S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on today's show. Ziggy Marley joins me to talk about freedom and his new children's book , pajamas. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. You know , music has a unique ability to tell stories. You know , the stories that connect , soothe and inspire us. One great example is Bob Marley's 1977 song Jammin.
S2: Name of the Lord.
S3: We're jammin.
S1: The lyrics really celebrate togetherness , community , peace and mutual respect. The iconic song is also the inspiration behind a new children's book by Ziggy Marley , Bob Marley's eldest son. It's called Jammin. Ziggy Marley is a nine time Grammy winner , Emmy winner , musician , producer , humanitarian and author. He'll also be a headliner at the inaugural KPBS Book Festival on Saturday , August 23rd. He joins me now. Ziggy , welcome to Midday Edition. Yeah.
S4: Yeah. Nice to be here with you.
S1: I can't complain , and so glad to have you here. You know , first tell me about pajamas. And it's about , you know , a family pajama party. Um , tell me about that. Yeah.
S5: Yeah. I mean , it's like it's about my family. You know , my my immediate family of , um. When I started writing this ad for young kids , and we we used to communicate through , through song , through , um , making up my little jingles here and there to get into do stuff , whether it's if they're going to brush their teeth or if they have dinner time. We usually I usually communicate with them through song or , you know , make up a little rhyme or something. So pajama is , you know , it's just it's about how we communicate with our children. And , you know , the book is based upon my father's song jamming. Um , in terms of the energy and the vibe and the melody of the idea. But yeah , it's just a way of communicating , you know , some some things to the kids. Really. Wow.
S1: Wow. Well , okay.
S5: Um , my other one is 14 , and we have two. What about 18 year olds just went to college like yesterday. Congratulations.
S1: Congratulations. Yeah.
S5: Yeah. Another one in college. And I'm too old. All. All the kids , you know. Yeah. Wow.
S1: Wow. I mean , you know , even though this book is about a family pajama party , and , you know , when we think of it , we're thinking of very small children. Um , it's something that you really carry on even as your kids grow up and get older. It's that that connection , right is important. Yeah.
S5: Yeah. My next question , I mean , the connection where we're bringing everyone kind of back to the childhood state of mind , where no matter how old you get , you're still my child and I'm still your parent , and we always can dial down the , the , the , um , the adult world , you know , and bring it back to that in a sense of when you were a child. You know , when I was a child , being a child , you know , it's just a it's a great time in our lives , in their lives. And , you know , we always can bring it back to that , you know , as a family , you know , even if it's just for fun , you know.
S1: Yeah , absolutely. I mean , you know , so throughout the story , you really weave in lyrics from that iconic song we just heard , jam.
S5: We make up stuff. We we adlib stuff , you know ? So it's not it's just a part of who we are and what we do. We like having fun. We like making fun , and music is a part of our life , and we have fun with music. And so with. With songs of my father. We are we always like , you know , try and for related to our everyday life and spin it in that way. And so this is one that we will spin it , you know , spin the fiber of his spirit into his grandchildren , you know , in a very fun way. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. I'd love to hear some of the story , uh , in your own voice.
S5: I read a few lines. Of course I love reading. Yeah. All right , so here we go. This is from the first couple of pages , right. It started in the day , way before sleepy time. The excitement was building for a very jamming filled occasion. The plans were made. The invite sent today is here and tonight is next. The perfect time to do this thing. It's an old tradition , Benjamin , you know. So that's. Yeah.
S1: I love that. I love it creating those family traditions. It's so important. Um , you know , illustrations are such a huge part of children's books , too. And these illustrations , they're bright and and colorful , almost whimsical , like a kid's imagination. Leticia moreno did the illustrations. What was it like to bring the images to life with her ? Yeah.
S5: I mean , I just say images , colors , especially for kids. You know , I'm very important. It's a full the full spectrum of of of their , um , how they how they receive information. It's it's it's not just one way. It's in colors. It's in words , it's in sound. And so , um , you know , it's a back and forth. It's a , it's a collaborative , um , process. Um , you know , she sent us art to say , I try this , do this , do that. Um , and we just that's how we work. Most of the stuff we do is collaborative. And so we just try come to a thing where it just feels good , because sometimes it's about how it looks. But a lot of times how it feels when you look at it , how you feel when you look at something. It's how we kind of judge things. We really use a lot of heart and a lot of feeling , um , to also interpret things and not just how we see it , but how we feel it , you know. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. That's right. Well , you know , was reading and storytelling a big part of your own childhood growing up. Yeah.
S5: Yeah. Well the reading you know I was not so much about storytelling. Um , because you know , I grew up in Jamaica and we have a lot of folktales in Jamaica that we were told. There's this one famous , um , character called Anansi , which is actually it's , uh , it's coming from West Africa and our heritage in Africa. Mhm. Um , so we used to hear stories about Anansi all the time , and we used to hear a lot of , uh , we call them duppy , but it's ghost stories as kids. Um , our , our grandson would tell us , like , these dope stories , these ghost stories that scare about fun still , you know. Um , and so it's really a world that we grew up with , hearing stories. And so it's always been a part of my life. And music tells stories. My father music is storytelling also , so it's a big part of our life.
S1:
S5: Just like this side of me. That's not so heavy. You know , that's not so adult and and and and not be self-conscious about it. You know , like , you know , we can we can be we can be children. We I can be a child again and not worry about what some other might say about , you know , what they read or what I sing. Um , and I'm actually I'm really like that for real. Like , I have a strong imagination. I've had one since I was a child. You know , I could , I could , I could make up my own games and play in the , in the bushes or use a chair as an airplane. I remember growing up doing that stuff. So I'm very imaginative and I've always been and I've never lost that. I've never lost that imagination and that we have , like kind of escaping the world in my mind , you know , finding a way to do it , you know. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. It's important not to lose that , that part of yourself , you know , that imaginative part , that childlike part. But so many people do.
S5: I mean , listen , it's a lot of love. I mean , you have a really open mind and really a lot of love in your heart for really accept yourself. Accept yourself. You know , all the different facets of who you are. And just be real with yourself , you know , be true to yourself. Really , that's what it is because we all have that in us. But sometimes we try and hide it or try and try to put our fears , and sometimes the world or the situation or the differences we have in culture and all these things , makes us put on a the facade of who we are. We feel like we have to be a certain way. But , you know , I mean , the real thing is to just be real and true to yourself. I think that is the best way. And not like you don't have to be this , this adult idea that society puts on you. You know , you have to be this. You have to do this. You have to be very you know , you don't have to be that way. You can just be true to who you are. You know , society kind of tries to , um , form us in what they want , what society expects us to be. But we have a bit more free than that. And I think that's what is really being a free spirit. And I own my heart. I won't mind it. Person , you know , you can get there by that way. You know , just let go. Just let it go. You know.
S1: That's great advice. Uh , yeah.
S5: It was. Nothing really happened. Yeah. So I think it's going to happen again. I don't know when , but , you know , I know it's going to happen again because I love doing it and I enjoyed doing it. I enjoyed it for my kids and for other kids. And it's just and for me , it's so beneficial. It's like it's a relief of the stress of the world , really , for right for children and the music for children. It's a break from the world of adulthood stress , you know ? Yeah.
S1: It's staying true to you. Yeah.
S5: And again , I will put the outside noise away because there are a lot of noise outside in the world , you know. Mhm. And just get together as a family really. I mean that's what I will. It's just like lock off the noise of the outside world for a second and let's be a family and let's get back together and share and love and just sometimes do things that way. It's me breaking the rules in the house. But it's fun at the same time , you know ? So freedom. Really. I want kids and parents have a little freedom , and then we can get back to. Okay , you got to go to , um , you got you got classes , you got tutoring , you got soccer , you got this. You got that. Kids are so busy these days. Kids are so busy these days. So much pressure on kids. This is let's take some pressure off the kids , you know , and have some fun. You know.
S1: That's a great reminder and message , uh , for people to receive. I've been speaking with Ziggy Marley. Ziggy Marley is a nine time Grammy winner , Emmy winner , musician , producer , humanitarian and author. He'll also be a headliner at the inaugural KPBS Book Festival on Saturday , August 23rd. Ziggy , thank you so much.
S5: Thank you guys. Thank you for everything you guys do also , you know , respect that. Yeah.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
