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Ziggy Marley on Bob: ‘People love my father – but he had violent tendencies, he was a fighter’

The reggae legend’s son hopes a new film will show his father as he really was – not just a peace-loving pop star but a true revolutionary

When Rita left Hope Road later that night in her VW Beetle, the guard post was mysteriously deserted as two white cars sped into the compound, ­bullets flying from their open windows; one grazed her skull, leaving her covered in blood as the gunmen entered the house, searching for the reggae superstar. We’re in a hotel by the Thames, talking about this dramatic assass­in­ation attempt, a reconstruction of which opens the new film Bob Mar­ley: One Love – co-produced by the eight-time Grammy winner, who’s sitting opposite me in a faded green combat jacket and beanie. On that fateful December night, Marley had been rehearsing for Smile Jamaica, a concert organised by the ministry of culture purportedly to defuse the simmering tension, and held two days later in Kingston’s National Heroes Park.

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