Lithium Magazine

By Vanessa Markov

www.ziggymarley.com

Ziggy Marley – multiple Grammy award winning musician, humanitarian, and first born son of the immortal reggae legend Bob Marley – is destined to be an activist by virtue. The profound positive influences of Ziggy’s upbringing have led him to dedicate himself to sharing the lessons that have shaped his attitude toward life, and to reach as many people as possible with his messages of love and truth through music, through charity, and most recently through art and literature by creating a new comic book superhero, Marijuanaman.

His newest album, Wild and Free, due to be released in June 2011, is his most honest and insightful album yet, centering on the idea of looking deep in oneself to provoke personal revolution and a clearer understanding of life. However, the album was originally inspired by a more specific concept – Ziggy’s desire to increase worldwide education on the environmental benefits of the cannabis, especially among younger generations. Despite the new album’s change in direction, Ziggy is still very much focused on this issue, discussing it passionately and in detail at every opportunity.

I was extremely fortunate for the opportunity to speak with Ziggy about the new album and more, and here is our conversation:

Vanessa: You have a new album coming out in June, Wild and Free. I’ve listened to it a couple times, I was just listening to it now and I love it. It’s a very inspiring album.

Ziggy: Thank you.

V: What were some of the main ideas that you had come up with before you started working on the album?

Z: Well, I was into this whole hemp idea – hemp, cannabis. I know they grow hemp out in Canada there.

[laughs]

Z: My first idea for the album was to go with the theme of this plant, the most important plant on the planet, and to write songs about that. But I don’t think it worked out where the album is only about that. I have some songs which refer to that, but the album kind of took on its own direction after a while. We talk about revolutions, we talk about change; we talk about spirituality. I talk about some of the history of my life; I mention my father and my mother. But I’m on kind of a journey of trying to expose more knowledge about the cannabis plant to the people. It’s a shame that the world is not utilizing this natural resource more widely than we are right now, you know?

V: Absolutely, I agree. In Toronto it’s a popular topic. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of the annual Marijuana March and Freedom Festival that we have here in Toronto?

Z: Yeah, I’ve seen something about that before.

V: Awesome, yeah there’s a huge subculture here that believes in the various uses of marijuana. When I was looking into your new comic book, Marijuanaman, I thought it would be very well received here.

Z: And that’s one of the things. We want to take it out of the subculture and get it into the mainstream. Because if the people know the truth, it’s simple, it’s not a dilemma anymore. We already use so many natural resources on the planet and we use them to the fullest. Some of them, the way we use them, can be detrimental to the environment, like oil. And here’s one natural resource with so many uses that governments are still hesitant about, but they’re not hesitant about anything else! [laughing] What do you have against this plant man, come on! It’s like a joke, it becomes a joke. Come on, people!

[laughing]

Z: It’s so transparent, like come on!

V: It’s so true. I guess a good example is there is a huge problem with forests being cut down, yet for resources that marijuana can provide.

Z: Yeah! And the trees are so important to us. I mean, trees are a part of our existence. If we don’t have trees we’re gonna be in trouble. Why would you do that? Just to spite this plant? Why destroy ourselves to spite a plant? It don’t make no sense, you know?

V: So Marijuanaman is an effort to educate people so that they start asking these questions?

Z: Yeah. The comic book world is a different world. It’s my first step into it. But for people who are into comics, maybe they don’t know the story of cannabis, marijuana, hemp. So here’s something for that world that will maybe open some eyes in that world. The music world is the music world, and then you have the movie world, and we just have to try to enter into each world and try to open people’s eyes in different worlds, you know?

V: I understand what you’re saying, it makes perfect sense.

Z: Yeah…I don’t want to be the only one to know, I don’t want you or us to be the only ones who know this. It’s something that I like to do too, you know, going into different worlds.

V: What age group is the comic book geared towards?

Z: Older teens and adults, because the idea of marijuana is still so stigmatized. We also have some love scenes that are not lewd, but they are sexy, so it probably wouldn’t be good for kids. Saying that, check out what kids are being exposed to today. Violence and everything, they’re exposed to so much.

Someone asked me if I thought doing Marijuanaman or an album like [Wild and Free] would make people think about me differently, because I did a kids album before this. My last album was a children’s album. But I tell them that children should know the truth. This is science, natural science. Children should learn about this plant because it’s natural science. It’s not a chemical process. Kids should learn about this the way they learn about any other plant, what it can be used for, the fabrics, the fuel…children should know these things! Why should we hide these things from children? Yet still when I watch a basketball game on TV that kids watch, I see alcohol advertisements every timeout. You know what I’m saying?
 
V: Yeah, it’s hypocrisy.

Z: I’m telling you, big time. Big time!

V: Do you think that the lack of education and grouping marijuana as just another drug influences children to believe that harder drugs are the same? What’s your opinion on chemical drugs?

Z: I don’t call this plant a drug. I call it a plant just like I call every other plant a plant. Until somebody does something to it, it’s not a drug. It’s just a plant to me. It has properties, but I do not class it in the same category as Aspirin or Vicodin or crack cocaine – those things are manipulated in such a way to create them. This plant comes like any other plant on the earth, it comes from the ground and it’s a part of nature. We have nothing to do with it. Nowadays there’s a lot of manipulation which I don’t like that much, but the root of this plant is from the earth and so I don’t see it as a drug. It’s not.

V: Do think that because children are not educated, the consequence is to misunderstand and classify it as a drug?

Z: Yeah, I mean, if they know the truth they will understand. They understand Daddy can drink a beer and Daddy’s laughing and acting funny [laughs], they learn that and that’s okay. But to me the most important thing is to teach them the industrial uses.  The medicinal properties, that’s important too but I don’t want to tell children to smoke herb you know? I don’t want to send that message to children, but more send a message that it has its uses for adults or for therapeutic purposes not to be abused. I want to send the truth. Smoking herb, smoking anything…just putting smoke in your body isn’t good for you, you know what I’m saying? But if it’s done responsibly then it can have positive effects.

The industrial uses, though, that’s what I would like to push on the kids. Fabrics, the seeds are nutritious, that’s what I’d like them to find out. They can find out about the smoking later, when they get older. I want to show them the other things now. To look at this fabulous plant and all the things it can do. It’s like magic. It’s like a fairytale, like Jack and the Beanstalk [laughing] or Alice in Wonderland, or stories like that. They need to know.

V: And if they know it from a young age, they’ll know to use it to help the environment when they get older.

Z: Right. They talk about this ‘green revolution’ and it’s funny how hypocritical they are and how they can just market this without being real about it, and make the world feel like we are going for a ‘green revolution’. But it’s all a marketing scheme to cover people’s eyes and to calm us down, basically, because how can you have a ‘green revolution’ without the greenest plant on earth? How is that possible? How can you say you’re going through a ‘green revolution’ without cannabis? That’s impossible. This is the plant that was given for that purpose. That’s why it’s here.

My father sings, “The stone that the builder refused shall be the head cornerstone.” This is how I see this plant. This society is refusing it, demonizing it, but it will become the head cornerstone of our future. That’s why I said the children need to learn about this part of it first. This is what we need to teach them.

V: Your strong opinions do come out in your music and I can’t wait to see the comic. Do you have any plans to come to Toronto?

Z: Um, I don’t hear anything yet but I hope so. I mean, I want to come. I have to come…I will come! I haven’t timed it yet but we will come.

V: I think your beliefs and ideas would be a great influence on people, they’re very truthful and realistic.

Z: Yeah man, it’s the truth. The truth should be the norm.

V: Thank you so much for speaking with me, Ziggy. I very much appreciate it.

Z: Thank you very much.