Jack Johnson Sounds of Change
Jack Johnson wants to get away and sit down for a second. He’s just finished a press conference for his Kokua Festival at the Waikiki Bandshell in Honolulu and, with the mainstream media safely out of the way, he’s now ready to speak with HUCK.
Parked across the table from me, Jack starts talking about his Kokua Foundation, an environmental group that focuses on educating the youth of his native Hawaii. Proceeds from this year’s festival, headlined by Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder and backed by green brands such as Patagonia and Simple, will be used to support recycling, sponsor field trips and develop programmes for healthier school meals.
Which is all fine and dandy. Great, even. But what about being a rock star and round-the-world surfer whilst trying to save the planet. Are they compatible? “The plane flights, they take a pretty big tax on the environment,” Jack admits. “To get to these places, to travel to surf or to tour, it’s a reality that you are making an impact.”
Thankfully Jack’s not sitting on his ass waiting for technology to change – or for the world to end without a fight: ”We’ve tried to offset the energy with the bio-diesel for touring and using the vegetable oil from catering, as well as exploring other sources of fuel. I am challenging some friends who are in the know to find ways to lessen the impact and follow the example from bands like Pearl Jam, Neil Young and Willie Nelson.”
And it seems that things are slowly starting to change. “Right now a bunch of musicians are coming together as an alliance,” he says. “All these bands do their own thing. Dave Matthews has his way. Pearl Jam theirs. So we’re trying to get everybody to share the information and make it available to the bands who want to be a part of it, so we don’t have to re-invent the wheel every time.”
As an organised group, says Jack, musicians can spread the word farther and have a wider impact. The one thing that won’t change is people’s thirst for music. That, he says, we can’t do much about: “The culture is not going to transform to the point where people don’t want to be entertained. Everyone wants music still. And we want to find a way to lessen the impact.”
This story originally appeared in Huck #005.
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