How Ziggy Marley's New Album “Brightside” Helped Him Express Things He 'Never Felt Brave Enough' to Say Before (Exclusive)
How Ziggy Marley's New Album “Brightside” Helped Him Express Things He 'Never Felt Brave Enough' to Say Before (Exclusive)
Rachel DeSantisFri, May 1, 2026 at 2:30 PM UTC
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Ziggy MarleyCredit: Zach Weinberg -
Ziggy Marley's new album Brightside explores mental health and features his first song written for his father, Bob Marley
He recorded the album in a meditation-friendly frequency and says it helped him process personal struggles
The Grammy-winning singer will embark on a tour in support of the album in June
Ziggy Marley has been making music for nearly 50 years. The eldest son of reggae legend Bob Marley and his wife Rita, music was practically in his DNA. With the release of his new record Brightside (out as a Record Store Day vinyl now and streaming May 1), he's put out nine studio albums and won nine Grammy Awards.
But something Marley, 57, hadn't done yet was write a song for his father, who died in 1981 when the young Marley was just 12. That changed with Brightside.
"I'm in that state of my journey now where I think I'm mature enough to understand and empathize with my father's journey in a way that I wasn't before," he says of the song, titled “Many Mourn for Bob." "It's about me understanding my father as my father, but as a human being, too, and someone who went through a lot that's sometimes covered up with the limelight of his popularity and his legend."
"Many Mourn for Bob" isn't the only song on Marley's new record that comes from a deeply personal place. In fact, much of Brightside revolves around mental health, and how Marley has made it through some of the darker times of his life.
He produced the album with his brother Stephen and recorded it in 432 Hz, a soothing sonic frequency regularly used for meditation and other mindful practices.
"I'm not just saying this, but… I listen to this record as if I didn't make it. I've never done that with any of my other records before, just like, enjoy the record," he says. "I've explored the frequency things over the years, and finally I decided to just try it. I do feel, for me personally, it connects with me more for some reason. That's all I know about it, is that it just feels great."
Ziggy Marley's 'Brightside' albumCredit: Courtesy Tuff Gong
Here, the singer-songwriter — who will kick off a tour in support of Brightside in June — opens up about using music as therapy, his 21-year marriage with wife Orly and his famous father.
PEOPLE: The lyrics to Brightside focus a lot on mental health. I think specifically within reggae music there's a stereotype that's like, "Island living, happy all the time." How do you grapple with the expectations of what a reggae artist should feel like with real life, which is not always sunshine?
ZIGGY MARLEY: I grew up with that kind of expectation. I've never felt brave enough or strong enough or free enough to express the things I've expressed in this record, in an artistic way. I think I've just matured, and I really just don't care that much about what anyone else says right now. This was therapy for me. A lot of the songs, these are things I've been going through. It really helped me out of that funky place where you just feel down. With these songs, I was able to acknowledge it, express it, but also find a path out of it, find the light, find the bright side in things, which is what I think my life is like. That's how I got out of the emotional and mental stresses that I was in, is just kind of realizing there's always another side.
Ziggy MarleyCredit: Zach Weinberg
PEOPLE: When did you first realize that mental health was actually something you could talk about? How were you taught to deal with your emotions as a child?
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MARLEY: We grew up to be tough. My family was never one that was like, "I love you so much," and we never spoke about love. We never grew up feeling that it was okay to feel weak or feel vulnerable. We always had to be tough, and we never grew up in understanding that the mental health side of life is a part of life. You're not going to be happy every day of your life. We never grew up understanding that. So when I started feeling how I was feeling, it was difficult, because nobody taught me the way out of that. I never had the tools to really understand how to deal with it when I realized what it was. The songs I've been writing helped me to express it outwardly to myself first. I didn't hide it from myself. I didn't sugarcoat it. I think that's the first step in dealing with it. Yes, it's real.
PEOPLE: These are really personal songs. Have you played them for your wife and kids? Did they know what you were dealing with? [Marley married his wife Orly in 2004, and they share daughter Judah, 20, and sons Gideon, 19, Abraham, 15, and Isaiah, 10. He's also dad to son Bambaata, 36, and daughters Justice, 34, and Zuri, 30, from previous relationships.]
MARLEY: My wife knows a lot. She sees me. She understands the stuff I was going through. My kids, they like this album too, actually. My youngest, he sings all the songs. I don't let them know the deeper things [but] it connects with them in a very special way, which is different than my other records.
Ziggy Marley and his wife Orly in Los Angeles in Feburary 2025.Credit: Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty
PEOPLE: "Many Mourn for Bob" is the first song you've written for your father. How did you get to a place of understanding him better, to the point where you felt comfortable writing about him?
MARLEY: At one point in his life, he realized that... His life is not for him, it's for the people. And it's in the song. So that realization is a very heavy thing for somebody to go through. It's great, but for me, his family, for him, it's a kind of sadness, too. It's a melancholy to know that my life might not be as long as I want my life to be. And so being on the movie, I had to do a lot of research and read and kind of try to see him in a different light, and look at him in a different light than I ever did before, because I was endeavoring to go deeper into who he was and what he went through as a person, rather than how Bob Marley became the big superstar that he is today. That helped to inspire my train of thought about him. The film kind of helped to open up memories and all the stuff that, as a child, I heard and saw.
PEOPLE: You've been married to your wife for over 20 years. What have you learned about love in that time?
MARLEY: Love is powerful. My wife is a blessing to me. Meeting her was one of those things that just fell into place, from the get-go. It was meant to be. It was written. When I met my wife, I left the safety of my family and where I come from and all of that. And I came to Los Angeles, which was like a new crazy world that I've never seen before, and different types of people, but it helped open my mind, and helped me understand humanity even better than if I just stayed in my little circles. So everything worked out for the right reason. Marriage is great, but love is the foundation that makes things last. If I wasn't married, we would still be loving each other forever. It's very spiritual. It's not superficial. It goes very deep.
Bob Marley in Kingston, Jamaica in July 1979.Credit: Charlie Steiner - Hwy 67 Revisited/Getty
PEOPLE: You two work closely on your U.R.G.E. Foundation, which you founded in 2007. Why is giving back important to you?
MARLEY: It's just who we are. I was born in Trenchtown [a neighborhood in Jamaica]. My father, my family, never had a lot when I was born, but eventually, as his career grew and his business grew, we moved through different classes of our society. We were middle class, new class, then having this Bob Marley thing, we were rich, but we never forgot where we came from. And the example of that is what my parents said, was that we always went back to where we come from, and we always helped the people who didn't make it out like we did. That's the example, so we just continue that. We really focus on kids. I just did a show in Hawaii yesterday, and we did it to raise money for the community center in Honolulu, to build a library for the children. It's a blessing to give.
PEOPLE: What's next for you?
MARLEY: This [album] is definitely a big step for me as a musician too. It's a great place for me. I really like where I am right now. [But] I want to start doing stuff in the visual space more. I did this video for "Racism Is a Killa." We had so much fun making that video. It was like I was exploring, like it's a new street. I found a new avenue that I really want to go down and explore. So "Racism Is a Killa" video is my first ticket into the waters of trying to make a film or TV stuff. I'm looking forward to that. It's going to be exciting for me.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
