Reggae has always carried a spiritual pulse beneath its rhythm — a tether to scripture, prophecy, resistance, and redemption. For Sonny Sandoval, the unmistakable voice of P.O.D. and the creator of the new solo project Sonny Dread, that spiritual undercurrent wasn’t just part of the music he grew up with. It became the foundation of his worldview, shaping him long before he ever committed his beliefs to a microphone.
“Before I even found my faith, I grew up with reggae music,” Sandoval says. “When you listen to old Marley or Third World or anybody back in the day, most of their lyrics are all scripture. But people don’t know that.”
That revelation — that the songs he loved as a kid were carrying hidden verses and ancient wisdom — stayed with him, even as he gravitated toward punk, hip-hop, and eventually the heavy, genre-blurring sound that made P.O.D. one of the most influential rock bands of their era. What others heard as a groove or a vibe, Sandoval was unknowingly absorbing as teaching.
“The Bible says the word of God will never return void,” he explains. “So I was hearing all these scriptures through reggae music, and I didn’t even know it. But it’s what made me — when all my friends were going out doing dirt — there was always a side of me that was like, ‘Ah, man, I don’t want to get involved.’”
For Sandoval, reggae’s spiritual center isn’t a coincidence. It’s the genre’s lifeblood — a lineage rooted in Rastafarian tradition but universally resonant. Even the word most synonymous with reggae culture is biblical. “People think ‘Jah’ is a reggae thing,” he says, “but even the word Jah comes from the King James Version. It was a scripture thing.”
That connection is what makes his new solo project feel less like a pivot and more like a homecoming. Whether he’s floating over the streetwise roots of “Sleeping Lion” or the boom-bap urgency of “Talk to God,” spirituality isn’t a theme — it’s the engine. “At the end of the day, it just comes down to my relationship with God,” he says. “He’s the final authority. He’s where I get my power from.”
And while P.O.D. has often stood out in the rock world for speaking about faith — “It’s sex, drugs and rock & roll, so of course P.O.D. stands out like a sore thumb,” he laughs — reggae has always embraced spiritual consciousness without hesitation. In that sense, Sonny’s return to reggae isn’t just musical. It’s cultural. It’s ancestral. It’s personal.
To him, the barrier between music and faith was never real anyway. “It’s easier to listen to Bob Marley sing scripture than to pick up your Bible and read it,” he says. “But once you actually read it for yourself, you’re like, ‘Man… these are the same words from those reggae songs.’ It’s all in there.”
In Sonny Dread, that lineage continues — a modern extension of the same spiritual spark that once traveled from Kingston to London to San Diego, and now into Sandoval’s most personal work yet.
Watch the full interview with Sonny Sandoval online below!
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P.O.D.’s Sonny Sandoval Launches Solo Project as Sonny Dread, Debuts Reggae Singles “Sleeping Lion” and “Talk to GOD” 
Sonny Sandoval Steps Into Reggae: P.O.D. Frontman Talks New Memoir, Solo Album, and Festival Dreams 
Sonny Sandoval Finds New Fire in Reggae-Hip-Hop Fusion on His Solo Debut as Sonny Dread
