Photographer Reveals the Stories Behind Iconic 1977 Bob Marley Photos: 'One Love' (Exclusive)

For photographer Kate Simon, going to Europe with Bob Marley and the Wailers on their 1977 tour feels like yesterday, even though it was over 40 years ago.

"I'd been covering Bob's show at the Lyceum in London for a newspaper when a friend introduced us afterward," Simon recalls of how she initially met the reggae legend. "I had a good rapport with him right off the bat. You can't really define what makes good chemistry, but we had good chemistry."

Marley later invited Simon to Jamaica to shoot the iconic cover for his Kaya album, which led to asking her to join him and the Wailers on their 1977 European tour. Those images are part of Simons' book, Rebel Music: Bob Marley & Roots Reggae, which was re-released from Genesis Publications on Nov. 7 and features images on the artists and never-been-heard stories from those that knew him best.

Reflecting on Marley, who died in 1981 at age 36 from melanoma, Simon tells PEOPLE he "just had this beautiful way about him. Everyone wanted to be around Bob."

"He was soft-spoken, and very disciplined. He'd always be the first one on the tour bus and at soundcheck before the show. He was very serious about his music, and about everyone around him."

Marley also had a silly side.

"I had brothers and he used to razz me," Simons says. "And between shows he'd always be playing soccer or riding his bike. He loved being active. And he was extremely intelligent. He was a real teacher, someone who taught about love but also about standing up for your rights. I think that's why his music has lasted so long. He sang about these big universal thoughts and feelings and ideas."

Below, Simon explains what was happening behind six iconic images that are in her re-released photo book.

"This was taken in Germany," Simon says. "The Wailers had just finished their soundcheck — they always used 'Jammin'' for soundcheck. It was in this big huge hall, and whenever there was any free time, Bob and Gilly, his cook, and Neville the art director, they'd all be playing football." She adds, "I just love that picture because I was shooting film, this was before digital, so to get the football in mid-air was pretty good."

"Bob liked to sit alone on the tour bus, usually with his guitar," Simon says of the shot. "I love this one because he's giving me really good, direct eye contact. I feel like he's really present in that picture. That's just Bob. On the tour bus he'd be really reflective, and even in the airports, he'd read the Bible. It was just a little travel Bible. He'd often talk about interdependence and humanity."

"When I first met Bob, he was jocular like this," Simons says. "It was only when he was working that he was really serious and focused. This was at the beginning of the European Exodus tour, and we were in Brussels. He was out on the balcony of the hotel. I can't say what he was particularly thinking, but I remember him telling me that he was going to be OK with me taking all his photographs. So that was the beginning of the tour, and it was a really auspicious beginning."

She adds that fans tended to leave the singer alone. "Bob was packing huge places in Europe, but offstage he'd be playing football and riding his bike and maybe a few kids would ask for an autograph, but it wasn't like it would be now. The era of publicity has become a much much bigger thing."

"This was the Kaya cover," Simon recalls. "It's a really famous picture. When I go down to Jamaica, I see it on billboards, I see it on handbags. I'm always so happy to see it. We did this before the Exodus tour. I'd flown to Kingston from London and was staying at the Sheraton, and I was racing Chris Blackwell in the swimming pool at breaststroke, I'd been a competitive swimmer, and Chris was really good. He was really aquatic. So he won. I got out of the pool, and there was Bob, sitting at a poolside table and I picked up my camera and took that while I was in my bathing suit. I think that laugh was his response to me just losing at the breaststroke."

"This picture is interesting because he's got that cushion on his toe," Simons says. "He'd had some sort of accident in Paris, someone had injured him while he was playing football. He was a really enthusiastic athlete. When I took this picture I didn't really notice it, but now we know that this was not great that he had this on his toe. I think he was told that he had a cancerous melanoma there, and I think it was the source of his cancer. It looks like he was sleeping but his eyes were open. It was just a moment of contemplation."

"Bob always wore the same denim top and jeans everyday, or the tracksuit when he was working out. And then he had a green khaki jacket. That was his full wardrobe, but he always seemed to look really put together. This was backstage getting ready to go on, I forget where but we went all over on this tour. Paris, Brussels, Heidelberg, Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Gothenburg and Stockholm, and then London for five days. Right before he went on stage he smoked herb, and I don't know how they did it, but it was sacrament to him, and obviously energizing to him."

As for what Simon wishes people remembered most about the man she was proud to call a friend?

"Just remembering that he preached interdependence. As Bob would say, 'When the rain fall, it don't fall on one man's house.' We should all be in this life together, and have one love."