ZIggy Marley was only eight years old when his mother and father, reggae grandson Bob Marley, were shot in an apparent assassination attempt on his home in Kingston, Jamaica. But remember it like yesterday.
“The cops came to pick us up the kids in the middle of the night and took us to a secret hideout in the hills; no one really knew what was going on. It was scary, but it was a little exciting,” he says.
However, only two days later, on December 5, 1976, Bob Marley insisted on playing the Smile Jamaica Concert at Kingston National Park, as planned, although he had gunshot wounds to his arm and chest. . The concert was seen as a cry for pacification against the backdrop of Jamaica’s spiral of violence and political unrest, with 80,000 people watching Marley advance through classics like Get Up Stand Up.
For reggae fans, she is a legend, although Ziggy insists that her mother, who was shot in the head that night, deserves the same credit. “She still showed up on the show, just like him. I’m proud of both my dad and my mom because there’s teamwork between them. Bob wouldn’t be Bob without Rita, you know what I’m saying?
Now 53, Ziggy is talking to him Observer on the eve of a new exhibition on his father’s life and influences that opens at the Saatchi Gallery in London next month.
It is the last celebration of a singer who, four decades after his death from cancer, at the age of 36, is still one of the best-selling artists in the world. His most successful posthumous album, Legendpublished in 1984, has spent over 950 weeks in the UK top 100 and has sold over 25 million copies worldwide.
The exhibition, which includes a giant vinyl installation Caption – is presented as a “multisensory experience” with numerous rooms and spaces, each highlighting different aspects of Marley’s life. A room, for example, is designed like a forest with the sounds and smells of Jamaica, the visual backdrop for many of the songs.
Elsewhere, they’ve recreated a specific cityscape with huge art installations, and there’s even a mock-up of the backstage aisle of a Bob Marley and the Wailers concert. A quiet nightclub, called Soul Shakedown Studio, invites visitors to put on their headphones and enjoy a reggae dance party.
But the highlight of the show is certainly a collection of never-before-seen images of Marley himself.
Ziggy explains that they were discovered in the storage closet of photographer Jean Bernard Sohiez, who died last year and the two dozen photos of which appeared to have been taken the same day in Kingston, about a year before the death of Marley.
They are sincere plans without putting, some capture the singer playing football, which he said was his greatest passion after music.
“He was a fan,” Ziggy agreed. “It was a big part of his life, and my childhood life around him, but it wasn’t just about football, he liked all sports. He loved boxing, running, table tennis, he was a sports boy “.
Sometimes he would come to Ziggy’s elementary school and play against his classmates, he says, adding, “He was quick and made a good kick.” He laughs out loud at the idea that his father’s game was on a professional level, as stated by friends who played with him.
“That was his aspiration!” he jokes.
He believes that playing football was a way for Marley to relieve some of the pressures of his day to day life. His father was always solicited, he says, and sometimes it seemed like everyone wanted a piece of him.
“Football helped him free his mind,” he says.
Disturbed by the shooting at her home, Marley moved to London to spend time, living in the relative calm of 42 Oakley Street in Chelsea. That’s where he wrote one of his most enduring songs, Three Little Birds.
Ziggy stayed in Jamaica with the rest of her siblings (Marley had 11 recognized children), but says she did not miss her father during the separation. Not out of love for him, but out of necessity, he says.
“When you reflect you may feel sad, but right now you have to do what you have to do,” he says. “I had to go to school, there were a lot of things going on, so you take care of it.”
Ziggy (a nickname her father gave her, meaning “little spliff”) was 12 when Marley died. He even performed at the funeral. And, in a broader sense, he “has stepped forward” all his adult life, carving out his own niche as a top-notch recording artist. It has won eight Grammy Awards and seven times the best reggae album, the last in 2017.
Ziggy has a Trenchtown accent similar to his father’s, although he has been living in Los Angeles for about 15 years with his wife Orly and their four children.
“As my dad used to say, my house is in my head,” he says.
He knows he will never be completely out of his father’s shadow and admits that there are people who want him to be her father. There’s always hope that he’ll make versions of Bob Marley songs at his live events, but that’s something he says he’s more than happy to do.
Sometimes he tours where he only sings his father’s songs.
He has no favorites, but Redemption Song stands out as the one closest to his heart. It’s a song that was played a lot when her father died, she says, and it meant a lot to so many people.
“It brings a lot of emotional connection to me.”
The Bob Marley One Love Experience is at the Saatchi Gallery in London from February 2 to April 18
