At the start of the European tour, Marley injured his toe playing football. In July 1977, he was found to have acral lentiginous melanoma, a form of malignant melanoma. Despite his illness, he wished to continue touring and was in the process of scheduling a world tour in 1980.
The intention was for Inner Circle to be his opening act on the tour but after their lead singer Jacob Miller died in Jamaica in March 1980 after returning from a scouting mission in Brazil this was no longer mentioned.
The album Uprising was released in May 1980 (produced by Chris Blackwell), on which Redemption Song is particularly considered to be about Marley coming to terms with his mortality. The band completed a major tour of Europe, where they played their biggest concert, to a hundred thousand people in Milan.
After the tour Marley went to America, where he performed two shows at Madison Square Garden as part of the Uprising Tour. Shortly afterwards, his health deteriorated and he became very ill; the cancer had spread throughout his body. The rest of the tour was cancelled and Marley sought treatment at the Bavarian clinic of Josef Issels, where he received a controversial type of cancer therapy partly based on avoidance of certain foods, drinks, and other substances. After fighting the cancer without success for eight months, Marley boarded a plane for his home in Jamaica.
While flying home from Germany to Jamaica, in acceptance that he was going to die, Marley's vital functions worsened. After landing in Miami, Florida, he was taken to the hospital for immediate medical attention. He died at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Miami (now University of Miami Hospital) on the morning of May 11, 1981, at the age of 36. The spread of melanoma to his lungs and brain caused his death.
His final words to his son Ziggy were "Money can't buy life". Marley received a state funeral in Jamaica on May 21, 1981, which combined elements of Ethiopian Orthodoxy and Rastafari tradition. He was buried in a chapel near his birthplace with his red Gibson Les Paul.