MOVIE NEWS – If he were alive, Bob Marley would be 78 years old and not smoking marijuana. So says the nephew of one of reggae’s biggest names, lifestyle guru Charles Mattocks.

“It’s not that I have anything against marijuana, but I’m sure Bob would have found another way,” says Mattocks in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times on the occasion of the upcoming release of the film Bob Marley: One Love, about the musician’s life. “Over seventy is not the best choice, and I’m sure if he had lived to that age he would have made a lot of progress in that area.”

Bob Marley died of cancer at the age of 36, but in his short life he left a huge legacy, not only in music but also in promoting the Rastafarian religion and lifestyle. An integral part of this was the enjoyment of marijuana, which helped Marley not only to achieve spiritual enlightenment in the final stages of cancer, but also to ease the pain.

Mattocks started out as a promising rapper and actor, but along the way turned his interests in a different direction, becoming a lifestyle coach, inspired by his uncle: “Bob said on several occasions: ‘If I just lived for myself, there would be no point. I feel the same way.”

(Bob Marley: One Love – home release: 22 February 2024)