40 Fun Facts About Ziggy Marley

Ziggy Marley said in 1988 that the nickname Ziggy came from an album by which British rock star?

David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust album was the inspiration, Marley said, though the nickname is often credited to his father. An earlier stage name, Freddie Dic, never stuck.

In the 2004 animated film Shark Tale, Ziggy Marley voices Ernie, who is what kind of sea creature?

A jellyfish, Ernie is one of two Jamaican enforcers who zap anyone who crosses their boss, Sykes. His partner Bernie is voiced by Doug E. Doug.

Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers sang the theme for which PBS children's cartoon launched in 1996?

Arthur opened with the group's reggae-style tune Believe in Yourself. The show ran for 25 seasons, so the song stayed on air long after the band itself had split.

Which Hollywood actor sings with Ziggy Marley on the title track of the 2011 album Wild and Free?

Woody Harrelson also co-wrote the song, which was given away free to fans who pre-ordered Marley's first comic book.

Which British rock guitarist plays lead on Lee and Molly from Ziggy Marley's album Conscious Party?

Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones lent his guitar to the 1988 album that made the Melody Makers stars: it climbed to number 23 on the Billboard 200.

Which brother of Ziggy Marley joined the Melody Makers alongside their sisters Sharon and Cedella?

Stephen often shared the songwriting and lead vocals with his older brother, and later won reggae Grammys of his own as a solo artist.

Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, producers of Ziggy Marley's Conscious Party, played in which new wave band?

Talking Heads' Tina Weymouth also sang backing vocals on the record, which went on to win the Grammy for best reggae recording.

Which actor played Bob Marley in the 2024 biopic that Ziggy Marley helped to produce?

Kingsley Ben-Adir worked under the family's eye: Ziggy, his mother Rita and his sister Cedella were all producers of the film.

Ziggy Marley's Rebellion Rises lost the 2019 reggae Grammy to 44/876, by Shaggy and which English rock star?

Sting and his Jamaican partner named the album after their home dialling codes: 44 for Britain and 876 for Jamaica.

Which country star sings with Ziggy Marley on This Train, from the children's album Family Time?

Willie Nelson is one of a crowd of guests on the 2009 record, which also features Jack Johnson and Toots Hibbert and won the Grammy for best children's album.

In the CBeebies cartoon 3rd & Bird, Ziggy Marley voices a singing Jamaican guide who is what kind of bird?

A parrot named Ziggy shows the Lovebird family around Jamaica when they fly there on holiday, in an episode Marley guest-starred in.

Which Jamaican dancehall star joined Ziggy Marley on a Bob Marley cover for the Shark Tale soundtrack?

Sean Paul and Marley share Three Little Birds, the track that opens the soundtrack album. Marley also has a voice role in the film itself.

In which poor Kingston neighbourhood, named in several Bob Marley songs, did Ziggy Marley grow up?

Trenchtown is where his father spent much of his own youth, in a government yard. The area now holds a culture yard museum that is a protected heritage site.

In which US state did Ziggy Marley spend part of his childhood while living in Wilmington?

Delaware was where his grandmother lived. His father had moved near her in the 1960s and worked for a time on a Chrysler assembly line.

Royalties from the Melody Makers' 1979 debut single, written by Ziggy Marley's father, were pledged to which body?

The United Nations received the money for its International Year of the Child. The four siblings' father had composed the song for them four years earlier.

Which 1988 single by Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers peaked at number 39 on the Billboard Hot 100?

Tomorrow People also climbed to number 16 on the Mainstream Rock chart, and it came from the Grammy-winning album Conscious Party.

After Bob Marley died in 1981, Ziggy Marley began performing in his father's place alongside which band?

The Wailers were hardly strangers to him: Ziggy had been sitting in on their recording sessions by the age of ten.

In 1984 Ziggy Marley toured with his father's old band to promote which Bob Marley hits compilation?

Legend, released that May, became the best-selling reggae album of all time, with an estimated 27 million copies sold around the world.

Which award did Ziggy Marley win in 2013 for I Love You Too, a song used in a CBeebies children's cartoon?

A Daytime Emmy for outstanding original song went to the tune, which Marley also turned into an illustrated children's book of the same name.

In a 2010 episode of the cartoon Wonder Pets!, Ziggy Marley voiced which Alice in Wonderland character?

The Cheshire Cat had starry company at the party: Aerosmith's Steven Tyler voiced the Mad Hatter and Idina Menzel the Queen of Hearts.

Which planet does Ziggy Marley sing about not wanting to live on in a song from the album Fly Rasta?

Mars is where nobody should have to move, the song argues. Its video shows Marley's own wife and children crossing an unhealthy Earth in a dream sequence.

Ziggy Marley recorded a special version of Personal Revolution for a Rotary International album fighting which disease?

Polio was the target of Rotary's 2012 compilation, and all of the proceeds went to the campaign to wipe the disease out.

On which long-running children's TV show has Ziggy Marley appeared both with and without the Melody Makers?

Sesame Street first welcomed him in the early 1990s with the family band, who sang a track from their album Jahmekya. He came back as a solo guest in 2009.

Flea and John Frusciante, guests on Ziggy Marley's first solo album, were members of which California rock band?

Red Hot Chili Peppers lent both players to the track Rainbow in the Sky, and the bassist stayed on for a second song, Melancholy Mood.

Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers recorded the reggae closing number Love Power for which 1996 family film?

Muppet Treasure Island ends with the song, and its music video put Marley alongside puppets sporting dreadlocks.

Which 2003 album, featuring the single True to Myself, was Ziggy Marley's first release as a solo artist?

Dragonfly arrived in April 2003, once the Melody Makers had wound down, and Marley wrote every one of its eleven songs himself.

On the 2014 album Fly Rasta, Ziggy Marley sings a love song comparing his partner to which artist?

Yoko Ono inspired the track You're My Yoko, which casts Marley as John Lennon. The Guardian's reviewer called it the only risk taken on the album.

Ziggy Marley campaigned to protect which reptiles living on Jamaica's Goat Islands?

Iguanas brought him together with the International Iguana Foundation, and he joined a California Science Center exhibit to publicise their plight.

Rita Marley, mother of Ziggy Marley, sang in which female vocal trio that backed Bob Marley on stage?

The I-Threes also featured Judy Mowatt and Marcia Griffiths, and the trio later served as an opening act on the Melody Makers' first tour.

Which label of his own, named after a Bob Marley nickname, released Ziggy Marley's 2014 album Fly Rasta?

Tuff Gong Worldwide has been his independent home since 2006. The original Tuff Gong label was formed by his father's group in 1970 and borrowed his father's nickname.

Ziggy Marley has a voice cameo as Lenny, a Jamaican shop owner, in which 2023 animated film?

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse gave him a small part almost two decades after his first animated film role, in Shark Tale.

Ziggy Marley is a guest singer on Corazón, a 2014 album by which guitarist's band?

Carlos Santana had Marley sing his own father's song Iron Lion Zion on the record, whose other guests include Gloria Estefan.

Which 1989 album gave Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers a second straight Grammy for best reggae recording?

One Bright Day reached number 26 on the Billboard 200 and kept the award in the family: Conscious Party had won it a year earlier.

Which 1997 album, released on Elektra, won Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers their third reggae Grammy?

Fallen Is Babylon was the family band's last Grammy winner: the group made one more studio album before its members went their own ways.

Which major label signed Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers in 1988, shortly before the album Conscious Party?

Virgin released Conscious Party and the three albums that followed it. Joy and Blues, in 1993, was the last one for the label before a move to Elektra.

Ziggy Marley guest-starred as a character named Bones in the sixth season of which rebooted TV crime drama?

Hawaii Five-0 cast him as Bones in a 2016 episode, in a season whose other guest stars included Carol Burnett as McGarrett's Aunt Deb.

Ziggy Marley co-wrote and sang on Crayons, the title track of a 2008 album by which disco star?

Donna Summer made Crayons her seventeenth and final studio album, and Marley shares the writing credit on its title track with her.

Which country singer recorded Love for Love City with Ziggy Marley for an album inspired by Hurricane Irma?

Kenny Chesney had lost a house of his own on Saint John to the storm, and proceeds from the album, Songs for the Saints, went to disaster relief.

Which 2006 album, the second of his solo career, won Ziggy Marley the Grammy for best reggae album?

Love Is My Religion came out on his own independent label, and it brought his fourth Grammy after three with the family band.

As a boy, Ziggy Marley appeared on stage at which 1978 event where his father joined two rival politicians' hands?

The One Love Peace Concert peaked when Bob Marley joined the hands of party leaders Michael Manley and Edward Seaga during the song Jamming.