It was as the Melody Makers—me, my brother Stephen and two sisters—in a concert in Jamaica that also had my father on the bill, in 1979. We just opened our mouths and expressed ourselves. When I look back, it’s kind of incredible the first show I did was a concert with Bob Marley.

Bob Marley wasn’t Bob Marley then. We didn’t have money, but we gave thanks because we weren’t starving. I remember one day I found a loaf of bread, a tomato and some sugar. I made a sandwich and it was the best sandwich I’d ever had. We played in the dirt, barefoot, used a toilet outside, no running water. I had no idea of any other life.

My father would bring me around the big-men stuff, and I’d hear what they were talking about, how they acted, playing sports or doing music or the religious thing. I picked up all that as a child.

The reggae tradition is the spirit of what we do. But playing roots music doesn’t mean it’s a thing from the past. Roots grow. I like AC/DC—I love the freedom of rock music. So I go back to my roots but into the future too.

—Ziggy Marley, 57

You have rosemary, you have basil and you have ganja. It’s just another herb we use when we need it.

A lot of my new songs deal with mental issues. The theme is accepting and facing our troubles—knowing there’s a way out of those problems. Sometimes the world gets you down, but in the end, it always comes out to the light. I believe the tuning frequency I used is a more healing frequency, more uplifting. If I could control musicians in the world, I would tell them to switch frequencies. Let’s have a mass experimentation! Start a revolution! —As told to Rob Tannenbaum

Los Angeles–based Ziggy Marley is a seven-time Grammy winner. Brightside, his new album, combines reggae, rock, funk and blues.