Douglas Guthrie was born in 1950 in Jamaica and, along with a brother and sister, was raised there by his parents. In the early 1960s his mother immigrated to England and because of that split between his parents, Guthrie was shipped to a boarding school. One of a few musicians in the family, he studied music on a scholarship and co-founded the reggae group Inner Circle. He was on tour as an alto saxophone player with that band in the early 1970s when he first saw America. He joined the punk band The Nails in 1972. He moved to Crown Heights in 1975, sharing a home with his first wife, his mother-in-law and a brother. After twelve years, when the couple had their first child, they moved to Flatbush and later, Canarsie, to make more room at home. Divorced, Guthrie returned to Crown Heights in 1998. By this time he had moved on to composing and performing with reggae, ska and dub band the Motives, and continued with them until 2000. In 2010, Guthrie had adult children, a fiancé and a little girl. In 2011, he released a solo album, "Dougie Guthrie: Melody Maker."