KIM JOHNSON backstage with jack johnson Santa Barbara’s Most Famous Export Is Just Like You and Me by Matt Kettmann AUL WELLMAN P with him. Close friends, big waves, and peace the man of mind are still most important to him. First, the obligatory history: Born in 1975 After last March’s Santa Barbara on Oahu. Learned guitar from his dad’s International Film Festival screening of friend, Jeff “Peff” Eick. Made Pipeline his Thicker than Water,Jack played a few solo backyard at age 12. Mastered the break with songs during the private after-party at surfing pros Kelly Slater and Rob Machado. Longboard’s. While fans hung on his every Played guitar with his first band, the non- word, his mind was clearly elsewhere. He renowned Hawaiian punk group Limber stopped after six quick songs and walked Chicken. Declined dad’s last-minute offer to over to a group of friends. With a shy smile, tour the world after graduating high school. Jack said, “That didn’t feel right. This isn’t Went to UC-Santa Barbara to study math. the time. I just want to hang out.” Met Kim Baker in UCSB’s De la Guerra After his sold-out show at the Santa dining hall, immortalized in the song Barbara Bowl last fall, Jack showed up at “Bubbletoes” with the Gaucho-pleasing line Restaurant Roy on Carrillo Street, set on “I was eating lunch at the DLG when this hanging out with friends. As a handful of little girl came and she sat next to me.” musicians and artists have done before, Jack Played to the Isla Vista crowds with the jam challenged Roy Gandy, the restaurant’s band Soil. Wrote some songs but, being too owner/chef, to a bike race around the block. jack johnson is nothing special. I know it’s hard to shy, only sang back-up. Became a film stud- To my amazement—I was the official time- ies major in his sophomore year. Began lay- keeper that night—Jack beat Roy, the man believe, but trust me, I know him. It’s true. Despite selling a million albums, ing down tunes in his own voice in the pri- who had invented the two-wheeled grand making two killer surf flicks, and playing to sold-out crowds at the top venues vacy of his Sueno Road living room on a prix. Later, when another challenger crashed four-track recording system his mom while rounding the corner in front of the on three continents—all in the last three years and all before his 28th birth- bought him. Distributed tapes to surfing Gamekeeper store, Jack led the crowd run- day—Jack’s exactly like you and me. Well, at least me. He’s a laid-back, flip- friends the world over. Dug by everybody ning to investigate. His friend Vaughn was from Sydney to San Diego. Filmed two surf only scraped. The borrowed bike was a dif- flopped, and baggy-shorted dude who’s just trying to have some fun. flicks, Thicker than Water and September ferent story. Sessions.Won acclaim from critics and Just ask around. If you don’t know some- And unlike the rarified rock gods before him—from Elvis to Michael Jackson, surfers alike. Met Garrett Dutton, the G in one who knows Jack, you’d be surprised men most definitely not like you and me—it’s expressly Jack’s down-to-earth Philadelphia’s G-Love and Special Sauce. how easy they are to find. His friendships Recorded his “Rodeo Clowns” song with are with all sorts of people, from haoli nature that has catapulted the singer/songwriter to global stardom. His music Garret. Made airwaves. Hunted down by surfer dudes to Latino hip-hoppers to plain old white-collar grads he knows is so accessible—thoughtful lyrics easy to remember, simple melodies easy from his UCSB days. to hum—that he’s become one of Santa Barbara’s most successful musicians As for surfing, it’s still a big part of his life. More than one ever, and he’s only called the South Coast home for the past decade. But as morning during his Australian star pressure mounts—from the intrusive media, the fanatical fans, the des- tour, Jack got up before 6 a.m., caught a ride with a local kid perate record execs—Jack’s taking action to ensure he stays a regular guy. who had lent him a wetsuit and board, and drove two hours to a It can’t be easy, but his second album—On and On, to be released next secret break. Backstage just an Tuesday with much coinciding fanfare at the Arlington Theatre—is certainly a hour before his stage appearance at Coachella, he took a break start. It drives home the essential element of Jack’s music, sweet and sim- from tuning his guitar to ple, fun and familiar. It serves as his statement of purpose, his line in the describe, with intricate hand movements, the last couple of sand. And just to be sure that his line isn’t washed away by future tides of waves he caught in Hawaii to friend Conan Hayes, a pro surfer success, Jack’s leaving the California limelight and returning to his native who was visiting in the dressing Hawaii by summer’s end. room. Jack still gets jazzed when he PETE HODGSON gets to meet the superstars that A scribe of songs and melodies whose first album, Brushfire Fairytales, went Known in the surfing world as a fearless preceded him. When fellow waverider, Jack catches tube at Backdoor, the platinum; a fearless wave rider who could have gone pro, famous among Santa Barbara musical legend break next to Pipeline on Oahu’s notorious David Crosby called Jack up, he surfers for his mastery of Oahu’s widow-making North Shore; a filmmaker widow-making North Shore. Even from inside and Kim were totally excited. the barrel, Jack can catch glimpses of both his whose surfing movies have won awards from Surfer Magazine and ESPN; a Kim—who still can’t believe parents’ pad where he grew up and the new “David Crosby and his wife came 27-year-old unflappable chick magnet who has married, without a hint of home he recently bought right on the beach. for dinner!”—was so nervous she regret, his college sweetheart. It’s hard to believe, I know, but Jack Johnson didn’t even try to cook and just is nothing special. record execs. Turned down major label deal. ordered take-out Thai food instead. Recorded first album, Brushfire Fairytales, In the same vein, when the Beastie Boys with bassist Merlo Podlewski and drummer hit the stage at Coachella, I asked Jack, who Last weekend at the Coachella Valley Arts and Music Festival, where Jack Adam Topol on Ben Harper’s manager’s was watching their performance intently, if played to more than 30,000 fans, he had, as he usually does before big Enjoy Records label. Married Kim in 2000. he’d met them. With an ever-so-slight hint Toured the United States and Europe of yearning, Jack simply muttered, “No.” shows, become so nervous he couldn’t eat and could barely hold up conver- repeatedly. Sold more than a million copies And he still takes his fame lightly. Last sations with friends. On stage, he closed his eyes most of the time, afraid of of the album. Recorded second album in weekend, a 20-something ran up and blurt- studios on Oahu. Toured Australia and New ed out somewhat confusedly, “You’re my seeing that the crowd is not enthralled by his music. On the way to Zealand with Ben Harper, who is, hands biggest fan.” Jack, calm, friendly, and always Coachella, he got in a minor fender bender and, on Saturday night, let the down, Down Under’s most popular rock approachable, laughed, “I just met my musician. Returned stateside to play at his biggest idol.” batteries die in his new van. second Coachella, a two-day, 75-band-plus At the same time, Jack knows he’s not in mega-fest billed as the world’s biggest rock Kansas anymore. Inside the dressing trailer, Yes, Santa Barbarans, this man, whose celebrity is so infectious that merely utter- concert. Currently patiently awaiting next as the world’s beastie boys, sonic youths, ing the words “I know Jack Johnson” has multiplied my own fame quotient Tuesday’s CD release party at the Arlington. and extra spicy chili peppers milled about, Now you’re up to speed. he said, “It’s weird coming from Byron Bay among both near strangers and close relatives, is not superman. It’s been quite a jam-packed three years (Australia) and Hawaii (where he took a for Jack, but somehow, he’s pretty much the breather for three days) to Coachella. Here,

But as you’ll see, he’s even better, because there’s a lesson in his life for all of us. same guy I met during my first interview Jack continued ▼ ▼ Jack continued have inspired Jim Morrison to comments—that it would take a you’re either famous, half-famous, write the Door’s “Crystal Ship.”) “leap of faith to trust that Johnson or wanting to meet someone could really be this calm”—but was famous. I’m still tripping.” disappointed at the mediocre As much as we Santa Barbarans the music review and being compared to would like to claim him as our Jack’s sound is summed up in two Donovan without the “weirdness.” own, at Jack’s core is a quiet, pri- syllables: mel-low. I’ve had a copy But I think trying to place Jack’s vate Hawaiian family man, with a of the new album On and On for sound into popular-music cate- perennial tan that defies his about two months now, and all I gories will never work, since criti- Anglo-Irish and Danish back- can say, other than I like it better cal eyes tend to overlook what ground. His grandmother, two than the first, is that it’s even more makes it so special. married brothers, slew of nieces mel-low than Brushfire Fairytales. I contemplated his quick rise to and nephews, and the rest of his The 16 songs, all but a couple led fame while listening to both of his family all live close together on by acoustic guitar, are about one albums back-to-back on my five- Oahu. And even big days at beat slower and a minute shorter hour, traffic-clogged drive through Rincon can’t shake his memories than the first album’s. Compared the Los Angeles basin on the way of the North Shore’s big waves. to the slightly more electric to Coachella. The tunes reminded As he and Kim explained over Fairytales, On and On is closer to me of the camaraderie that’s felt brunch Sunday at the posh the kind of music Jack wants to during his live shows, when every- Esmerelda Resort in Palm Desert, keep doing in the future. He one’s singing and swaying in uni- they’ve pretty much already moved explained, “The second album was son, so I concluded that it’s Jack’s most of their stuff out of the my own rebellious way of out- simplicity that makes his music so Montecito flat to their house on doing the first one. I just went popular. Look at such top-selling the North Shore. His new backyard more mellow, because that’s the bands as the White Stripes or break will now be Rock Piles, but kind of music I like making.” Queens of the Stone Age, or even Pipeline at his parents’ pad is only In a musical world increasingly the Beastie Boys for that matter. a “two-minute bike ride away,” defined by over-the-top originali- What’s disappeared from the pop- according to Jack. “We’ll keep the ty—whether it be the high-energy ular music world is something place in Santa Barbara at least edge of the White Stripes, the pure and simple, a sound that through the summer,” explained punky pop of The Hives, or even might be easy and familiar but is Kim, hoping to make that their the live music hip-hop of Black sincere and authentic as well. Just chill-out spot during short breaks Eyed Peas (all bands that Jack as it’s easy to miss Jack in a crowd on this summer’s tour. “But we’ll likes)—it’s a bold, even brash, of Pacific Ocean white boys be back a lot,” said Jack. move to make this his second, the because he looks like everyone Indeed, Santa Barbara will for- superstitiously scary sophomore around him, it’s also true that ever be a part of the Jack story. effort, so simple. Yet despite Jack’s Jack’s influences—reggae and rock, While Jack has supported causes outward appearance of unflustered hip-hop and punk—are a genuine that affect Santa Barbara’s shore- tranquility, he has a natural under- hybrid of what an entire genera- front—including a large gift to lying concern about what other tion has grown up listening to. Heal the Ocean and donations to people think. Sure,it’s slow and über mellow, but recent Surfrider auctions—his hit When the Los Angeles Times list- it’s all there: the cadence of hip- currently on the radio is about the ed the top 50 must-see bands at hop, the roots of reggae, the jams view from the South Coast. A Coachella, neither Jack nor G-Love of rock, the everyday lyrical con- social commentary on our cul- made the list. They both reacted tent of punk. ture’s dependence upon oil com- with mild but cautiously con- A colleague of mine often refers panies—or “the pirates of the new cerned laughter. “Hey, man,” Jack to Jack’s sound as “campfire music.” age,” as the lyrics go— “Horizon’s told Garrett backstage, “we’re the Jack’s heard it called “barbecue Been Defeated” critiques “alien underdogs.” music.” Either description hits it casinos,” a phrase invented by his Or even take his slightly dead-on. You can’t deny it. Jack’s bike-crashing friend Vaughn to bummed reaction to the recent songs are the tunes you want to describe the luminescent oil plat- negative critique in Rolling Stone of sing with your closest friends while forms at night. (Interestingly, the his second album. He actually drinking beers and sitting around a same structures are supposed to appreciated one of the disparaging glowing pit or hot grill. Thankfully, TTY WA

Whether on stage before thousands or waiting for big waves in the water or chillin’ on a ranch near Jalama with a goat, Jack’s laid-back, down-to-earth demeanor never fades. KIM JOHNSON Jack played to upwards of 30,000 at his second Coachella Valley fest last weekend, and judging by the crowd’s singing and smiling reception, his mellow sound still rocks.

On and On continues this tradi- album, the lyrics of those songs tion, as I quickly found myself reveal the deeper relationship issues singing along with songs I’d heard that occur in every partnership. only the first time an hour before. In all his music, Jack says it poetically and presents it in an eas- ily digestible format. And for that, the message no matter what your musical taste, Confession: I was a late arrival on he should be commended. He’s the Jack train. Since I tend to shy just being himself—flip-flops, away from the next best thing—an T-shirts, shorts, and all—and say- attitude I’ve learned is often, as in ing what he thinks, and, it appears, this case, shortsighted—I avoided some of that sincerity is being even listening to his music until I transferred to the masses. prepared for our first interview a “I think what attracts the people couple of years back. When I heard who come out to the shows is that the chorus of the first song on they feel they could have written Brushfire Fairytales—“Slow down these songs,” Jack said Monday, everyone / you’re moving too reflecting on the past weekend’s fast”—I was hooked. That album concert. “When people are singing and the upcoming On and On are along, it feels really good to know jam-packed with poignant social you’re around a group of people commentary. In the same song- who have similar beliefs and feel writing tradition of Bob Dylan and the same way about the world’s the Clash’s Joe Strummer, Jack has state of affairs.” something important to say and In our numerous conversations, he’s successfully using catchy music both official with tape recorders as his medium. and informal in bars and restau- And therein lies the true reason rants, Jack has told me that he I believe so many people of all rarely reads what’s written about ages—and certainly most of his him, no matter whether it’s in college-aged and post-college-aged Time, GQ, Rolling Stone,or The fans—love Jack’s music: He has Independent. There’s no point, he’s something to tell them. explained, since if it’s complimen- Television is not a good thing; tary, he may “get a big head,” and if we watch too much of it, and we it’s critical, well, no one wants to place too much emphasis on what read bad things about themselves. the little box tells us, as he explains So I doubt he’s reading this. But in “It’s All Understood” and if you are, Jack, I want to give a “Falling.”We are too concerned heartfelt thank you. Thanks for the with others, too focused on keep- music, of course, the veritable ing up with material trends, and soundtrack of my post-UCSB don’t spend enough time under- years, but also for being a positive standing ourselves, the recurring role model for a growing genera- theme in the old and new songs tion that desperately needs one. “Posters,”“Gone,”“Wasting Time,” But most of all, thank you, Jack, and “Symbol in My Driveway.”As a for showing the rest of us that culture, we pass blame for atroci- sometimes just being ourselves is ties down the line, from a cool enough. ■ schoolkid triggerman, to the par- ents, to the media, to the songwrit- ers and filmmakers, as he sings in Jack Johnson celebrates the “Cookie Jar,” summing up, “It was release of his new album On and On you, it was me, it was every man / this Tuesday, May 6, with a show at We’ve all got blood on our hands.” the Arlington Theatre. Doors open There’s wisdom in his musings, which equates to value for a gener- at 7 p.m., show starts at 8 p.m. ation strangled by popular media Tickets available today at all and starving for someone in the Ticketmaster locations, including spotlight to say what we’ve all been the Arlington, Robinsons May, thinking. Even his love songs to The Wherehouse, and Tower Records. Kim stay pure and, on the new