From a guy who came from living it up with a hippie family in a house built on pipeline, Jack Johnson has come a long way.  Growing up with two older brothers who ripped at surfing pipeline and friends such as Kelly Slater, Rob Machodo and Shane Dorian it’s a surprise he never made it as a pro surfer.  The fact is that he got in a really bad accident at pipeline and busted his face open on the treacherous reef and went under several surgeries to repair his face.  Needless to say he may have missed his window considering he had to stop surfing for over a year.  But that didn’t stop his love for the ocean since he decided he would take up filming and record his friends ripping all over the world.

One of the first projects he worked on was The September Sessions DVD where they travelled to Mentawais which at the time was entirely unknown.  It worked out for both parties because the group scored perfect waves and Jack was there to film every moment.  While on the boat, Jack would play songs on his guitar and when asked by Kelly Slater who he was playing Jack stated “Ah it’s just something I wrote.”  With his friends encouragement to play more they convinced him he should put some songs on the soundtrack for the DVD, he timidly agreed and with the tracks “Rodeo Clowns” and “F-Stop Blues” making their debut on the DVD a star was born.

It’s not to tough to say that he put out an album quickly after that release after hearing many positive reviews for his music.  His album Brushfire Fairytales led to super hit “Flake” and “Bubble Toes” which easily allowed him to put out multiple albums following suit over the years as well as surf films featuring his music.  On and On quickly came out with the two hits “Times Like These” and crowd favorite “Taylor” and his show was on the road at this point and he could call this a career.  He’s released In Between Dreams, Curious George Soundtrack and in my opinion his highly underrated new album Sleep Through The Static and unfortunately around here it’s kind of been cool to stop listening to Jack Johnson.  The main thing I see is that it was such a surf thing and really only surfers who were really into the scene had heard of him and all of a sudden people who didn’t surf started to love his music.  This tends to leave sour taste in surfers mouths and even really in any loyal fan to an artist who said they heard them first.  Either way I know he’ll keep making music and I’ll always love everything he puts out and hope he never stops.  His music does sound the same but I know that I’m getting chill ambient music when I pick up his new album and that’s fine with me.  Check out one of  my favorite songs and segments, “F-Stop Blues” in September Sessions.