Tell us about your childhood

I man is a country man yu know, I born in the country. I was born in Hanover, the Western part of Jamaica, in a hill them call Richmond. Yes. And I’m still a poor man! I man born on 3 July 1954.

As for my childhood, me just run up & down inna the country, with one pants on mi bottom and dem way there. Everything was nice – nature, yunno? Do all kinda tings, chop wood for mammy, look for water in river…

I get interested in music when I was a kid. I always walk around and sing, I always listen to Bob Marley, Toots and the Maytals, Freddie Mckay, Delroy Wilson, Gregory Isaacs, all a dem singers from the early days. I used to sing going around in the country bush, cah yu feel the spirit of the almighty, and I always wanted to have Jah in I. As you know I was poor as a youth, all my friends used to wish for riches, vanities… But when I see the shooting star, I always wished I could find the true and living God. So the spirit of Jah in I ever since I was a youth.

Many artists in Jamaica are introduced to music through the church. Did that happen with you?

I never used to go to church, I never liked church. Cah dem tell I the wrong thing in church yunno, dem nah tell I about Selassie I, dem only tell I about Jesus and dem ting deh. So when I find Jah now, I used to have a bigger brother who live in Kingston, and when he come back to the country to look for the family, he see I grown up, and him tell me him taking me to Kingston. I was 17 and I do a likkle job in Kingston, working in a chicken factory for 3 years.

I never liked the job, and I started to write some songs while I worked. And I was starting to go amongst the rastaman on Camperdown Road and sip chalice and reason. The first two songs I wrote were called “Vank Out” & “African Sister.” Then one day I was made redundant from my job. They came and asked us if we wanted a cheque or if we wanted another job. Well I no want no more work so I said I’ll take the cheque. Then I go down to Randys and I see a man who used to sing with Winston Jarrett & The Righteous Flames, a man named Junior. And I said to him “Bwoy, mi want sing a song y’know dread.” And he say “who you gonna sing a song for?”, and I say “Me.” And him ask me if I have money, and I say yeah man, mi have some money. So we go uptown and we buy two 2 track tapes, and we book Channel One studio, and I get Flabba Holt and Bingy Bunny and we make “Vank Out” & “African Sister.” Then I make a label, Jah Man label and stick the tunes out. I sell it myself. It was 1972.

How did you get involved with Studio One?

Well I see Coxsone come down to Randys, and I said to him I have a song I wanted to sing. So he called me round in the office and asked me to sing, and I sing it fe him, and he said I must check him Sunday morning at 9 o’clock. So I go inna the studio and I sing a song fe him, on the Drifter riddim. And then mi go back again and do “Sing A New Song.” So then I go a few more times and I do like 8 more songs, and they release one, “Sing A New Song.” He ask me what name I go under, and I said Henry James, but him say he no like that name. So then he said to me, “what other name do they call you man?” So I said bwoy, Mr Dodd yunno, some people call me Peter, and some people call me Broggs. So he said maybe we can put those two together, and that’s how it come.

Coxsone was there producing but he have an engineer too, Scientist. Scientist did come to me when he was a youth and ask me if Randys want somebody to engineer upstairs, but I tell him “I want you to go to Coxsone, if you go to Randys they not gonna make you do that. And when I go to Coxsone to voice that song it was Scientist taping it. It was nice working with Mr Dodd. Them time, if you no pass thru Studio One, it come like you no artist yunno. It come like a college, Studio One was like the Motown of reggae music. It was 1973, 74 when I was there.

What happened after the Studio One sessions? You also worked with Prince Far I.

After Studio One I was on the streets. I coulda do a lot of singles fe a lot of people, but I didn’t want to do it cah most of them no want give you no money. But then I do a few tunes for Prince Far I – I do “Jah Golden Throne” for him and I also do it for Danny Allen. The version for Prince Far I was called Higher Field Marshall, with Roots Radics at Harry J studio. The version for Danny Allen was with Sly & Robbie at Channel One.

Can you tell us about your first album?

First album progressive youth. Chancery Lane is like an office. All the artists them deh deh in that time. Anytime you want to find an artist, you go a Chancery Lane. Them time there Gregory Isaacs was going to tour in England. And Bingi Bunny come to me and say him going to England with Gregory, and him like how I sound and him want to take some records with him. So we book Channel One Studio and we make two riddims. And dem time deh we never have the money to voice them both at one time, so the next week he book King Tubbys, one hour for me and one hour for a next guy. And the next guy go first, and him take 45 minutes out of the hour and him no voice him song yet. So I was outside and I was singing, “Forward Natty Dread Forward….” And they hear me and call me in and I do one cut and it sound better than the other guy, you know them way there? So Bingi Bunny say to me, “Broggs, you want do a album man?” And I say yes. And I do all the rest of the songs in an hour, for the album “Progressive Youth.” That was 1975, 76.

There’s a story that Dr Dread came to Jamaica specially to seek you out and started RAS Records because of you.

After that I nah do too much. I just go around trying to find honest people I can sing for and make a food, cos you know, struggle those times… When I get a copy of Progressive Youth, I take it to my friends and I say, “Rastaman, I’m so glad I do this album cah somebody must discover it in the world. And I just a trod inna the music business. Then a few years come up, about 1980, and I was standing at Chancery Lane and I see a white man pass me and him go up to Gregory Isaacs shop, and then a man come from the shop and him tell me the whiteman a look for me. So then I go to the whiteman, and him look at me and him say “I think you’re a great singer, and I play your music on the radio in America, and I write a song and I want you personally to sing it.” So I take him in a backyard in the ghetto there, and he sing the song to me, and him give me some money, and a business card, and I did feel good, because that day I was so hungry. And I checked my bredren after and I said Bredren, you no know me is a prophet. You know me said I sing an album and someone must discover it in the world. And them say ya man. Well me say you know it happened. Me see a whiteman and him say him love mi music and him want me sing a tune fe him…. And me start sing it and dem say “Bwoy, a whiteman write dem tune ya?” So me just call up Doctor Dread and me say “Doc, bwoy yunno mi bredren in the ghetto dem love your tune yunno! And dem say bwoy, dem cyan believe a whiteman write dis tune, it too culture!” So him say to me now, do you have enough songs to make an album? And me say yeah man. An ‘im start tell me that ‘im gwan book Channel One and if I know some musicians I must get them together for that date. So me just go get Flabba Holt, Bingi Bunny, Roots Radics and we go inna the studio and do Rastafari Liveth, and it a the first release pon the RAS label.

You spent a long period living in America after that?

After I do Rastafari Liveth I started to travel, I started to go to America. I decided to do the RAS Posse tour. I go from corner to corner, I think the only place I don’t go in America is Alaska. I play on Indian reservations five times. People see my music as life, so when I play for them it have meaning fe them life. RAS have 7 album pon them label with me.

When you’re young and poor and struggling in Jamaica, you want to go a foreign and you think it’s heaven. But it’s not heaven yunno, and it take me 15 years to find out that it’s not heaven. So now I know Jamaica is the place I want to be, otherwise from Africa where my father is. So I trod around places but I still love my nature. I love tropical island, you know them way there? Cos when I inna them places I see God more. I see love more. When you inna the big city, everybody separated. You know them way there? Not so much love in the city. Cah what’s in the city just war and crime and violence, thief and murderer. I live inna the hills!

Right now my aim for the future is just to give praises to the most high, the creator, yunno. He give me inspiration continually, so I could get good words to say to the people of this world, so this world could become a better living place for the people in this time. If the people don’t see, they have to have someone to open up their eyes, and to show them that we are human beings, and could live together as one people. That is how the father taught it to be.

PETER BROGGS INTERVIEWED BY STEVE MOSCO 29 APRIL 2002