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Ziggy Marley says his Grammy Awards have never been something he allowed himself to want too badly, even after building one of the most decorated careers in Reggae music.
Asked in a recent interview where he keeps his Grammys, the Jamaican singer said the trophies were not always treated as carefully as people might expect.
“You know, I never used to keep my Grammy. I never even know where my Grammys were,” Marley told the Zach Sang Show. “Until my wife started organizing my things.”
He said his wife, Orly Marley, whom he has been with for 20 years, eventually had to contact the Recording Academy to replace at least one missing award.
“She had to call them back and say, ‘Hey, we lost this Grammy. Let’s get a replacement,’” he said, adding that, at least at the time, replacement trophies could be requested. “Back in those days, I don’t know [about] now.”
Ziggy Marley and Orly Marley
Marley has won nine Grammy Awards from 16 nominations, including eight wins for Best Reggae Album — second only to his brother Stephen Marley, who has nine wins in that category. But Ziggy said he never gave the awards that kind of emotional weight.
“Never care about it. I didn’t care about it then,” he said. “I know a lot of good people within the Grammys, but you can’t put too much of your feelings into that.”
He added: “If you don’t get it, it’s like, ‘Oh, I didn’t get it. Oh my God.’ No, you can’t want that stuff too much.”
In another interview, during a recent Entertainment Tonight home tour, Marley showed a row of Grammys and other awards lined up above a fireplace.
When the interviewer remarked that it was “a lot of Grammys,” Marley replied: “I mean, it is a lot when you see them like that, right?”
Ziggy Marley’s nine Grammy Awards (Entertainment Tonight)
Pointing to the display, he noted an Emmy and another award he said he liked because they came from outside his usual lane. “That one I like because it’s outside of the box of where I usually get awards from,” he said.
He also pointed to his Grammy for Family Time, which won Best Musical Album for Children in 2010. “You know which one I really like? The children’s album one,” Marley said. “I like being out of the category. I like doing stuff out of the box.”
Marley also pointed to the Grammy tied to Bob Marley: One Love – Music Inspired by the Film (Deluxe), which won Best Reggae Album in 2025. He served as executive producer on the project alongside Cedella Marley and Stephen Marley.
His Grammy run began with Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, the group he formed with his siblings Sharon, Cedella, and Stephen. Their 15-year recording career produced ten albums, including Conscious Party in 1988, One Bright Day in 1989, and Fallen Is Babylon in 1997. Those projects earned three Best Reggae Album Grammys.
His solo career followed in the 2000s with Dragonfly in 2003. He later won Best Reggae Album for Love Is My Religion, Fly Rasta, Ziggy Marley, and the live set Ziggy Marley In Concert.
During the Zach Sang Show interview, Marley also discussed his latest album, Bright Side, which he described as a record made out of personal need, not just a public message.
“Because I needed a bright side,” he said of the title. “Everybody need a bright side. Everybody need to know there’s a bright side because all we know is the other side.”
He said the project was tied to what he was “feeling and going through” while writing the songs.
“I had to reaffirm to myself that there is a bright side,” Marley said.
The album also arrives nearly 20 years after Love Is My Religion, a project Marley described in the interview as a personal milestone because it gave language to his beliefs. “That was a milestone in my life,” he said. “Because of that song, that is when I could articulate my belief.”
English (US) ·