He is a singer-songwriter, guitarist, filmmaker and
surfer born Jack Hody Johnson in Hawaii and whose father is Jeff Johnson, a
well-known surfer. He began
surfing when he was just 5 years old and turned professional while a
teenager, taking part in many competitions, including being the youngest
finalist in the Pipe trial when he was seventeen.The same year as the Pipeline Masters trial he suffered
a major accident and ended up with 150 stitches and lost teeth after
hitting his head.During his
convalescence he decided to pick up the guitar that had been playing since
he was 14 and began to concentrate more on music and dabble in songwriting.He took his further studies at the
University of California and it was here that he seriously began to write
songs and play guitar with the group Soil as well as gain a film degree.Soon he would be making his own surfing
movies.Sometime later he was
booked to take G. Love out surfing and, after introducing him to his song "Rodeo Clowns", he ended up singing
and performing on it when he recorded it for the up and coming album Philadelphonic
as well as seeing it being released as a single.This was enough to see him releasing
a demo and the producer J.P. Plunier became interested and this resulted in
him stepping into the recording studio in his own right and releasing Brushfire
Fairytales as his debut in 2001 with the ensuing Billboard Adult
Contemporary No. 1 single "Flake".Since then he has released the soundtrack to Curious George
and a further three albums: In Between Dreams, On and On and Sleep
Through the Static which have all reached the Top 40 in the album
charts, with each one hitting the No. 1 position in New Zealand and In
Between Dreams reaching the same top spot in the UK and Australia as
well as No. 2 in the US.Aside
from appearing in his own show, he was a guest artist with Jimmy Buffett
and his Coral Reefer Band in 2006 at the Santa Barbara Bowl in California.In recognition for his music
contributions so far, he was awarded 2 Brit Awards for "International
Breakthrough Act" and "International Male Solo Artist" for his In
Between Dreams.
