaica hospital at the age of 85, reportedly from an illness.
However, in the Instagram post on Tuesday, Mrs. Perry wrote, “I have no words for what had happen! Nobody was expecting something like that because he was not sick!”
“Lee had so many plans that he was looking forward to. So many different projects, shows, art, designs, Community…. I’m not allowed to give any details for the moment, but I could just say that Lucea hospital didn’t have anything to do with his tragic pasting (sic) away or did something wrong.”
One commenter said, “I knew it! Lee was answering text messages up to the day before he passed away what sick person does that? Lee justice will be served if not on earth then in heaven!”
When contacted, Mrs. Perry told DancehallMag that she could not say much about Lee’s death. “I’m not allowed to say a word right now but it will be a huge thing, when I am ready to talk, everything will come out…he was looking younger, I made sure he was eating right, I took care of him,” his wife of 30 years said.
She did not reveal the cause of death.
Mireille Perry did address the part of her post where she vowed: “In the memory and honor of LEE SCRATCH PERRY we’ll build his £$P community in the exact way that he dreamt about. He had a very clear picture how he wanted it to look”.
“We knew that one day we knew we would not be able to travel because the world will be like it is today. He always dream to have land in Hanover, he always say he wanted to build a studio in Hanover, and have a house with art, an area where no one can trouble him and say ‘don’t make so much noise’,” she told DancehallMag.
In December 2020, the Upsetta had announced that he would be returning to Jamaica to, among other things, establish an off-the-grid community, to enable him to get away from what he described as “this Babylon Madness” in Switzerland, where he lived for several years. He made his return to the island in January 2021, and revealed that he needed Jamaica’s sunshine, that Switzerland was now “too cold” and that the “energy was not right”.
The community will be located in Hanover, she revealed.
“People will come to him from all over the world, because he would not travel anymore. You know he is addicted to the mike, if you give him mike, you cannot take it away, (laugh), it gonna be hours. He had planned to have a big tour in November, the whole UK, that would be his last tour, cause he did not believe we could travel anymore, he was going to say goodbye to show business,” Mrs. Perry said.
She also revealed plans to transform the Black Ark studio in Washington Gardens into a museum.
“The house has been sold and we’re going to rebuild it exactly how it was. You know all his rights were taken away, he don’t have no rights to nothing. The music and touring was his income, we had a plan, he didn’t want to keep the house and we wanted someone to make a museum, people are going to build it exactly how it was,” Mrs. Perry said.
She did not reveal the identity of the developer but said “that person was connected to him from day one”.
“I’m so happy that that will happen, the museum, because he deserved that,” she said.
She revealed that the man who Keith Richards called the ‘Salvador Dali’ of music had been creating a lot of art pieces in Switzerland over the past few years.
“Everything he did was art,” she said.
Perry is survived by his wife, and two children from his marriage to her.
The star, who performed and worked alongside fellow Jamaican Bob Marley, also had four children from previous relationships: Cleopatra, Marsha, Omar and Marvin.