Ziggy Marley talks in depth about his involvement in the new bio-pic about his father, Bob Marley called 'One Love,' how he chose director Renaldo Marcus Green, stars Kingsley Ben-Adir and Lashana Lynch to play his father and mother Bob Marley and Rita Marley, filming the movie in Jamaica and giving back to the community, what he feels his father's legacy is, his own music career, and more!
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00:00 We could be in the middle of it. If it ain't right, we're gonna...
00:03 'cause we can't mess with Bob and we can't mess with Jamaica.
00:07 Hi, I'm Ziggy Marley and this is Billboard News.
00:10 Hey, it's Tetris with Billboard News and today I have the honour of hanging with Ziggy Marley,
00:23 talking about "One Love". How are you?
00:25 Good, man.
00:26 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
00:31 Where you wanna start?
00:32 From the beginning.
00:36 Why was now the time to tell your father's story?
00:39 Yeah, it's more than my father's story, really. It carries a message with it.
00:44 It talks about his life, but I think now is the time for this message of "One Love"
00:50 to be put into the global view, for them to see it on the billboards, watch it in a movie.
00:56 This idea of "One Love", I think it's a very important time in the world,
01:00 a very significant time in the world. We're on the edge of something,
01:04 so the idea of "One Love" is pretty cool to have that out there right now.
01:08 And that is the overarching view of the film, obviously, is this one love and your dad's story.
01:14 How close were you to that story in the storytelling process?
01:18 Yeah, no, we were there from the beginning.
01:20 We were the ones who initiated the idea to do the film on behalf of my family.
01:25 And so it was the first time that we actually took the prerogative to go out and seek
01:30 partners to do the film with and telling the story how we wanted to tell it,
01:35 making sure it's authentic. So we were very, very involved in it from the get-go to the end.
01:40 I mean, things were being changed in the last second, the scripts.
01:45 It was a community project.
01:48 And it was just... It's the first time I'm doing a film project,
01:53 but from what we talk about with the guys who have the experience,
01:57 they were like, "This is like... We've never done this in film before.
02:00 Up to the last second, we're changing lines."
02:03 It was good. It was a good adventure.
02:05 But I think that's what fans, at least even myself, are excited about.
02:09 Because a lot of times with biopics, you're like, "Who wrote this?
02:12 Who's behind it? Does the family know? Did they sign off on this?"
02:15 So having you be involved is very important.
02:17 So do you feel like you had overall say on, "This is what I feel"?
02:22 Yeah, well, we worked together with Rinaldo, Marcus Green, the director,
02:27 Kingsley Ben-Eder, the actor, Lashana.
02:29 It wasn't like, "All right, I said this. It has to be that way."
02:32 But if I have an idea, we listen to it and we talk about it as a community.
02:37 Sometimes my idea was better than what was there.
02:39 Sometimes it wasn't better. Sometimes I have to say, "Ray, you're right."
02:43 The director will be like, "You're right. Forget what I said."
02:46 Well, now I have to ask you, what's a scene that you feel like you were fighting for
02:50 that at the end of the day they were like, "You know what, actually..."
02:52 "Wow, wow, wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah."
02:54 "Not a good one."
02:55 No, it's not that it wasn't good.
02:57 But when you start editing a movie, it kind of unfolds and tells you what it wants to be.
03:05 And sometimes you have some really good stuff that you have to leave out
03:09 because the story that the movie...
03:11 What the movie is becoming as you're working on it, it doesn't fit into it.
03:15 So we had some really cool scenes that we didn't put in the film
03:19 because it just never worked in the architect.
03:22 It's just like that block that never worked in that position.
03:26 So there's... Oh, man, there's a few scenes.
03:29 There's young Bob coming through Trenchtown.
03:32 Oh, my God, it's so beautiful.
03:34 Walking down the street, meeting some of the wheelers.
03:37 But it just never fits in the thing.
03:40 But we're going to have a deleted scene.
03:42 OK, we got to wait for the DVD.
03:44 I'm telling you, bro.
03:45 There's also... We had a scene where the wheelers broke up.
03:49 They had a fight.
03:51 Oh, come on.
03:53 Now I want the scene.
03:55 There was one that was like, "Oh, we have to..."
03:57 But it just never worked in the architect.
04:00 So we'll get that in the deleted scene. People can see that.
04:03 You were talking about Ronaldo.
04:05 That had to be a strong decision to make, to trust somebody
04:08 with telling your family's story.
04:10 So how was it to work with him and build that trust?
04:13 Well, Ronaldo, see, it worked.
04:16 Well, I watched some of his stuff.
04:18 And the funny thing is that he did a short film in South Africa.
04:23 And I like the authenticity of it.
04:25 I like the grit, how it looked.
04:27 And I like that it was being real to that culture.
04:32 And that was impressive.
04:34 And then when I talked to Ronaldo,
04:36 because we went through different iterations of the script.
04:39 When we talked to Ronaldo the first time,
04:41 we had the first iteration of the script.
04:44 He was like, "Bro, we've got to change."
04:47 And I was like, "Yeah, I like what you're..."
04:49 Because he was telling me the truth.
04:51 He's telling me the real thing.
04:53 It's not like somebody will come and tell you what you want to hear
04:56 or lift up your ego.
04:59 He's working towards the best thing for the film,
05:02 for the movie, for the story.
05:04 And when he did that, I said, "This man has to speak the truth."
05:06 I like people that talk the truth.
05:08 I don't like people who tell me yes all the time.
05:10 I like someone who says no, no, no, they're real.
05:12 So Ronaldo was real, and so, yeah, I'd write more than that.
05:16 More somebody real, you know?
05:18 That's amazing. And when you look at the film also,
05:20 obviously your father had such an incredible life
05:22 and so many stories to tell.
05:24 How did you decide which stories you wanted to make sure made the film?
05:27 Well, this time period that the story exists in
05:32 was a very life-changing time period in his life.
05:38 It was what kind of made him decide what his purpose was,
05:46 what his philosophy is.
05:48 He made a decision in this time, and it's in the film too,
05:51 but I'll tell you what he said, because we took his words from him
05:54 and put it in the film.
05:56 He said, "If my life is for myself, I don't want it.
05:59 My life is for people."
06:01 That is who Bob Marley is, and it was in this time period
06:04 where he came up with that realization that this is who he is,
06:08 that if it's his life for himself, he doesn't want his life
06:12 if it's not for people.
06:14 So this is who Bob Marley is, and we don't need to tell a story
06:18 from birth to death to know this,
06:20 because this is the important thing you need to know
06:22 if you want to know who Bob Marley is.
06:24 He's that type of person.
06:26 So we chose this period of time because it was so life-changing for him,
06:29 and it made him into who we know today.
06:31 You can't separate the music and the message.
06:34 'Cause every day we pay the price
06:36 Edmund, it's the message.
06:38 ...of self-sacrifice
06:39 Peace.
06:40 I think one of my favorite quotes for the movie was actually
06:43 when Rita said, "When the messenger becomes the message."
06:47 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
06:48 And I think that is obviously something I felt like I felt
06:51 throughout the film was his message.
06:53 It was true to watch any parts of the film,
06:55 and relived some of those hard moments, like the gunshot scene.
06:58 'Cause I was going through it.
07:00 I was emotional and having a reaction.
07:02 I love that gunshot scene.
07:04 You love the gunshot scene?
07:06 I love movies.
07:10 That's my kind of gangster, you know?
07:14 Godfather movie, and them kind of action movies.
07:17 So I was for the gunshot.
07:19 I was like, "Yo, let's go harder."
07:21 Let's make it more...
07:23 That's amazing.
07:25 But, you know, yeah, I mean...
07:27 Yeah, I mean, it's emotional for me,
07:29 but the most emotional thing for me is the humorous side
07:34 that we show in the film, and those things, it make me laugh.
07:38 Because, I mean, I've already processed the pain of everything
07:43 that my family went through, my mother and my father,
07:46 that process already.
07:47 But the humorous, the thing that make me laugh
07:50 is kind of something that is getting refreshed
07:53 by some of the scenes.
07:54 'Cause I know my father, and it's exactly how him,
07:57 kind of this weird, this kind of humor
07:59 that a lot of people don't know, but he likes to joke around.
08:02 And the demeanour, what things they play,
08:05 like there's a scene in the office with a guy
08:07 who don't understand what Bob is saying.
08:09 It's so typical, like people don't really understand Bob.
08:13 Him speaking a funny kind of parable sometimes.
08:16 But we understand and we get it.
08:18 But like a foreigner--
08:20 It's like the white guy in the movie who's like,
08:22 "What did he say?"
08:23 Exactly, we never get it.
08:24 So those type of moments just make me laugh
08:26 and say, yeah, that's exactly how it was with Bob.
08:29 Oh, man, I love that so much.
08:31 And do you feel like everything is true?
08:33 Because you were talking about the script,
08:35 and when you're writing lines and stuff,
08:36 you feel like you guys stay pretty true to the real story.
08:39 Yeah, man, everything true.
08:40 What we did was we took things from different timelines, though.
08:43 So not everything that happened in this movie
08:46 happened in this timeline.
08:47 But what was important for us is to show Bob's character
08:50 and take stuff that might have happened--
08:52 maybe it happened in '79 or '80,
08:54 but it's so important to his character and who he is
08:57 that we have to put it--we have to show him here.
08:59 Because movies are art, see,
09:01 and we want to give people a full picture of Bob.
09:04 So to understand Bob is really understanding his whole life.
09:07 So we had to take stuff out from different times
09:10 just to give you a full understanding
09:13 of who Bob is as a person, his personality.
09:16 And then we actually went back in time to his childhood,
09:19 you know, his father not accepting him
09:22 and him coming up with the way that there's some stuff
09:24 in there from his past.
09:26 One thing that was interesting to me, actually,
09:28 was the nickname "Skipper."
09:30 Where's Skipper? What's the origin of that?
09:34 I suspect--I'm not sure--but that Skipper came from them--
09:39 Skipper is the leader. He's a skip.
09:42 He's a skipper.
09:43 And I think we were from Sockato,
09:45 the skipper of the team, the captain.
09:47 Oh, I didn't think about Skipper from Sockato.
09:49 Yeah, it could be that, too.
09:50 Oh, wow, interesting.
09:51 Because I kept hearing that, and I was like,
09:52 "Wow, I never heard that before."
09:53 No, they called him Skip, man.
09:54 Now let's talk about Skip.
09:56 Well, actually, the new Skip, I guess you would say, Kingsley.
09:59 So how was it to cast him,
10:01 and why was he the guy to play your father?
10:04 Well, Kingsley was a person because after watching the tapes,
10:07 and obviously we wanted to--
10:09 our first idea was let's get somebody
10:12 with Northern Top Jamaica.
10:14 It wouldn't be so easy if you already know the dialect
10:17 and stuff like that.
10:18 But the most important for us was to capture somebody--
10:22 get somebody who could capture the emotion above,
10:25 not just the dialect or even the look, but the emotion.
10:29 And with Kingsley, after looking at all the tapes,
10:32 Kingsley was the one who kept our attention,
10:34 kept us engaged in what he was doing.
10:36 We never get distracted.
10:38 We were like looking at this guy,
10:40 and he was the one that kept us like this.
10:42 And then we say, yeah, this is the guy
10:44 because he keep us engaged, you know?
10:46 And what was the casting process like?
10:48 How did you go through different bobs?
10:50 The same thing, man, just tapes, people auditioning,
10:53 and watching tapes, and we had a casting director
10:55 going out to Jamaica, England, America,
10:59 wherever we could find--
11:01 even Trinidad and other places too.
11:04 But Kingsley, he engaged.
11:07 He kept us engaged.
11:09 And then of course you had LaShonna Lynch
11:10 who played your mom Rita,
11:11 so that had to be a very personal relationship
11:14 between the actress and you
11:16 to see someone play your mother.
11:18 Yeah, LaShonna met my mother, my sisters,
11:20 and we talked, you know?
11:22 LaShonna, her mother is Jamaican,
11:25 so she bring another authenticity to it.
11:28 And I think the thing was, since Kingsley was not Jamaican,
11:32 that we wanted to surround him--
11:34 all the cast members are Jamaicans, basically,
11:37 or have Jamaican heritage.
11:39 So we surrounded Kingsley with Jamaicans.
11:41 And so he lived in--on the set it was just--
11:44 it was Jamaicans talking, and Kingsley was there,
11:47 so it was good to get him in that way.
11:51 But with LaShonna, yeah, I remember talking with LaShonna,
11:54 we were like--we all had the same intention.
11:56 Kingsley, LaShonna, myself,
11:59 even as the creative side of things,
12:02 outside of the studio, we were like,
12:04 "Listen, if the studio messing with us,
12:06 "or if they don't--if they ain't getting this right,
12:08 "we're not gonna do it.
12:09 "We could be in the middle of it.
12:11 "If it ain't right, we're gonna--
12:12 "'cause we can't mess with Bob,
12:14 and we can't mess with Jamaica."
12:16 You understand me?
12:17 So, yo, we have a pact, all right.
12:19 If it ain't going good, we bailing.
12:21 Did you guys film a lot of the movie in Jamaica?
12:23 Yeah, man, half of the movie in Jamaica,
12:25 half in England.
12:26 Chinchtown, where Bob is from, where I am from,
12:29 I was born there.
12:31 And the community--I mean, Bob's friends--
12:34 some of Bob's friends there,
12:35 some of our friends still there.
12:37 So it was great to go back into the community,
12:40 not only film there, but give opportunity
12:42 to the local people,
12:45 and give business to the local people.
12:47 And it's still--I mean, even after we leave,
12:49 there's still remnants of what we have done
12:52 and what we have left behind,
12:54 helping to support schools, you know, stuff.
12:57 So it really was--in my heart of hearts,
13:00 this was like--it was like Bob doing this
13:02 with the community.
13:04 There's a thing about--
13:05 it wasn't just like we went and filmed
13:07 and we just took advantage--
13:09 no, we did something for the community,
13:10 and it's still helping the community today.
13:13 Oh, man, that's beautiful.
13:14 And does your mom like the film?
13:15 How does she feel about it?
13:16 Yeah, man, she was very emotional about it.
13:19 She cried.
13:20 We premiered it in Jamaica,
13:22 and she was crying, you know.
13:24 And a lot of people have tears when they watch this film.
13:27 It's very emotional for a lot of people.
13:29 But for my mother, I mean, come on.
13:31 She lived through it.
13:32 I mean, when she saw the scene of herself getting shot
13:35 in the head, I mean, you know what I'm saying?
13:37 You were over there like, "More, more, more."
13:40 No, she was like--
13:42 it affected her emotionally.
13:44 I mean, yeah, it's heavy.
13:46 Yeah, and I mean, you guys did a great job, though,
13:48 putting the film together.
13:49 And tell me about Brad Pitt's involvement as well.
13:51 Brad was a silent partner, you know what I'm saying?
13:54 We never say "Brad-on,"
13:55 but his team helped us a lot.
13:58 Brad was like a silent partner.
14:00 ♪ Or even tried to school you ♪
14:03 ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪
14:06 Let's talk a little bit about your dad.
14:07 You know, he was 36 when he passed.
14:09 You were 12.
14:10 What do you remember about growing up with your father?
14:12 Everything, I mean, everything from a hard memory
14:15 that I can remember.
14:16 I remember everything, yeah,
14:18 growing up with my father and my mother.
14:20 I mean, very adventurous times, bro.
14:22 It was very adventurous.
14:24 A lot of things happening.
14:25 He wanted, you know, like, me and my brother
14:28 around all the time with him.
14:29 He didn't care what the situation was,
14:31 whether it was dangerous or not, you know?
14:34 The kids are there, like...
14:35 I mean, we saw a little of that in the film.
14:37 Did that stuff kind of, like, reignite?
14:39 Did your memories reignite that scene,
14:41 or did the scene reignite memories?
14:44 Um, it reignited that, like, for us,
14:48 it wasn't dangerous.
14:49 It was fun, like, being around all this stuff happening.
14:53 Yeah, because there was never a moment
14:55 where your parents would be like,
14:57 "Oh, my God, there's no-- are you okay?"
15:00 No, bro, you just get through it on your own,
15:02 and we're moving on and going on to the next thing.
15:05 We're going on to the next thing.
15:06 Let's go, bro. We're going.
15:08 But now you are a father of seven,
15:09 so what do you feel like you took from Bob as a father
15:12 that you take as a father?
15:13 I think what we take is, like, you lead by example.
15:16 Um, we don't offer-- we don't offer talk-talk too much
15:20 and tell-tell too much.
15:21 I mean, there's time you have to talk,
15:23 but the majority of the teaching is by example,
15:26 'cause that's how I learn.
15:27 I learn from being around the experience
15:29 and soaking it in from just being around,
15:32 not being told things,
15:33 but by seeing things, hearing things,
15:35 and the example that my parents set.
15:36 So that's what I take from them.
15:38 ♪ Won't you help to sing? ♪
15:43 Talking about the soundtrack, too, let's talk about that.
15:45 How did you decide which songs
15:47 would be featured in this new EP?
15:49 We have our own.
15:50 Steve's job now is to make sure the music done properly.
15:54 I mean, different from the EP,
15:57 one of the things we talked about with him was,
16:00 yo, when people hear the music in the theaters,
16:02 it's gotta sound-- it gotta be pumping.
16:04 It can't be, you know, like, you know,
16:06 this is reggae music, we have to have butter.
16:08 So he paid attention to that to make sure it was loud enough
16:13 and make sure the mix was right,
16:15 make sure it sounded like you're in a concert,
16:17 you know, you're in the environment of the music.
16:20 And he was the one who kind of curated the EP stuff
16:23 to get in, you know, deciding which artist comes
16:28 and, you know, what sounded good and stuff like that.
16:31 Well, now I just thought of this.
16:33 I'm like, is there a Bob Marley song
16:35 that you, like, are, like, done with?
16:37 Like, you've heard it too much,
16:38 you're like, please do not play that song around me.
16:41 I have to ask you that.
16:42 Eh, honestly, no, there's nothing like that.
16:46 No.
16:47 Okay, okay, I'm gonna take your politician answer on that one.
16:51 ♪ Love is my religion ♪
16:54 ♪ Love is my religion ♪
16:56 And let's talk about your career as a musician.
16:58 You've obviously had an amazing career yourself.
17:00 So what do you feel like you learned from your dad
17:02 into taking into your music?
17:04 Discipline.
17:05 Work, work ethics.
17:07 And just discipline, living, living.
17:11 Listen, when we do music,
17:13 I always see my father in the music, you know, it was a life.
17:16 Like, there's no day without you doing your art.
17:19 It's not something that you do on the side.
17:22 It's something that you do constantly.
17:25 It's not a part-time thing, it's a full-time job.
17:28 It's a full-time work.
17:30 So that discipline and that, like, taking music
17:33 as a part of your life,
17:36 not just something that you do when it's time,
17:40 but you do when it's not time.
17:42 You know what I mean?
17:43 I think that's what I take from it.
17:44 That's the only way you can really get better at it,
17:46 if you live it, you know?
17:47 Did you ever see yourself as anything other than a musician?
17:50 Or was it always what you knew you wanted to do?
17:53 No, I never really wanted to be anything, really.
17:56 I mean, I never really decided to be anything
17:59 until it captured me.
18:03 Like, I didn't go looking to be this.
18:06 I think what really made me connected to being a musician
18:12 was that I started getting inspired with words.
18:16 You know, I started being inspired by words.
18:19 It's not something that I learned or somebody taught me.
18:23 I started getting inspired.
18:25 I started to have a way to express myself
18:29 that was spiritual, that was, to me,
18:34 kind of supernatural, you know?
18:36 It's not--yeah, it's--
18:39 'cause I don't know how I do it.
18:41 I don't know how it works.
18:43 Well, none of us do, but apparently you and your family
18:45 have a really good idea.
18:47 And you've worked with your family, obviously.
18:49 It was with Melody Makers at first before your solo career.
18:51 So how was it to work with your siblings
18:53 versus, you know, running your own show?
18:56 Yeah, we work with our siblings, and we still work together.
18:59 It's a family, so it's not--to us, to me,
19:03 it's not like, "Oh, yeah, you had a group with your family.
19:06 "I know you don't have a group, so it's different."
19:08 It's the same, like, we don't feel any different.
19:12 You know, Steve helped me out with songs.
19:14 We work with each other.
19:17 But for me, like, separating from my family in a physical way
19:21 was a way for me to grow.
19:23 For me, I felt good that I had the courage to do that.
19:27 # I see MFES forever
19:30 # Growing wild and free #
19:32 You've won eight Grammys.
19:34 We were just actually talking about the Grammy Awards
19:36 that just happened.
19:37 So do you feel like your nominations and wins
19:39 in those ready-to-get categories,
19:41 like, does that help validate, you feel?
19:43 Yeah, it gives a little more light, a little more light.
19:46 But as we say,
19:49 we can't put too much value on awards,
19:55 because plenty of people should get awards that don't get them.
19:58 That don't mean there is any lesser--you know what I mean?
20:01 So we have to be careful.
20:03 I am very careful how much value I put on it.
20:05 Like, "Oh, I won a Grammy, okay.
20:07 "I didn't win a Grammy, I'm so sad."
20:09 So you know what I'm saying?
20:10 You have to keep your mind right with these things.
20:12 You have to keep your mind right.
20:14 It don't validate you.
20:15 But if you do get one, for me personally,
20:17 because there's a purpose behind what we do,
20:20 it's not about me, it's about elevating
20:22 and shedding more light on the message
20:24 that we're trying to spread throughout the world,
20:26 which is basically loving one another more, unification.
20:29 So if an award can help me do that, then me happy.
20:33 But me not really, "Oh, my God, you know, my award!"
20:38 [laughter]
20:39 Well, I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed this conversation thoroughly.
20:43 Thank you for hanging out with Billboard.
20:44 I really appreciate it.
20:45 Thank you, brother.
20:46 I love it.
20:47 [music]
20:50 [music fades]
20:53 [BLANK_AUDIO]