MICHAEL ROSE
Reggae Camp Százhalombatta, Hungary - July 27, 2008
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SK: Welcome to Hungary. It was a great show. How are you feeling? Michael Rose: I’m feeling OK, and I really appreciate that the locals and Budapest made it possible for me to come to this festival tonight. Thank you very much. SK: It was your birthday recently this month, where did you spend it? MR: I was in Rototom. SK: In Italy. Did you meet Alboroise? MR: Yeah. Actually we done a song, Waan The Ting, we done it on stage. SK: What do you think of this worldwide spread of reggae, that even here in Hungary there are now so many bands playing reggae music. MR: Well, music elevates, you know. Like my latest big hit, Shoot Out, for third time around is a Number 1. In London for 28 weeks it’s in the British charts, it’s in Australia, in Spain, Italy, Germany, Japan, New York, Boston. The remix with Junior Gong was Number 1 in Miami. So it’s just the beginning. The tune is young and it’s going places now. SK: Can you talk a little about the early years, the 1970s in Jamaica, you were very young when you started. MR: I started doing talent shows and entertaining tours in the North coast of Jamaica, and finally I got a break. It was really a hard one for me. In those days it was even much harder to get even a song recorded, and to be in the chart. It’s not like today when most of the singers and DJs in Jamaica, they done songs and it’s in the Billboard... After the North coast I started some rehearsal with Ducky and dem in Waterhouse, and we had this guy from the Jayes group called Errol Nelson, and we recorded an album and some singles, like Wood For My Fire on the Dennis Brown label, and the Rent Man that was released on the Joe Gibbs connection. After that we met King Jammys and we recorded the Love Crisis album for him. And we also did some work with Sly & Robbie. We got signed to Island Records in 1980 with the Sinsemilla album. After that we did the Red album, then the Chill Out, then the Anthem and we won the Grammy in 1984. But then as time goes on, we had differences in the band, we didn’t have anything verbally or anything like that, we decided to do our own and move on. So they got Junior Reid in the band, and I was doing my thing. SK: You went to a coffee farm shortly after that. Is it still there? MR: Yeah, it’s still there in Jamaica, in the Blue Mountains. SK: Who works on it? MR: The people from the village. SK: Do you live in Jamaica? MR: Yes, I live in Jamaica. SK: What do you think of the new Jamaican artists, the conscious style? MR: You see, Jamaica always have to offer new artists to the world, music is music, it depends on how you take it. SK: You seem to be very concerned with social issues, like you mentioned at tonight’s show Mugabe, Obama, Mandela, you also have a 9/11 track. How do you think we, simple people, can bring about change? MR: Simple people, we just have to hope that the big heads invest in the suffering people, instead of making nuclear bombs. We just have to pray everyday and hope that we can have changes. The people in the world have to stand up strong for equal rights and justice, and know what them want inna Babylon, that’s how things are set up. SK: What’s your message to the younger generations?
MR: My message to the younger generations is that we have to care for each other and share. Because if you don’t share for one another, you gonna be the suffering class all the time. So we must always give thanks to Rastafari. Give a bless, and thanks for having me.interview by Balázs Vajna , Kati Stráhl Michael Rose video-interview part 1
Michael Rose video-interview part 2