It didn’t matter where Derron Wilson and Janel Johnson traveled to hear Unity the Band — Florida, Door County, Appleton — or how many people were there, frontman Pita Kotobalavu always gave them a shout-out from the stage.
“Lil Jamaica in the house!” he would say, with a smile that could light up a crowd.
“It kind of made you feel special,” said Wilson, who owns Green Bay’s Lil Jamaica restaurant, lounge and food truck with Johnson. “He had that about him. He had that thing, that special little touch that not everybody has. That one person that could make everybody feel like they belong. He brought out the best in everybody.”
It’s why his death on Saturday at age 55 from colon cancer leaves not just an irreplaceable hole in the Wisconsin music scene, where Unity’s reggae shows have been a beacon of unbridled happiness, escape and uplift for 23 years, but also a hole in the hearts of anyone whose life was ever touched by his spirit.
He radiated positivity, peace, joy, kindness — all the words repeated over and over in the condolences on social media as the news of his death spread.