Ziggy Marley

Moe:

We’re sitting backstage in Ziggy Marley’s tour bus. Ziggy, thank you very much for being on the podcast.

Ziggy:

Good brah.

Moe:

So how are you feeling about Bonnaroo? Are you feeling the love?

Ziggy:

Ya mon. Bonnaroo, you know, is good.. is good feh see so much people together and just enjoying music and love. You know.. It’s great. It’s a great environment.

Moe:

Absolutely. I’ve been speaking to many people about who they’re most looking forward to seeing at Bonnaroo.. And I’ll tell ya, about every single person that I had spoken to was very, very excited about your set…

Ziggy:

Yeah?

Moe:

And they were all out there.

Ziggy:

Yeah mon.

Moe:

“Love Is My Religion”.. I keep hearing you say, “love is all we need.” How does that shape your life?

Ziggy:

Well that, I mean, what it is, is a gradual realization of the true concept of spirituality or the true concept of God. You know, because from when I was a young child coming up, we were about God, you know, we went through Christianity. We were still lookin’ for the truth. How do I identify myself in terms of that aspect, in terms of this religious aspect, spiritual aspect… What is it really? What do I call it? Am I a Christian? Am I a Rasta? What am I? And what is the direction that I should be goin’? So after a while, it just gradually come to me that love is really… Love is the answer. Love is the answer to everything that I was questioning.

Moe:

You were looking for the truth, and love is the truth.

Ziggy:

Yeah. So the truth for me doesn’t lie within the rituals of religion or the traditions of religion. Love is the truth, ya know? So, that is what I came to realize a few years ago, and just to put it in a terms that people can understand is “Love Is My Religion,” ya know?

Moe:

It feels to me that you’ve written an anthem for a generation with “Love Is My Religion.” It feels that in this day and age, there’s not enough love, and what you’re telling everyone is… everyone does need love. Do you feel that your message is being received well?

Ziggy:

Yes, I think so. Everywhere I go, it’s been received well and I believe that.. the good thing about love is that love don’t have any enemies. So even if, I mean, even if people are there who are Christians, Muslims, or whatever… You still can say that, ’cause it’s love. You know… You really can’t fight love. Like, you can’t have anything against love.

Moe:

It’s true.

Ziggy:

You know what I mean? I think it’s been received well and it’s hard work still to get the message out there ’cause I have to be on the road. My music and what I do is not something where I can sit down and depend on upon a TV or the radio or the media generally, to promote what I’m doing. What I’m doing, I have to get out there and do the footwork… The soldierwork. And that’s what we’re doin’ right now. That’s the only way I can get that message out properly, ya know?

Moe:

Some musicians deal more with political aspects. I feel as though you deal more with the person… The social aspects. The human condition, I would say.

Ziggy:

Yeah, well I’ve done political stuff, ya know. There was a point where I kinda understood… ‘All right, well, ya know what? The solution is not in politics or even social things. The solution is within the individual…’ To find love, that is the solution to the world’s problems. It is not democracy, it is not communism, nor capitalism… It is not religion, it is not charity, it is for human beings to find love within themselves. This is the solution for everything. Everything else is secondary. If you have democracy without love, it ain’t gonna work. If you have communism wit… Nuttin’ gonna work without love! Nuttin! So let’s find love first, and then we’ll find everything else!

Moe:

Speaking of love… We were in the pit area during your performance. I was just taking a look around and you could see a huge smile on everyone’s face.

Ziggy:

(Smiles and laughs)

Moe:

A huge smile! It was great. It was almost as if you were putting your hands in the air over your head to channel the power of everyone in the crowd.

Ziggy:

Yeah.

Moe:

Is that how you feel?

Ziggy:

Yeah, well that I mean.

Moe:

Are you just feeling the music?

Ziggy:

Yeah, yeah weh… You know, we’re transmittin’ vibrations, ya know. We’re communicatin’ with more that words and more than music. We’re communicatin’ with vibrations. So that is a form… that is a way of communication from me. So, ya know, puttin’ up my hands is very symbolic of just trying to soak up and tryin’ to give back healing power, ya know?

Moe:

The people in the crowd were definitely soaking up your power as well.

Ziggy:

Ya mon.

Moe:

When you went solo…when you recorded “Dragonfly.” How was it getting away from playing with your family for so long with The Melody Makers? How was that transition?

Ziggy:

Well ya know, I mean, feh me it wasn’t.. it was not a difficult thing. I do what I have to do. I do wherever life is taking me… I go without any resistance. So I’m just going with the flow. So the flow took me there and I didn’t fight it. I didn’t think about it, I didn’t judge it, I didn’t do anything, I just went with it.

Moe:

So it felt natural.