Ziggy Marley is keeping his mindset grounded while staying focused on the positive.
In this episode of Billboard‘s Take Us Out, Ziggy Marley sits down with host Tetris Kelly at Crossroads, a laid back vegan spot in Los Angeles, for a conversation over food. During the meal, they get into Marley’s upcoming album, his love for vinyl, and the importance of being open in his music. Since Marley chose a vegan restaurant, Kelly kicks things off by asking how long he has followed that lifestyle.
“I’m only vegan part time,” Marley says with a laugh. “I’m healthy all the time, but I’m vegan part time.”
After clearing that up, the conversation shifts into music. Marley is choosing a different path for his new album, Brightside. The project will first arrive only in physical form on Record Store Day, April 18, and will not hit digital platforms until May 1. He explains that this decision comes from his early experiences growing up around music, especially alongside his father, the late icon Bob Marley.
“I grew up around seeing records being manufactured, vinyl from the conception to the final product,” Marley explains. “That process and the quality and the discipline that is behind it. So I wanted to kind of push this record in that way.”
He adds that this approach stands in contrast to how music is often made today. In his view, the process has become faster, easier, and more disposable. With Brightside, he wanted to take his time and create it “the slow way.”
Kelly then asks Marley, who is known for collecting vinyl, about the most meaningful record in his personal collection.
“The most important vinyl is the first vinyl I bought,” Marley says before naming a record that many collectors started with, Thriller. “The first time I had my own money, then I was like, ‘Yeah, man, I’m going to the record store and buy a record.'”
From there, the discussion moves into the themes behind Brightside, which Marley describes as his most personal project so far. He talks about wanting to be fully honest in the music and what pushed him to write these songs. Part of that inspiration came while working on the set of his father’s 2024 biopic, Bob Marley: One Love, which he helped produce.
“[I was] also getting some sparks of creativity, you know, being on a movie set,” Marley says. He explains that the songs came together over time, though there was one particular day when he paused and reflected on why some of the music felt heavier emotionally.
“One day I was really feeling like s–t and I was like, ‘Why do I let the world trouble me?'” he shares. “The state of the world is oppressive. And that is the battle really. The battle is how we free our mind from that oppression.”
To hear Marley speak more about the creation of Brightside, his go to vegan meals at a well known Los Angeles spot, and even his thoughts on F1, check out the full Take Us Out episode above.
