What do you get when you put together a surfer, a true romantic, and a great guitar player? Jack Johnson, in the flesh. Whether you love him the undercurrent of undying love for his wife in his lyrics or his beachy chill vibe: Jack is a national treasure.

While he’s a national treasure, he’s not from the continuous U.S. Jack is a Hawaii native, and he lives there with his wife and their children on their home-style organic farm. Can’t you just see him tending to his crops when he’s not strumming on his guitar? He portrays such a wholesome vibe.

Surfing, Film, and College

Jack didn’t always have his sights on the music scene. Growing up (in Hawaii), he was a professional surfer, and he was pretty good. Unfortunately, when he was 17, he sustained a surfing accident that reportedly took 150 stitches to fix. That injury, and the time it made him spend out of the water, turned his interest to music and film.

He studied the latter during college, at UC Santa Barbara, which is where he made the film “Thicker Than Water.” He wrote and performed the soundtrack for his movie, which got the attention of the G. Love and Special Sauce, who covered one of the tracks from it on their 1999 album.

From Surfer to Superstar

It was just two years later, in 2001, that Jack recorded and released “Brushfire Fairytales,” his debut album. The public loved his beachy-folk sound, comparing him to Ben Harper (who cameoed on the album). That first album went platinum, and he put out “On and On” another year later.

With the success of his first two albums, Jack started to use his music to explore social issues. The song “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” is a great example. Now a well-known name, he was asked to write the soundtrack for Curious George, the movie, which was the highest-charting kid’s movie soundtrack since Pocahontas. Musically and otherwise, Jack Johnson can do no wrong. All of his albums sell like crazy, and he lives/promotes a socially conscious life.