Jack Johnson

Jack Hody Johnson (born May 18, 1975) is an American singer-songwriter, primarily in the soft rock and acoustic pop genres.

He appeared as a surfer in The Endless Summer II in 1994.

Jack Johnson graduated from Kahuku High School on the island of Oahu.

In 1994, Zach Gill's band, Django Reinhardt, released a CD that quickly made Django a favorite band of the Isla Vista party scene at UCSB.

Django was the rival of Jack Johnson's band Soil, but Gill and Johnson developed a strong friendship, eventually becoming bandmates in later years.

While with Soil at UCSB, Johnson opened for acts such as Sublime and Dave Matthews who were then relatively unknown bands.

Johnson credits his songwriting influences as Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Radiohead, Otis Redding, G. Love and Special Sauce, Ben Harper, Sublime, the Beatles, Bob Marley, Neil Young, and A Tribe Called Quest.

Johnson names Jimi Hendrix as his all-time favorite guitarist.

He later attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, and graduated in 1997 with a B.A. in film studies.

While Johnson learned the guitar at the age of 8 and started songwriting at the age of 12, his passion for music grew when he played rhythm guitar for the band Soil (not to be confused with the heavy metal band of the same name) in college.

Jack Johnson's big break was writing and contributing vocals for the song "Rodeo Clowns" which was featured on G. Love's 1999 album Philadelphonic.

Johnson was introduced to G. Love by a mutual friend of Johnson who was shooting surf films with him at the time.

After hearing "Rodeo Clowns", G. Love saw Johnson's potential and effortless style and invited him to record with him.

That led to the now-famous "Rodeo Clowns" recording, launching Johnson's career.

In addition to his later success as a musician, Johnson is also an accomplished filmmaker.

Johnson directed the surf films Thicker Than Water (2000) and The September Sessions (2002), in which he also starred.

Both movie soundtracks were also products of Johnson.

Suela released a four-track demo that caught the attention of Ben Harper's producer, J. P. Plunier, who worked with Johnson to produce his debut album Brushfire Fairytales during December 2000 with Harper and his Weissenborn lap steel guitar making a guest appearance.

Brushfire Fairytales was released on February 1, 2001, and led to Johnson becoming the opening act in late February 2001 for the last twenty-three cities of Ben Harpers' "Innocent Criminals" tour of the United States.

Johnson went back into the studio with Adam Topol (drums, percussion) and Merlo Podlewski (bass), who played on Brushfire Fairytales, and Mario Caldato Jr. on production duties, to record his second full-length album On and On.

It was the first album to be recorded at Johnson's Mango Tree Studio in Johnson's home town of North Shore, Oahu, and the first to be released through The Moonshine Conspiracy Records.

On and On was released on May 6, 2003.

The Moonshine Conspiracy Records was later changed to Brushfire Records; Johnson turned the offices and studios of his Los-Angeles based record company into a model of eco-friendliness, with solar power, recyclable CD packaging, and power-saving air conditioners.

It was the first soundtrack to make it to number 1 since the Bad Boys II soundtrack in August 2003, and was the first soundtrack for an animated film to top the Billboard 200 since the Pocahontas soundtrack in July 1995.

Johnson also starred in the 2004 surf film A Brokedown Melody.

On April 3, 2004, Johnson and Ben Harper performed with Toots and the Maytals on Saturday Night Live (season 29, episode 16).

In October 2004, Johnson returned to the Mango Tree Studio with Topol and Podlewski along with Zach Gill (of Animal Liberation Orchestra) playing accordion, melodica and piano, to record his follow-up to 2003's On and On.

His album In Between Dreams peaked at number two on the chart in 2005 and again in 2013.

Johnson is active in environmentalism and sustainability, often with a focus on the world's oceans.

Johnson and his wife Kim created the Johnson Ohana Charitable Foundation and the Kōkua Hawaii Foundation.

In Between Dreams was released on March 1, 2005.

Johnson has reached number one on the Billboard 200 chart with his albums Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George in 2006, Sleep Through the Static in 2008, To the Sea in 2010 and From Here to Now to You in 2013.

Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George is a soundtrack album by Johnson, released on February 7, 2006.

The album also features Ben Harper, G. Love, Merlo Podlewski and Zach Gill.

In 2008, Johnson adopted the concept of greening (reduce and reuse), and donated 100% of the proceeds of the Sleep Through the Static tour to the Johnson Ohana Charitable Foundation.

Similarly, the proceeds from 2010 To the Sea album tour went to All at Once, a Johnson-backed collaboration of greening charities promoting fan involvement.

The son of surfer Jeff Johnson, Jack was born and raised on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii.

He began to learn how to surf at the age of 5.

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.

One week later, however, his stint as a professional surfer ended when he suffered a surfing accident at the Pipeline that put more than 100 stitches in his forehead and removed a few of his teeth; this later became the inspiration for the song "Drink the Water".