L.A. Parent:: What lessons did you from your father?

Ralph Covert: Whatever I do, always try to do it 100 percent. My younger sister has Down's Syndrome, and everything is easy compared to watching the remarkable job they did fighting the system.

Ziggy Marley: In the music world and in life in general, it is the discipline that he had in music. The hard work that he'd put in. The ethics to work hard and humility. Humility was one of the main lessons.

LAP: Have your kids ever inspired a song?

Covert: My daughter had struggled with her alphabet, so I wrote Abby's Alphabet Soup to help her learn her alphabet, (and) we play a game about the house with the family and friends, where someone will suggest a topic and I will make up a song on the spot. I had started work on Rodeo Peg that way.

Marley: I Love You Too is a song that I wrote in the kitchen. My daughter said "I love you" and I said "I love you, too" and I started singing I Love You Too. It just came out. Cry, Cry, Cry comes from (my kids) crying. They are crying for their freedom. It's good practice. So when they are older, they know they can cry for their rights. I thought about it that way and not that they don't want to go to bed.

LAP: What is the difference between children's and adult music?

Covert: Kids' songs generally are a little bit shorter, but a lot of it is the same. All the music elements are going to be the same: rhythm, melody, clever wordplay. It might be yearning for a pet instead of yearning for a lover, but it's still about yearning. Your horizons are as broad as a child's imagination.

Marley: The big difference is the freedom I have doing kids' music. I want it to be like life, like nature, natural. I don't want to be so precise about things - not be so technical about things. I have a little more leeway.

LAP: What do you like the best about playing kids' music?

Covert: It's all fun. The most fun is meeting the kids before and after shows. Meeting them, listening to them. How can you beat a hug from a 3-year-old?

Marley: If my purpose is to use music as a tool for change, to bring awareness and consciousness to people, then I must speak to children because children are the most open minded. Adults are more set in their ways. Kids are more open to ideas and concepts. If I want to make a change in the world, I have to speak to children.

LAP: What is your mission as a musician?

Covert: Making music is a way of celebrating life and sharing that with other people. And there's a line in my song Fools Will Try: "Fill your words with all that you mean/and the world will light your way with your dreams." That's a poetic way of saying it. (Also, I try) to give the kids access to the vocabulary of rock 'n' roll and music.

Marley: I wanted to elevate or raise the bar to say something that isn't being said in the kids world. I wanted to talk about concepts like unity and peace and love and the Earth, environment, the wind and the sun. And try to let these songs be songs that... the more that the kids grow, the more they can understand the deeper messages of the song.

Ralph's World and Lisa Loeb, 11 a.m. June 6, Echoplex, 1154 Glendale Blvd., L.A. $15-$17. 213-413-8200, www.attheecho.com/category/kids-show. Grammy Museum's Musical Explorations: What is Reggae starring Ziggy Marley, 11 a.m. June 6, Club Nokia, L.A. Live, 800 W. Olympic Blvd., L.A. $15 per person, $50 family four-pack, 800-745-3000, www.ticketmaster.com.