Back On His Bubbly Toes: Jack Johnson Tours To Benefit Charity

Jack Johnson, in case you forgot, is an endearing singer-songwriter, musician, actor, record producer, and former all-pro surfer who writes catchy and clever little ditties which are designed to make you sing along and feel good. You may best recognize him for his work on the Curious George soundtrack.

Well, Jack has taken his show on the road for the listening enjoyment of some very lucky fans. Oh yea, and did we mention that Jack Johnson graciously donates ALL the money that he makes from his tour to charity. Sure, he only hits a few dates here and there, but that’s definitely worth mentioning. In the past, proceeds have gone to benefit the following, as posted on the Jack Johnson website:

“The Johnson Ohana Charitable Foundation, an endowment founded by Jack and Kim Johnson to support environmental, art and music education now and into the future. As part of his 2010 world tour, the Johnson Ohana Charitable Foundation offered direct and matching donations to All At Once partner non-profits. Jack Johnson also donated 100% of his 2012 Hawaii tour profits to charity.”

The Santa Barbara Independent caught up with Johnson during one leg of his tour for an interview where Jack talks more about his charitable foundations and also his incessant stage fright. Turns out that the spirit of Aloha that is interlaced so carefully throughout his songs doesn’t always stay with Jack when he’s performing:

“The first tour I ever did was opening for Ben Harper, and I thought I was going to pass out every time I walked onstage. People think I’m exaggerating, but I was that nervous. Every time before I’ve played things like Letterman or Jay Leno, I literally almost passed out.”

And as far as writing songs? Jack playfully reflects on what inspired his most popular love song “Bubble Toes”:

“To me, it’s like, I couldn’t have written a love song before I met my love, so I may have tried, connected the dots and made words rhyme, but you can’t write a love song without love.”

Recently, the San Francisco Gate also reported on one of Jack Johnson’s recent shows in the Bay Area and found that Jack has a penchant for Jimi Hendrix. When Jack Johnson hit the stage at the Greek Theater in Berkeley, he had quite a treat for his audience. Johnson would play what was described as a “very, very mellow version of “Crosstown Traffic.””

So far, Jack Johnson has only committed to two more dates on his lackadaisical tour and both shows are in California and both shows are sold out. Hopefully, Jack will add more dates soon. When he does, we’ll be sure to keep you up to date!