Surfing Singer Jack Johnson Stays Mellow
How UCSB's Famous Songwriter Keeps His Cool
by Matt Kettmann '99

In the early 1990s, a surfer boy from the North Shore of Hawaii came to UCSB. He fell in love during his freshman year, majored in film studies, made his mark as a stellar cinematographer, and graduated in 1997. The world of popular music hasn’t been the same since.

That, of course, is the short story of Jack Johnson, the tremendously successful singer/songwriter beloved from Sydney to Summerland who some might say currently possesses the prestigious title “World’s Most Famous Gaucho.” When his fifth album Sleep Through the Static was released this past February, it topped the best-selling charts for three straight weeks, and remains in the top five today, thanks in part to being on the covers of both Rolling Stone and Outside magazines. He headlined the Coachella Music Festival in April—considered pop music’s top ticket—and is continuing his world tour throughout the summer, including at least one stop here in Santa Barbara. He founded the successful company Brushfire Records six years ago, has produced everyone’s favorite surf films, and hangs out with the likes of surf god Kelly Slater, comedian Ben Stiller, and Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder. He’s happily married to his college sweetheart Kim (’98), has two young boys, and owns nice homes in Montecito, Oahu, and Australia.

Women drool at his handsome looks, girls scream and faint in his presence, and men respect him, if for no other reason than he rides waves bigger than our houses. And yet despite the fact that Jack Johnson has all the reasons in the world to have a big head, forget his past, and sit on his laurels while conquering the planet, he continues to be the kind, humble, and hard-working man he was during his UCSB days. Plus, he’s using his fame to promote environmental causes everywhere, and that’s something all of us Gauchos should be proud of.

“Jack was a machine, an extremely hard worker, who never complained,” explained his former film studies classmate Chris Rafferty (’98), who made the short action film Dead End with Johnson during school. “He maintained a sense of humor, but had no problem getting down to business. He was focused and had unending endurance. And he was always up for anything. Whatever kind of crazy shot we’d dream up, Jack would just do it.”

His former professor Dana Driskel, who teaches the film studies production course, worked extensively with Jack on a short documentary called Portraits, about people who studied art in a university setting. “He impressed me with two things,” said Driskel. “He had a good eye, a good cinematic eye, and he was a kind guy, and really kind person. He’d be the type of person who would write you a ‘thank you’ card. It’s modest little stuff, but it’s the sort of thing that only a person who’s thinking a bit broader considers. That just seems to be a signature of Jack.”

Another former classmate Colman Nady, who attended UCSB until 1998, called Johnson “down-to-earth,” explaining, “Most of the people in the film studies department are pretentious, and single-minded—they want to get to Hollywood to become Hollywood people. Jack wasn’t like that at all.”

Although his former classmates and professor were vaguely aware that Johnson was a surfer—they had no clue, however, that he grew up with the infamous Pipeline break in his North Shore backyard and could have gone pro—they all realized that he studied cinematography in hopes of one day making surf films. And that’s what he did after graduation, directing the 1999 release Thicker than Water, a fresh, beautiful change from the traditional wave-after-wave flick. Later Johnson surf films would include September Sessions (2000), Sprout (2004), and A Brokedown Melody (2006).

In the meantime, however, Johnson was honing his songwriting skills as a guitarist in the Isla Vista jam band Soil. Although too shy to sing at Del Playa parties, Johnson was quietly creating his own catalogue of tunes, singing them into a tape recorder alone in the bedroom of one of his IV surf shacks. As he traveled the world filming surf breaks, his friends leaked the tapes out, which were then copied and started making Jack Johnson fans in surf communities worldwide. He sang one such song “Rodeo Clowns” with a Philadelphia pop star named G-Love, and it became a radio hit.

Suddenly, the notion of making his own album seemed like a good idea, and in 2000, out came Brushfire Fairytales. The collection of mellow songs—simple, infectious rhythms paired with sweet lyrics and a beachy vibe—instantly became round-thecampfire hits, and the subdued style caught on like, well, a brush- fire. The Jack Johnson fairytale was in full swing. (Bonus point for Gauchos: the song “Bubble Toes” about meeting Kim features the line “I was eating lunch at the DLG,” as in De la Guerra Dining Commons.) Throw in some world tours opening for Ben Harper and a string of evermore successful albums—namely the more mellow On & On (2003, featuring the song “Horizon’s Been Defeated,” which refers to Santa Barbara’s offshore oil rigs), the slightly more uppity In Between Dreams (2005, the year he enlisted another former Gaucho, Zach Gill, as his keyboardist), the playful music for the animated film Curious George (2006, thereby enlisting a whole new generation of young fans), and this year’s ponderous Sleep Through the Static, not to mention a slew of fun surf flick soundtracks—and this Gauchos’ skyrocketing success is unparalleled.

But that’s not to say everything is rosy all the time for Johnson, and his personal pains and worries about the world are reflected more than ever on Sleep Through the Static. It’s dedicated to Danny Riley, the cousin of Kim Johnson, who died in 2007 at age 19 during his sophomore year at UCSB. “He was like a brother to me,” said Jack earlier this year. “A lot of the songs reflect that. Like anybody who’s had to go through losing someone who’s really dear to them, it’s a hard process.”

And it’s not just the death of close friends that makes this UCSB grad’s life challenging—Johnson is finding that keeping mellow and down-to-earth amidst such stardom can be tough. “As much as this is a really fun job and has all these aspects that come with it that are positive,” he explained, “it’s a job like everything else. It becomes overwhelming, and there needs to be a lot of balance that happens so you don’t go too far with it all.”

Part of the way Johnson maintains an even keel is by focusing on the planet’s environmental balance. His tour buses run on biodiesel; his record company is part of One Percent for the Planet, which donates profits to green-minded causes; and he has supported Heal the Ocean, the Surfrider Foundation, and other nonprofits with his own money. And most popularly, he founded the Kokua Festival in Hawaii, which brings rock stars together with eco-friendly vendors and environmental advocates. That formula will be replicated throughout this year’s world tour, with eco-booths at each venue and free tickets being given to local nonprofits to help them raise money and awareness. Explained Johnson, “We’re trying to kind of shine the light we have on groups doing a good thing in every town we play at.”

At the end of the day, though, Jack Johnson finds his best balance in the company of friends and family, and keeps a positive outlook on the future of our embattled planet. “When you have kids,” said Johnson, “you have no hope but to have hope.”

And for the rest of us, Jack Johnson leaves us hoping that we find success in doing what we please. “Jack seems to do what makes him happy,” explained his former classmate Rafferty. “Whether that be surfing, making movies, or playing music. Not seeking fame or fortune, but just reveling in doing what he enjoys. Following his bliss. Seemingly living in the moment, without worry, without pretense, without fear. I think we’re all attracted to that. We all want to be happy. We all want to do what we enjoy. Jack is just really good at all of that.”