Behind The Scenes Of The Massive New Bob Marley ‘One Love’ Experience

After successful stops in London and Toronto, the Bob Marley One Love Experience has now set up shop at Ovation Hollywood (formerly Hollywood and Highland) in Los Angeles.

The massive exhibit, produced by Terrapin Station Entertainment in conjunction with the Marley family, is an all-encompassing look at arguably music’s biggest global superstar (certainly Bob Marley is at the top of a very short list of artists with the largest global reach).

What makes the exhibit so fascinating is it is the best way possible to get close to an artist most of us never got to experience in our lifetimes due to his tragic death from cancer at the young age of 36 in 1981. So whether it’s through photographs or seeing actual touring gear, delving into multimedia experiences like the One Love Forest or the Soul Shakedown Studio, the incredibly detailed and fascinating exhibit brings you closer to knowing the legendary artist.

I spoke to his daughter, Cedella Marley, and Terrpain CEO Jonathan Shank, who produced the exhibit, backstage at Ovation the night of a VIP reception celebrating the opening. As of now the exhibit is scheduled to run into April, but as you can see they want it to go as long as possible.

Steve Baltin: These things are always so interesting, because it’s rare that you get to put everything in one space. So when you do, are there things that really surprise you? It’s like I talk with artists about you make an album, individual songs stand alone and then you go back and listen to the whole work as a whole and you’re like “Oh I didn’t even know I was thinking that.”

Cedella Marley: I think for us, ’cause this is our sort of third one, so I feel like he’s become an expert. After the first one we said, “Okay, the second one, we’re gonna do this.” Just like you said as a musician, so it’s almost like saying, “We’re doing a remix as we open in different countries in different cities.” But I think there’s so many things in there, that if you don’t look carefully, you’ll miss. Like did he see the little peephole?

Jonathan Shank: I just pick up on Cedelia’s sensibilities. I’ve gone through a couple of times and picking up on what she’s excited about and what’s real and what hits. And then I kind of pick up on that and then we just go.

Baltin: So the first one was London. You said this is the third one, so where was the other one?

Shank: Toronto.

Baltin: How many more places does this go?

Marley: As many as we can until it gets to Jamaica.

Shank: That is true. And that will be his permanent home.

Baltin: What’s interesting about it is it’s like an artist makes an album and then, of course, they get to play the songs live. And you add all these different elements to the songs. So I’m sure each time little things change, because you realize you can change things. So are there elements that now you’ve added that are a little different?

Marley: There are, but we’re not gonna tell you what those are [laughter].

Shank: We’re perfectionists.

Marley: Yeah. What are you talking about? [laughter] We have little tweaks here and there. For instance in the room, I call it the chill room. It’s like the black-light room. And when I walked through it today, I saw the TV that I didn’t even see before and I said, “J., you know what would be a good idea is that we use that old TV from the ’70s or from the ’60s. But if we could go back to the scat era to just show stuff like that on that old TV.” And so he went, “Yeah, we should do that.” So I mean little things like that we do notice and pick up on, and then we just get it done.

Baltin: I’m sure you both have favorite moments that change over time.

Marley: Well, I think the One Love Garden stands out a lot this time. I I haven’t actually been in there yet to get the sensory vibration of it but I heard it’s very tranquil.

Shank: Yeah. So and then just being in California, too, we’re free to do certain things that we couldn’t do in London or Toronto. So, of course, we have the Marley Natural Lounge, where you can go in and you can sample our great herbs, so I mean those are the things that matter when you come to California, where we have freedom to do other things. And so as we’re going to little cities and big cities and whatever, depending on what the laws are, it’s how we can free up ourselves and do the Marley lifestyle. Yeah.

Baltin: What is the Marley lifestyle?

Marley: The Marley lifestyle is what you see downstairs. It’s our liberty, we believe in love, peace, happiness and legalizing the herb, so this is a good spot for all of that.

Baltin: And you’re in LA until April, right?

Shank: At least, but we’re not going to close until we have to. We’re going to stay.

Marley: Just like Toronto.

Shank: We extended in Toronto multiple times. And I don’t know it feels like we’ve unlocked something new here, it’s got a really positive vibe.

Baltin: You’re having live music tonight, this venue lends itself to that. So who are the couple of artists that you would love to come perform here because they represent the Marley lifestyle?

Marley: Oh, my gosh, it varies. We can go from Snoop to Lenny Kravitz, Sheryl Crow. So the good thing about daddy and his music, although he played reggae music, everyone listens to it, and a lot of people are influenced by it. And so we could have anybody come here and play, Willie Nelson, it goes on and on and on. But tonight you’re gonna get Skip Marley, you’re gonna get King Cruff, and that’s the younger generation of Marley’s.

Baltin: His music transcends reggae music.

Marley: Well, it does, but he played reggae music. But if you ask him what kind of music he played, he will say “I played reggae music.” Now 40 years later he might have a different [take]. But at 36 he played reggae music and we can’t take that away from him.

Baltin: I’m not trying to. But it’s interesting, because the songs just transcend one genre and his music is so global still.

Marley: It does. Even if you listen to what we’re doing now like we just did a Africa Unite project, where we have guest artists from all over Africa on daddy’s songs. We just did the first singer was Sarkodie doing “Stir It Up,” and it just felt so fresh and so timeless and so relevant. It amazes me every time I think of a project to do with daddy, and it comes to fruitio.n I kind of go, “Wow. It’s almost like he is here doing it himself in a way.” Because it doesn’t feel dated. It feels now.

Baltin: As you look at an exhibit like this and you see the influence, and the way that it reaches so many people, what are the one or two songs for you that you are most amazed at the way they stay relevant and the way that they hold up so well?

Marley: I mean you can go from the revolutionary “Get Up Stand Up” to what I call the lullaby of “Three Little Birds.” It’s like there’s love for the Revolutionary Bob, there’s love for the Loving Bob and there’s love for the Bob who just loved children. And so I think more Bob.