Title: Ziggy Marley to re-release 'Love Is My Religion'

Excerpt: Marley told The Gleaner that "this was the first exclusive deal with Target. With the re-release the album will be more accessible to the public. We completely revamped the album, different technical things which make it kind of different. We also added three new tracks which mi really like. Dem lively and energetic. I've never done a more popular cover of my father's song (Jammin'); hopefully that will attract more people to the album".

Excerpt: The re-release of the album is but one of many new projects Marley will be doing for the Christmas and the New Year. Ziggy is also looking to release a live DVD, in early 2008. The DVD was recorded at Los Angeles' Avalon during the 2006 Love Is My Religion world tour.

Excerpt: "In February, there will be no doubt I will be coming home. It's been a long time and I'm excited. I'm coming to do something centred around Africa Unite in February, which is my father's birthday. Mi and mi brothers been talking about doing a Marley brother record. That's the next t'ing we doing together, with a whole tour," he said.

Title: Ziggy Marley rocks

Excerpt: Love is the message Ziggy Marley wants to send with his album, "Love is My Religion."

"It's not more complicated than that," he said.

A loving and peaceful vibe drifted through the crowd as Marley spread his religion of love in the Bell Memorial Union Auditorium on Thursday. A crowd made up of the young and old swayed together as Marley jammed to his newest songs and some old favorites.

Excerpt: He warns young and up-and-coming musicians who are on the path to create real art and express themselves that creatively is a long road.

"It's a harder road, but if you're a true artist, it's the one you have to take," he said. "It's the road of a rebel, the road of an adventurer, the road of a searcher who might not appreciated at the time."

As for everyone else, "My advice to people is don't ever stop traveling 'cause life is a journey."

Title: Ziggy Marley charts his own course

Excerpt: Marley says his struggle is "spiritual," unlike the "physical" striving embodied in the protest anthems that gave hope to the downtrodden and made an international superstar of his late father, who died in 1981.

Excerpt: "The solution for mankind is of a spiritual nature. It is not a political or religious solution. It's the ability to love each other. That's the only solution I see."

Excerpt: "We were talking about changes in Africa," Marley recalls. "We were asking, 'Is it possible for you to change millions of people on the physical level? Or is the mission more to sing music so people can look into themselves?' I was about changing things, but things weren't changing, not at the rate they should."

Excerpt: "They were lessons I learned from my father," says Marley. "He was an entrepreneur. He was a good businessman. He started the Tuff Gong record label and record stores in Jamaica. There were always rumors of him wanting to own his own music, so the idea was always in my subconscious. When I had the opportunity, I did it."

Title: Son of Bob

Excerpt: You won a Grammy Award for this album in America…
Yes. This is my fourth Grammy, but my first as a solo artist. The greatest thing about winning it is getting more promotion for the message. It was worth winning it for the statement Love Is My Religion to be mentioned everywhere.

Excerpt: So what’s an average day in the life of Ziggy Marley like then…?
Haha! Ziggy don’t have average days man! But when I’m not touring or working on the music I wake up, go for a run, make some cornmeal porridge, drink lots of water, play some football and watch some TV. I watch a lot of news, I like to keep informed about what’s going on. I’ll read some magazines, play some music and watch some movies.

Excerpt: Anything else you’d like to say to our readers?
Love. Love is the message…

Excerpt: Download PDF of LeftLion Magazine: http://www.leftlion.co.uk/issue17/leftlion_issue_17_web.pdf

Title: Ziggy Marley Debuts on PodShow

Excerpt: Ziggy Marley has released the
single "Into the Groove" from his second solo album Love is My Religion, on
the Podsafe Music Network (PMN), supporting the release with a rare,
in-depth interview with PodShow power couple, Dawn and Drew. With this
release on the PMN, Marley is enabling thousands of podcasters to play the
track on their shows for free, supporting the free licensing of music to
the podcasting community and creating millions of 'spins' with audiences
around the globe.

Excerpt: "Ziggy is a rare combination of musical talent and industry vision,"
said PodShow CEO and Co founder Ron Bloom. "He is one of a new breed of
artists who are blazing a trail and finding innovative ways to reach their
fans and new audiences outside the traditional label system. Producers and
fans love having him on the SHOW!"

Excerpt: "Ziggy's interview with Dawn and Drew adds an extra element to his
music," added Adam Curry, President and Co founder of PodShow. "Releasing
his material to be shared by podcasters with audiences worldwide is a huge
endorsement for our Network. I am very appreciative of Dawn and Drew, as
well as the Marley family for adding their magic to PodShow and the PMN."

Title: Ziggy Marley Musician

Excerpt: ZM) Yeah, that's why music is my religion. It's a higher standard, not just an everyday thing. Sometimes it's easy and sometimes it's not easy. A lot of times songs aren't written and you have to write them, but sometimes they're already written and they just come to you.

Excerpt: ZM) Hey, I don't even know why the world would pull away from love, I don't know why that happened. Love is my religion and that's what we need, to have an awakening of love.

Excerpt: ZM) Yeah, it's like: you don't condemn, I don't convert. It's a calling. And I don't need to worry about converting them. All I need to do is love. If they follow my example of love, then they will reach the place that I am at. This is the way of peace, of no problems, to realize that we won't need to fight wars.

Title: Ziggy talks

Excerpt: “Seek love,” he said in a May 3 phone interview with the Santa Maria Times.

“If you’re seeking spirituality, if you’re seeking God, or even if you don’t believe in God,” he said. “Love is the answer to the problems. It’s very simple.”

Excerpt: Marley believes his natural instinct toward love and peace has evolved over time, “because of my spiritual search,” he explained.

“I’m searching for the truth all of the time,” he said. “I have to know for myself.”

He believes that by opening his mind to new ideas, he gains knowledge, which eventually leads to the truth.

“Let me look and see,” he said. “Just enough to let the truth come in.”

Title: Bob Marley's oldest son is on a different mission

Excerpt: Marley says his struggle is “spiritual,” unlike the “physical” striving embodied in the protest anthems that gave hope to the downtrodden and made an international superstar of his late father, who died in 1981.

“That generation that had that fight made a good fight,” says the 38-year-old singer-songwriter and keyboardist, who as a child often sang and danced with his father on stage. “But that time for physical struggle is now changing into a spiritual struggle. That is where I am.

“The solution for mankind is of a spiritual nature. It is not a political or religious solution. It’s the ability to love each other. That’s the only solution I see.”

Excerpt: “When it came out, it was like it completed the album,” he says. “It kind of put its arms around the other songs and gave them a big hug, like `We are one. We are all together here.’”

On it, Marley sings, “I don’t condemn, I don’t convert ... I don’t want to fight,” sentiments that might make more militant reggae fans blanche, especially coming from Bob Marley’s son.

Excerpt: Though purists may carp about Marley’s attitude toward his father’s legacy, he draws inspiration from dad in a way that may surprise them - Marley recorded and produced “Love is My Religion” independently, and negotiated an exclusive yearlong distribution deal with Target.

“They were lessons I learned from my father,” says Marley. “He was an entrepreneur. He was a good businessman. He started the Tuff Gong record label and record stores in Jamaica. There were always rumors of him wanting to own his own music, so the idea was always in my subconscious. When I had the opportunity, I did it.”

Title: Where's the love?

Excerpt: The affable and deeply spiritual son of Bob — the father of Jamaican reggae — was, at one point in his life, considering a profession in the medical world.

"I wanted to be a doctor, so I studied a lot of biology," Marley said. But it was when his mother, Rita, and father brought him and his siblings into the studio in 1979 that his focus changed.

Excerpt: "Music is a powerful tool and reggae is very strongly related to the vibrations within human beings as they connect with the vibrations within the Earth," Marley said.

Excerpt: Trying to spread a message of hope, love and peace in this day and age through reggae is something that Ziggy finds difficult, he said many people are "jaded" by the political systems. His music is not about social or political change so much as it is about the human condition, when he sings in "Still the Storms," "vengeance is no glory, hate is no pay, truth is my call and peace is my way."

Excerpt: "There can be no political solution" to the problems of hate in this world today that will be permanent without love, Marley said. "If we don't find a way to love each other, social change will never last."

Title: Ziggy retreats from Target

Excerpt: "Right now, we in the process of speaking with different companies to distribute it on a wider basis," he told the Observer.
"We still a work out the deal; we have a few interested parties. But the Target ting, it was a adventure," he added with a smile.
Just not one he wants to repeat.

Excerpt: "I wouldn't do it again because it limited the exposure to only people who went to Target, yuh nuh. So, I mean, I learn a lesson," he admitted.
Not only had he learned a valuable lesson, he said, but he had also made history.
"It was the first time that had been done in the history a music, so it play a part in history," he said, "but I wouldn't do it that way again."

Title: Ziggy Marley was here

Excerpt: Like his father, Ziggy has imbued his works with reflective lyrics, writing about slavery, spirituality and other subjects in his latest release.

Excerpt: How important is it for you to write songs that have not-so-typical messages? See, I don't sit and think about writing; I don't say, 'I need to write a song that's gonna be a message.' It's stuff that comes to me, you know what I mean? It's inspired work. I guess it is important, wherever that is coming from, that it comes through me. I don't think about it too much.

Title: Night of Reggae

Excerpt: Grammy Award-winning artist Ziggy Marley ignited the reggae flame at Beijing's Star Live House on Monday night. Reggae's favorite son began his performance with the classic, Shalom Salaam.

Excerpt: Hundreds of fans, mostly expats in Beijing, packed the hall and swayed to Ziggy's rhythm. Ziggy will wrap up his first China tour at the Shanghai Yun Feng Theater tonight.

Title: Reggae's favorite son in concert

Excerpt: Reggae's favorite son, four-time Grammy winner, Ziggy Marley, will make his Chinese mainland debut in Beijing and Shanghai next week. The one-night-only Shanghai concert will be next Tuesday at the Yunfeng Theater in the center of the city.

Excerpt: "I am very curious about China as a great nation in the history of Earth," said the Grammy winner in an earlier interview. "I would love to visit the Shaolin Temple - I want to study some Chinese martial arts. I want to experience some of the culture."

Excerpt: "Love" is exactly the message Marley wants to deliver to China and his fans here, since "what more can you ask for? What more can you give?" he asked.

Title: One-On-One with Grammy Winner Ziggy Marley

Excerpt: "The other times I was part of a big record company. This time I own my own record company. I own my own music, it's 100-percent mine, so that make it kind of special," Marley, the eldest son of Rita Marley and late reggae legend, Robert Nesta Marley, told HBN in a recent one-on-one interview in the aftermath of his coveted win.

Excerpt: The album itself delivers a "message of freedom, freedom to love."

"Really, freedom to open up one's self to love, to give love and to be loved," Marley stated empathically. "Love is not some sort of weakness you know, love is strength."

And the singer acknowledged that oftentimes, "We as human beings, we get tight and closed, so we trying fi open up people's mind and dem consciousness and dem heart without feeling stupid."

Excerpt: Looking ahead, the talented musician and songwriter said it will not be business as usual. "I want to try and expose more Caribbean music through this label but I want to do it in a way where it has significance for history, for the future generations," he revealed to HBN

And he hopes his music will contribute to keeping track of the history of the Caribbean and its people. "I don't think we keep good history, we don't teach history to our children enough. Music is one way we can do that for future generations," added Marley, formerly of Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers.

Title: Ziggy Marley - musician, messenger

Excerpt: More than a musician, Ziggy Marley is a messenger, delivering love to the youth across the world. Carrying on his father's universal message of peace, love and empowerment, Marley won over the Grammys at the 49th ceremony in Los Angeles, nabbing his fourth win in the Best Reggae Album category for Love is My Religion.

Excerpt: Marley, who was in the studio during the ceremony, described the album as "a burning in him that needed to be released".

"Di future album is a follow up to this. You'll see a likkle more ... mi face gonna more frowned. Two faced on the next album, let's put it dat way. I tink it might be more stern, sometimes children need more discipline. Dis one is about love, the concept of love, if dem learn di message, dem gonna haffi feel it."

Excerpt: For Marley, winning the Grammy is an acknowledgement that self-reliance is worth it. "Dere was no big company behind it. Mi feel good to achieve it cause there was no big help behind it. Mi like the concept, Marcus Garvey concept, we being dependent on ourselves," he commented.

"Entrepreneurs owning di music, that was one of my father's dream so we haffi live up to dat. We hope di sales pick up but it's about di message. That's why I do di music. We still haffi do di hard work, like right now we ready to go China. But we can't depend on selling records, but if that's what we're willing to do to get the message out, that's my ministry," he claimed.

Title: Reggae star wins fourth award

Excerpt: The eldest son of icon, Bob Marley, proved his mettle when he beat four other nominees to take the Best Reggae Album award at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards which honoured the music industry's finest at the Staples Center in Los Angeles last night.

Excerpt: The now four-time winner told The Gleaner recently that the album holds special meaning.

"This record is the first independent record that I own fully and growing up that was a dream of my father because record companies always take a big chunk," he said.

Title: Despite chaos, love is Marley's religion

Excerpt: "I wasn't thinking too much of making an album at the time this album started taking shape," Marley said by phone from Los Angeles. "I was just writing songs about love. And then I thought about the words and realized that love is my religion. And that's where the album's title came up."
Marley said that title is his answer to the turmoil in the global community, with unrest in the Middle East and nuclear testing in North Korea. "With the state of the world being as it is, with people fighting and citing religion as their cause, I thought about how negative religion is becoming. So my purpose of the album was trying to get back to religion that focuses on unity and love."