Musician Jack Johnson

From LoveToKnow Music

The biography of musician Jack Johnson is the story of a man whose ambitions took a wandering road to music, but once he picked up a guitar, Jack Johnson’s reggae tinged laid back acoustic guitar tunes won him millions of fans around the world.

Musician Jack Johnson – The Early Years

Unlike some musicians who know that they want to take to the stage from the time they can walk, Jack Johnson’s first love wasn’t music but surfing. Although music was a part of his life from age 14 when he first picked up the guitar, Johnson was hopping to make his living on the waves. He had quite a bit of success on the board in his early years. By age 17, he had made it to the finals of the famed Pipeline Masters surfing competition in Oahu in his native Hawaii. He wasn’t to last long in the finals though – he missed three waves in a row and was then dismissed from the competition – and he didn’t last much longer in surfing, either. An accident on the same Pipeline waters not long after the competition cost Johnson his two front teeth and landed him in the hospital needing 150 stitches. After this accident, he put the board away – at least professionally – and moved on to another passion – filmmaking.

Music was a part of Johnson’s recovery from the accident. He wrote some songs that would end up on his first album during this period, but music again took a back seat. Johnson went from his hospital bed in Hawaii to the University of California at Santa Barbara. There, he studied film and filmmaking and eventually graduated with a degree in the subjects. During his school years, he dabbled in music off and on playing for a local band called Soil, but his real focus at this time was making films about surfing.

Enter the Music Career

Musician Jack Johnson kind of fell backwards into his music career. His first big break was when he met surfing enthusiast G.Love of the band G. Love and Special Sauce. He gave a tape to G.Love, who loved what he heard and covered Johnson’s song Rodeo Clowns for G.Love and Special Sauce's Philadelphonic album, even inviting Johnson into the studio to lend some vocals to the track.

The second big break came when Johnson’s demo wound its way into the hands of J.P. Plunier, who worked as a producer on Ben Harper’s music. Plunier loved the demo as well, and convinced Johnson to work with him on what would become Johnson’s debut album, 2001’s Bushfire Fairytales.

Bushfire Fairytales did respectably well in the US and UK music charts, but it made the biggest splash down under in Australia and New Zealand, where it climbed to number 13 and number one respectively. By his third album, In Between Dreams (2005), Johnson had found his way to the top of the charts in the UK and the number two position in the US.

Johnson also scored big with the soundtrack to Curious George, called Sing-a-longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George. The soundtrack, which featured Johnson along with G.Love and Ben Harper, went to number one in the US and UK.

Johnson has cemented his musical success with near constant touring all over the world, especially in Australia and New Zealand where perhaps his biggest fan base is.