While at school he discovered the Rastafari movement. There he joined a choir and with some friends, formed his first musical ensemble called The Skyway Band. In a 1999 interview, he described his grandmother as 'his greatest love' who 'multiplied many things to bring up this responsible individual that I am today.' Beginning of his musical career Īs a child Dube worked as a gardener but, as he matured, realizing that he wasn't earning enough to feed his family, he began to attend school. Along with his two siblings, Thandi and Mandla, Dube spent much of his childhood with his grandmother, Sarah, while his mother relocated to work.
His parents separated before his birth, and he was raised by his mother, who named him Lucky because she considered his birth fortunate after a number of failed pregnancies. Lucky Dube was born in Ermelo, formerly of the Eastern Transvaal, now of Mpumalanga, on 3 August 1964.
