What happened to jack johnson singer
Jack Johnson Biography
Singer and songwriter
Born in May, , in Oahu, HI; son of Jeff (a surf pro) and Patti Johnson; married Kim (a teacher); children: Moe. Education: Graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, c.
Addresses: Home Oahu, HI. Office c/o Moonshine Conspiracy Records, Union St., San Francisco, CA
Career
Filmed two surfing documentaries, Thicker Than Water and The September Sessions , late s; first published song, Rodeo Clowns, recorded with Garrett Dutton of G.
Love and Special Sauce and appears on G. Loves album Philadelphonic ; released Brushfire Fairytales on indie label Enjoy Records, ; toured with Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, ; signed distribution deal with Universal Records; toured as co-headlining act with Ben Harper, ; released CDs On and On , , and In Between Dreams , ; established the Kokua Hawaii Foundation, a nonprofit environmental awareness group.
Sidelights
Singer-songwriter Jack Johnson reveled in some thoroughly unexpected success thanks to his debut record, Brushfire Fairytales. A collection of songs that the onetime pro surfer had merely played to entertain friends at beach campfires, the album reached the one-million sales mark in early , less than two years after its release.
Johnsons second
career was, he admitted, somewhat of a drastic departure from the competitive surf circuit. Surfing, for me, isnt really about sharing, he replied when Sports Illustrated writer Josh Elliott asked him about the differences between his favorite sport and the music business. Its about finding a good little spot, private and perfect.Surfings too special to categorize. Its not a language, not communication. Its just complete, even when no one sees it.
Boxer jack johnson biography After years of touring and surfing along the East Coast, I have made so many great friends. All ad-free". However, a surfing accident at the age of 17 marked a turning point, leading him to explore his other passions: music and filmmaking. From there, Johnson continued his calls for Jeffries to step into the ring with him.But my music feels incomplete if Im not playing for somebody.
Johnson was born in on Oahu, the third largest island among the archipelago of Hawaii. His father, Jeff, was a well-known professional surfer and Johnson, like his two older brothers, Trent and Pete, spent his earliest years in and on the water. It was an idyllic childhood, he told Emma Hope in an interview that appeared in Londons Sunday Telegraph.
My dad would take us out fishing or snorkelling every day, so we grew up in the oceanit was our playground, he recalled. Wed spend all our time outside. The house was just to sleep in. It was always too hot in my room.
Johnson learned to surf off Oahus legendary North Shore, where surfers from around the globe gathered during the winter months.
Its Banzai Pipeline, like other choice spots along the North Shore, was famous for the massive waves that rolled in from stormy North Pacific currents during the season. Johnson started surfing at the age of four, and emerged as a prodigy by his early teens. At the age of 14, he landed a sponsorship deal with Quicksilver, a surf-togs company, and competed on the professional circuit for a few years.
In , however, a near-disastrous wipeout left the year-old Johnson with a broken nose and more than stitches; he also lost a few teeth in the face-down collision with a reef.
Jack johnson biography At 17, he became the youngest invitee to make the finals of the Pipeline Masters , one of surfing's most prestigious events, on Oahu's North Shore. External links [ edit ]. Retrieved June 13, CBS Local Media.During his recuperation, Johnson turned to music to pass the time. He had been playing guitar for about three years by then, and spent an increasing amount of hours practicing and playing for friends. A few months off also made him realize that the pro surf circuit was becoming distressingly commercialized, and so he opted to enter the University of California at Santa Barbara.
It was not an easy transition, Johnson later admitted.
Jack + johson + biography This article is about the pop rock musician. Categories : births Living people 20th-century American singer-songwriters 21st-century American singer-songwriters American acoustic guitarists American male guitarists American film score composers American folk guitarists American folk singers American male singer-songwriters American philanthropists Record producers from Hawaii American rock guitarists American rock singers American rock songwriters American surfers Brit Award winners Brushfire Records artists American documentary film directors University of California, Santa Barbara alumni 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists Guitarists from Hawaii American male film score composers 20th-century American male singers 21st-century American male singers Third Man Records artists Universal Records artists Singer-songwriters from Hawaii. July 8, Petitions for Presidential Pardon In April , President Donald Trump tweeted that, after receiving a phone call from actor and boxing aficionado Sylvester Stallone , he was considering a full posthumous pardon for Johnson's violation of the Mann Act.When I left for college, I watched my friends surf professionally, traveling all over the world, and it was tough, he told Elliott in the Sports Illustrated article. I thought Id made a mistake, choosing such a normal life.
Johnson began his college career as a math major, but switched to filmmaking.
By he had graduated and was traveling extensively with his old surfing pals, and filming their exploits on the waves wherever they went. The footage he shot resulted in a documentary, Thicker Than Water. It follows Johnson and his friends on a global trek that stops at some of the top surfing spots. He followed it with The September Sessions , which features a few of Johnsons well-known friends taking a break from the competitive circuit for a few weeks to simply enjoy a few of their favorite surfing spots.
Johnson still played guitar, and began writing songs after he bought a Bob Dylan album on cassette during a surfing trip to Indonesia. He debuted his songs in the most low-key of settings, usually an audience of friends sitting around a beach campfire after a long day of surfing. He eventually made a four-track recording of what he considered his best work, and his surfer friends made copies for their friends on the circuit.
The demo reached Garrett Dutton of G. Love and Special Sauce, an amateur surfer, who liked Johnsons Rodeo Clowns track, and invited him to record it for the Philadelphonic LP. That G. Love album was released in , the same year as Thicker Than Water , and was the sole track to chart from it on the U.S.
college-radio lists.
Johnson was introduced to J. P. Plunier, who managed singer-songwriter Ben Harper. Plunier put Johnson in touch with a drummer, Adam Topol, and bassist Merlo Podlewski, and sent them into the studio. Brushfire Fairytales was recorded in just seven days, and released on Enjoy Records. Plunier and a former Virgin Records executive had launched the label to issue the record, sensing that Johnson was wary of any deal with the majors, who were courting him nonetheless.
During meetings, executives would ask, Do you always have a shaved head? Would you be willing not to surf, not to make films and to tour instead? as Johnson told Elliott in the Sports Illustrated interview. Right there theyd shoot themselves in the foot. They had no idea what I was about at all.
Brushfire Fairytales was released in , and Johnson toured as an opening act for Harper that year.
Enthusiastic reviews followed for both the album and his performances. With a supersoft vocal style and influences ranging from Jimmy Buffett and Cat Stevens to Ben Harper and De La Soul, Johnson has perfected the admittedly picayune art of contemporary beach music, asserted Time critic Josh Tyrangiel.
Writing in Sports Illustrated , Elliott also compared Johnsons style to Buffett as well as a drastically different American icon, finding that Brushfire Fairytales s blend of folk and blues, its nods to [Jimi] Hendrix and Buffett, its mix of smoky vocals and playful guitar and hip-hop sensibilityis as laid back as it is eclectic.
Steadily growing sales for Brushfire Fairytales prompted executives at Universal Records to offer a distribution deal for it.
This helped sales pass the one-million mark, and Johnsons debut was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in early The achievement was doubly impressive given the fact that there had been virtually no marketing budget behind it, and the buzz around the record had mounted simply via word-of-mouth.
There was talk that because the surfing crowd picked up on Johnsons music first, it moved effortlessly to a wider audience thanks to the cache of that first group. Johnson was skeptical about the idea that surfers were trendsetters responsible for the success of his music. I dont know many real surfers who put a bunch of energy into trying to figure out whats coming next, he told Chris Mauro in Surfer.
Thats the problem with labels sometimes, they have formulas for everything, always trying to figure out why things work and then duplicate them, but the bottom line is you cant formulate authenticity, timing, or luck.
Not surprisingly, Johnson still operated in the characteristically relaxed surfer mode despite his phenomenal success.
I can get stressed if there are too many shows in a row, he admitted to Entertainment Weekly writer Carina Chocano. I dont always feel like getting in front of people or entertaining a crowd. But once I get up, the energy from the crowd is always so good, I have fun. He returned to the studio to make his second record, On and On , but the studio was his brothers garage.
Will Hermes reviewed it for Entertainment Weekly and gave it high marks.
Jack johnson songs: Retrieved September 3, Advertisement - Continue Reading Below. Bonnaroo website. After years of touring and surfing along the East Coast, I have made so many great friends.
There are signs of rhythmic sharpening, he noted, and commended some of the tracks that took a decidedly political stance, which he felt show a man more culturally engaged than youd suspect. Hermes also surveyed Johnsons place in his genre, and concluded that while the vocal similarities to jam-band peers Harper and Dave Matthews are striking, Johnsons songs are, frankly, more instantly likable than theirs, more tuneful and less earnest.
Johnson remains based in Hawaii, where he lives with his wife, Kim, a math teacher he met at U.C.-Santa Barbara.
In , he began to hold benefit concerts to fund a charity he established, the Kokua Hawaii Foundation. Its goal is to promote the protection of the island states fragile environment through educational efforts in the schools. Overdevelopment was one issue he felt strongly about, and had witnessed the long-reaching ramifications of resort-building on Oahu during his own lifetime.
Jack johnson music Boxer Jack Johnson was born in Galveston, Texas, in Little Kids Rock. Johnson was named the winner. By 5 he was learning to surf from his dad and brothers in the world-famous waves of the North Shore.Where beachfront hotels cropped up, he noted, it seemed to tear apart the community, robbing Hawaiian teens of recreational activities, he told Hope in the Sunday Telegraph. The illegal drug known as crystal meth was a growing problem in the more populated areas of Hawaii, he pointed out. Where theres access to surfing beaches, theres not really a drug problem, he asserted.
Kids that surf dont need any drugs.
Johnsons message of respecting the environment also came through on one of the songs that Johnson contributed to the soundtrack for Curious George , the film adaptation of the popular childrens stories. The Three Rs urged kids to become more environment-friendly consumers by re-using and recycling.
Sometimes it takes a big warning sign before people take notice, or you have to wait till its all too far gone before they start worrying about it, he said in the Sunday Telegraph interview. It seems to me that putting a little bit of energy into teaching kids cant hurt. You cant teach them too muchall you can do is put the seed into their minds.
I try not to be too preachy about it.
Johnson released his third record, In Between Dreams , in March of A little more than a year later, it had sold more than two million copies. One single, Good People, reached the Top 30 on the U.S. modern-rock charts, and the album also did well in the United Kingdom.
Still with Topol and Podlewski, Johnson continued to perform for sell-out crowds, including a two-night gig in New York Citys Central Park in September of On a tour of England a few months later, adoring ticket-holders greeted his performances with an enthusiasm that matched the ardor of his American fan base.
Known for appearing onstage in flip-flops or sometimes even barefoot, Johnson continues to divide his time between the demands of the Banzai Pipeline and those of his music career.
He and his wife had become parents, to a son they named Moe. Johnson joked with Mauro in the Surfer article that people sometimes ask him about his three-pronged career and future direction, noting some say, Youre so ambitious, is there anything else you want to tackle in life? I just laugh because Ive always considered myself more of a slacker than an ambitious person.
In reality I wake up, surf, go shoot some film or play music for a couple hours, surf again, then at night play some more. Its just my lifestyle.
Selected discography
(Contributor) Philadelphonic , Sony,
(Contributor) Loose Change (soundtrack), Surf Dog,
(Contributor) Out Cold (soundtrack), RCA,
Brushfire Fairytales , Enjoy, ; reissued, Universal,
(Contributor) The September Sessions (soundtrack), Universal/Moonshine Conspiracy,
On and On , Universal/Moonshine Conspiracy,
In Between Dreams , Brushfire/Universal,
Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George , Brushfire/Island,
Sources
Books
Contemporary Musicians , vol.
45, Gale Group,
Periodicals
Entertainment Weekly , May 9, , p. 74, p. L2T
New York Times , September 14, , p. E1.
Sports Illustrated , May 27, , p. A
Sunday Telegraph (London, England), April 2, , p. 3.
Surfer , June , p.
Time , September 17, , p.