How do you manage to possess so much energy after so many years in the business?"The music acts like a vitamin that rejuvenates you. If you are a true musician who loves music, you cannot keep anger in your heart. If there is any present, the music washes it out and relieve the stress that kills a lot of people and leaves some unhappy."
How would you like to be remembered in music circles a few years from now?
"I would like to be remembered as a person who puts professionalism and dignity into music. When I started as a 16-year-old there was no respect for music and musicians. Forty-five years later it is accepted throughout the world and Jamaican musicians are well respected and they are supported and I would like to be remembered for that."
Has anyone ever said to you that you have been an inspiration to them? If so, how does it feel to hear such a thing?
"Yes. It makes me feel that I have always demanded the highest discipline and have the highest regard for talent. When I see talent I nurse it and bring it. And people like Toots and the Maytals, Kiddling and a number of other artistes, too numerous to mention, have been through our camp."
How do you take the criticism from the church?
"We always have to live with that and it may be justifiable too, to some extent as our carnival falls in a particular time during Lent. But then we promise that Easter weekend we will not do anything and on Good Friday and Easter Saturday. Not before 6 o'clock on Easter Sunday when we begin at Chukka Cove. We made a deal with the church and have agreed that when we pass their church on a carnival day we will turn the music down so that we don't disturb their service and things like that."
Why did you bring carnival to Jamaica?
"I had been to Trinidad for 23 years in carnival and saw the happiness and the release of tension that carnival on the road gave to the people. I saw for one day where everybody was one, there was no uptown, no mid-town and no downtown. They all came out to share a common event, so what I wanted to do was bring that back to Jamaica and you see the result on Half-Way Tree Road."
Do you think the level of interest in carnival is drying up in Jamaica?
"We had some little problems here. I must admit that I intend to go over all of that in detail. Right now we are undergoing some instability, put if it this way we think it can get better. We think that it can compete against the 27 carnivals if we change the format a bit and do something to bring in more tourists that is the main thing."
What are some of the things you think you could do to revive the interest level?
"That is on the back burner. We are looking at it for next year."
What do you think Jamaicans can do to make carnival more significant?
We are not a carnival country like Trinindad, but it is something that competes with reggae and music doesn't ... We think eventually that if the people come together ... the country part hopefully ... Negril, Savanna-la-Mar, St. Thomas, Ocho Rios, Old Harbour, must get to have their own mini-carnivals and then come together in one day and put them together. There must be a movement in every single parish, whether with costumes, like how jonkunnu was years ago or festival is.
In Trinidad we know that carnival is a cultural event. Is it done in Jamaica mainly for profit?
"Well no, the road is there to fix, the road is expensive and the road cost millions of dollars, but you must expect that in every thing you do you will have to pay for various things. While persons don't intend to make a profit, you have to pay the bill and in order to pay the bill you have to earn money. Basically, it is just to enjoy ourselves and bring happiness to the people of Jamaica, the masses of Jamaica, the overall people must experience the carnival and enjoy it. Once a year it comes and we should all come out and enjoy it."
What would you say to persons who say that you have appropriated the music of other people's culture?
"The thing about it is that in Trinidad, they have never-appropriated reggae in anyway. Nobody asked the Trinidadians why they appropriated Jamaican music, the thing about it is the isolation amidst the movement of the music. We must come together as one and Trinidad accept our music and we accept theirs. It must not be the music of Trinidad or Jamaica, but the music of the Caribbean. The main idea is the bringing of people together to enjoy themselves without an incident."
Do you think carnival will fade in the near future?
"If we don't do something about it, it is going to fade as far as bringing in visitors from abroad is concerned. The thing about it is that you have an event that is a tourist boost and attracts people from all over the world, like the Jazz Festival and Reggae Sumfest, carnival must be treated as our festival, which can take its place among the world market. The event must appeal to people abroad, saying come to Jamaica for carnival and provide accommodations for them.
How would you compare carnivals around the world to Jamaica's?
What we have here that's indigenious, no other carnival has so many people on the road marching behind Byron Lee truck. No-where in the 13 carnivals that Byron Lee has played is that seen, except in Jamaica, where the massive comes out and march behind the truck and they are not being guarded by police and roped off. We make the people feel like they are a part of carnival.
Do you think dancehall music is becoming a vital part of carnival?
"Yes, if you listen to the Trinidad records now you will notice that they are just cross fertilising their soca with the dancehall and it is good, as what it does is show that the music has a feeling for each other."
What is your aim for Carnival this year?
"We are still in meeting, but there will be costumes on the road, there will be functions, Chukka Cove is still there, the calypso tent is also there and we have to work for the country. Carnival is now not a Kingston thing as we were previously accused of, it is a Jamaica thing."
