For a man largely associated with feelgood, chilled music, the last three years haven’t been much fun for Toots Hibbert.

At a festival performance in Richmond, Virginia, in 2013, a 19-year-old drunken fan threw an empty glass vodka bottle at Hibbert, striking the singer on the forehead and causing scarring.

Advised by doctors not to perform for a time after the incident, and engaged in intensive medical therapy, Hibbert entered into a period of depression and financial destitution.

Hibbert’s lawyers filed a $20 million lawsuit against Venture Richmond, producers of the three-day music event in which the injury occurred, with an undisclosed settlement being agreed in March this year.

Speaking after a run of US tour dates and before heading to these shores, Hibbert, who indicated in an interview with Billboard earlier this year that he didn’t often discuss the incident, says “I can talk about it, because it is good to talk.”

“I got no problems with talking. There have been a lot of changes in my life now, so it’s good to be back now and doing my show. I’m going into my shows with more power now – it’s really, really powerful.”

Despite this, Hibbert understandably admits to a degree of apprehension before he took to the stage in his first show back.

“I was feeling scared before the show, because of what happened to me before.

“When I go on stage now, I still perform but I am always looking out to see if anyone is going to do something crazy again.”

With his backing band The Maytals, Hibbert was the first person to use the word reggae in a song – albeit with a different spelling, in 1968’s Do the Reggay – introducing the term and genre to a worldwide audience.

Characterised by languid, offbeat upstrokes and a steady rhythm driven by bass and drums, reggae originated in Jamaica, and particularly Kingston, where Hibbert met the other founding members of the Maytals.

At a time when Bob Marley’s band The Wailers and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry were operating, among other reggae pioneers, Jamaica was an epicentre of innovative music.

Toots and the Maytals would go on to record some of reggae’s most well-known and instantly recognisable songs, including Pressure Drop and 54-46 (That’s My Number).

Asked how he is now, mentally and physically, Toots says “I’m ok man, I’m doing the best I can.”

He adds: “The shows are good, I’m trying my best. It didn’t take a lot of time to readjust to the stage, but it took a lot of energy.

“No matter what happens, the show must go on. I’m going back on the road, to live my life. I’m doing the best I can to recoup everything back once more.”

Hibbert is philosophical about the bottle thrower, and seems to have found it in his heart to forgive him. “I give him a lot of sympathy, because he didn’t do it out of spite or anything. He didn’t know me and I didn’t know him. I was singing for him, and he had no will to hurt me.

“Everybody is sorry for what happened. Playing on stage again now is a way of making sure everybody is happy again. I missed it very much.”

Playing songs like Pressure Drop prompts nostalgia for Hibbert nowadays, but even his memory has been affected by the bottle incident.

“My memory is coming back, slowly but surely.” Does he remember writing his earliest reggae songs in the 1960s? He laughs: “Yeah man, for sure.”

Asked about any potential new music he is recording (Hibbert has his own home studio), he seems more concerned about spreading a positive message amid generations of younger musicians.

“I would like to tell younger artists to sing about good stories, rather than hideous stories.

“I want to tell the younger generation to love and to have knowledge about music and the world.”

The goodwill extends to his UK fans: “I want to say, to all my friends all over the UK, keep looking out for me because I’m coming with much love for them.”

Hibbert deviates from his otherwise laidback drawl as his impassioned monologue gathers momentum.

“The show is going to be good, and everyone will have something to remember. Like some dreams that you have and don’t forget, Toots and the Maytals shows are always remembered.”

Toots and the Maytals, The Brighton Dome, Church Street, Friday, September 2, 8pm, £25, 01273 709709