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GlobalGrind sat down with reggae sensation Ziggy Marley to talk about his new album “Wild & Free” which is in stores today, June 14th. For Marley, the album is entirely a work of self expression and features some revamped tracks from 20 years ago that he still feels strongly about.

Marley also has a comic book coming out titled “Marijuana Mann,” which follows a Superhero who derives his power from the plant itself. Ziggy doesn’t bite his tongue what o ever, as he talks about the forceful political structure in Third World countries, recreational marijuana and the harm of that pharmaceutical drugs.

Still a revolutionary, Ziggy Marley touches base on a lot of subjects he’s not afraid to get dirty with, so check out the interview below and go cop the album “Wild &Free”!

GlobalGrind: Can you tell us a litle more about “Wild & Free”?

Ziggy Marley: “Wild and Free” is my new album, it’s going to be out June 14th. It’s a reggae album, produced by Don Was and myself. It has a lot of different themes that run through the album, but I think something that I’m most concerned with enlightening people about is the use of cannabis being recreational. Not in medicinal purposes, but the industrial uses. So that’s why “Wild & Free” kind of sings about that topic. I think it’s very important that all the natural resources we have here on the earth should be put to use to benefit the people. This is one natural resource that is being neglected. I think it shouldn’t be neglected, I think it should be used. But the album has songs about revolution and materialism and my personal life. 

What’s your favorite song on the album?

My favorite song on the album is “Mmmm Mmmm.”

What do you love about “Mmmm Mmmm”?

It’s a spiritual song you know, close to my heart.

What does it talk about?

Well it talks about, for you to understand the concept of God. If you really know what it is. It talks about the person in me taking a vow in my spiritual journey, it’s a spiritual song.

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Who is God to you, what is your concept of God?

It’s still developing, the concept is an evolution as the more I go, the more I know, the more I learn and the more I understand what it is. But God is not an individual, God is bigger than individualism. I think God surrounds us, in all different manifestations of the energy. The name God is just a name anyway, really there’s no name for it, but I think the greatest expression of this concept is love and I think so far that is the best way to explain what this god is.

Your title track “Wild & Free” features Woody Harrelson, what was it like pairing up with him and what made you decide to get him on the track?

Woody is a friend of the family for many years and we share some ideas, environmentalist and spiritual tendencies, so it was just coincidence really. It wasn’t something that was planned. He was by the house and I was writing the song and I asked him to come sing. He started singing and it sounded good to me. So I said Woody you know, you wanna sing on the record? And he said yeah and then we just did it! So very coincidental, really.

Was the song was written in support of California’s prop 19 de-legalization of marijuana. Can you talk a little bit about that?

I mean, I decided to release the first version of that song during that time. I thought it was appropriate because I think with everything that’s out there in the world of drugs and medicines from pharmaceutical companies and the amount of other things people can legally consume that can hurt them. I think it is hypocritical that marijuana is not legal. With pharmaceutical drugs, some of the repercussions of taking pharmaceutical drugs is just as bad as the illness that you’re taking it for. A lot of kids, a lot of people, use pharmaceutical drugs to destroy themselves, but you can get that right. Alcohol, destructive too, tobacco, destructive, what’s the problem with marijuana you know? What’s your issue, it’s more or less destructive than many of those things that are already destroying people. In fact, it’s a much better alternative to a lot of those things if used properly, so I thought it was appropriate to use that song just to highlight it and the prop 19 thing was happening at the time and I just thought I should make my voice be heard about that subject.

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What is the song “Elizabeth” about?

“Elizabeth,” well that a song that was written more than 20 years ago actually. A metaphor, I guess. We come from Jamaica, we call it the Third World and we’ve had a lot of bad experience politically because of First World countries wanting to manipulate the political structure of Third world countries for their own benefit. So I think that’s where that song came from really. It was just from, as I say, it was written a long time ago. When I was younger, I was very revolutionary. Ideas were really tons of ideas in my head and that song kind of expressed just my feeling about the ideas of political systems that manipulate less fortunate countries and even religious systems that plead for money from people that are vulnerable, for their own benefit though, not necessarily for the benefit of the people, but for their own benefits. So I think that song addresses it in a satire or a metaphoric way.

What is “Marijuana Mann”?

It’s a comic, it’s a graphic novel, created by me and written by Joe Casey, with the art by an artist named Jim Mahfood. When I was real young I used to read a lot of comics and I’m still into comics. We just start out with this superhero who gets his power from the plant, marijuana but not in a stereotypical way. When I mention this most people laugh, but we don’t follow the stereotypical idea of what people think Marijuana Mann should be and he is already a superhero. It’s not like a silly comedy; it’s not a Chi-Chong Chong, or any of those types of things. He’s a superhero, he just gets his power from the plant and it’s a way to educate people and put the plant in a different light and to express yourself in a different medium rather than music. There are a lot of ways one expresses himself and so the comic book is just another way for that. And also try to educate people.

So is it safe to say it’s an adult comic, or who’s your target audience for consumers of this comic?

Teenager comic. I mean the only thing in it that would probably not be appropriate is some of the sexual stuff. It’s not lewd, but it’s very sexy, some of the stuff in it. For me, it has some smoking in it, but I mean a lot of comic books have so much violence to it so, it’s violence appropriate for children. It’s all over, the kids are exposing so much these days, it’s up to, I guess the parents, for they decide if the kids can’t read it. But it’s not as bad as other things out there. It’s not that bad.