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This distinction is the second highest honour conferred at the 2012 National Honours and Awards ceremony, nationally broadcast from the lawns of Kings House, the official residence of the Governor-General Sir Patrick Allen, and presided over by Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller.

Having previously received the Order of Distinction (OD), this latest national award now bestoes the title ‘Honourable Frederick ‘Toots’ Hibbert’ as a member of an exclusive national honours club, which includes musical peers Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Jimmy Cliff.

A four time Grammy nominee, Toots & the Maytals won the 2005 Grammy Award for Best Reggae album with True Love. His current album, ‘Unplugged on Strawberry Hill’, the first ever acoustic renderings of his massive hits such as Sweet and Dandy, Monkey Man, Time Tough, Bam Bam, 54–46, Pressure Drop and Do the Reggae –the 1968 single widely credited with coining the word ‘Reggae’ and naming the genre. It was recorded and filmed live on the iconic Blackwell property Strawberry Hill, framed by the Blue Mountains overlooking Kingston at sunset. This unique CD/DVD release is also in contention for a Grammy nomination this year, and it includes the filming of this historic recording session, along with the first ever official documentary of his legendary life titled “Reggae Got Soul: The Story of Toots & the Maytals”.

Toots & The Maytals are embarking on a 20 city US tour in support of this release, performing his hits acoustically for the time ever, with his son Hopeton on bass, drummer Paul Douglas on percussion, backing vocalists Chantelle Ernandez , Elenore Walters and special guest Anders Osborne opening the shows and sitting in with Toots.on all shows except November 2 thru 5. The tour begins October 30th in Ridgefield CT and travels through 20 unforgettable evenings ending on November 21st in San Juan Capistrano, California. Toots will also be performing electric with full band in New Orleans at Voodoo Fest October 27th.

One of the last living greats from the Reggae pantheon, Toots & the Maytals is regarded worldwide as a living legend of Jamaican music With almost 50 years in the business, Toots & the Maytals catalogue has been covered by international artistes ranging from Amy Winehouse to Sublime as the artist’s influence on popular music remains ever more globally relevant. Touring the four corners of the earth as Toots & the Maytals, the artiste has spread true love and spiritual healing through his music.

Aesop Rock digs Tom Waits and The Mountain Goats, which should give you a little insight into the way the man’s mind works.

Like those acts, the rapper who plays The Seasons Performance Hall on Saturday writes and performs dense, idiosyncratic music that, sure, yeah, might grab you with a hook on your first listen but will only fully reveal itself after you’ve heard it a few times and really let it sink in. Rock is smart, he’s funny and he’s a dynamic performer. He’s touring for his new album, “Skelethon,” which like all of his other albums has drawn almost-fawning praise from critics.

He wouldn’t do a phone interview, but he did agree to an email Q&A, which we’re running in its entirety, edited for occasional profanity. (When you see “stuff” or “fuzz” in parentheses, Rock didn’t really say “stuff” or “fuzz.”)

On magazine: It’s been five years since the last album. Were you at a point where you needed a break, needed to recharge? Did you take time away from writing, or did it just take that long to make “Skelethon”?

Aesop Rock: I maybe needed a break from making solo records, but ‘break’ is just a weird word, because musically speaking I stay pretty busy. I guess I didn’t want to be the center of attention for a minute, so I worked on a few collaborative projects and production stuff while chipping away at “Skelethon.” I just kinda do stuff in an order that feels comfortable.

OM: We’ve got a guy who does music criticism here. Last week he wrote of “Skelethon”: “One thing I hadn’t quite appreciated before was how much of a storyteller Aesop Rock is. While I’d been paying attention to verbal pyrotechnics I’d been missing some cohesive narratives. Whether this is a new development on his part or a delayed realization on mine I don’t know, but several of these songs are straight-up stories.” So, is it a new development? Or have the stories always been there for the people who take the time to find them? Is “Skelethon” more of story album than your previous work?

AR: There’s stories in a lot of my stuff — but they’re all delivered in different ways. Sometimes there will be an extremely linear narrative with a beginning, middle and end. Sometimes there will be fractured stories and ricocheting around from one story/subject to another as one might in conversation. Sometimes it’s just imagery, or a setting for a story. I like to connect words with some sort of visual or tangible element to grab on to, so giving an idea a little bit of story to nest in can help it out I think.

OM: Your haircutting thing, is that some kind of loyalty test for your fans? Like “God said to Abraham, ‘Kill me a son’”? Are you trying to see how far people will go along with you? What does it mean to you that a fan would so long for interaction with you that he or she would get a bad haircut on stage? Would you get a haircut from your favorite musician, even knowing the haircut would be bad?

AR: Um. Hm. Well for starters, I assume you’re speaking about us offering a haircut on stage at a show — where someone volunteers to do it, as I assume they find fun in the experience. I wrote a song called “Racing Stripes” on my newest record and a lot of it is about the feeling of freedom that comes with getting a bunch of odd/(stuffy)/interesting haircuts as a youth and throughout your life. There’s also a portion of the song about how my now deceased best friend used to give himself terrible haircuts as a way to prevent himself from procrastinating on work. We have a sign-up sheet at the live show in case anyone would like to throw caution to the wind and bug out with us. If not, no biggy. It’s been going extremely well and adds a fun(ny), interactive part to the show. If the circumstance was right — (fuzz) yeah I’d get a bad haircut from a fav.

OM: Who are your favorites? I saw that you posted the Waits video for “Hell Broke Luce” on Twitter a few weeks back. (Great video, huh?) Is he up there? How much inspiration do you draw from artists (musical or otherwise) outside your own genre?

AR: I do love me some Tom Waits. Genre differences don’t really apply that much, I just like what I like. A lot of old rap, some new rap. Some older punk/skate (stuff) I grew up on. I’ve always said the Mountain Goats were a huge influence on my writing. I could really go on forever. Some days I love it all, some days I’d rather hear dead air.

Hot House includes standards from eight well-known composers—from Thelonious Monk and Bill Evans to Lennon and McCartney—but Burton explains “we chose songs that are generally not that well known; the composers’ names are probably more familiar than the songs to most listeners.” Hot House also features the Harlem String Quartet on a new Corea original titled “Mozart Goes Dancing,” a track originally planned for the duo’s next record together. After the record’s release in September the duo will play four sets in two nights at The Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis, MN, as well as a pair of Arizona shows in January.