Jack Johnson on Big Island

By JOHN BURNETT

Tribune-Herald staff writer

Big Island fans have long waited for Jack Johnson to do a concert here, and the wait is almost over.

Johnson, the singer-songwriter from Oahu’s North Shore whose hits include “Sitting, Waiting, Wishing,” “Better Together,” “Taylor” and “Bubble Toes,” will play a pair of benefit shows for his Kokua Hawaii Foundation at Waimea’s Kahilu Theatre, April 28 and 29. Also on the bill are Paula Fuga and John Cruz. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. both nights with show times at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $50 and go on sale Saturday at 9 a.m. for foundation members and at noon for the public. There will be no online or phone sales and the Kahilu box office is the only outlet.

The Kahilu concerts are the final leg of a statewide, small-venue mini-tour.

“We’re playing an acoustic show; the band’s not going to be with me,” Johnson told the Tribune-Herald on Wednesday. “… We do a lot of outdoor shows and that’s kind of our usual, so doing something indoor sounds like fun.”

Johnson has toured nationally with Fuga, who gained attention a few years ago when she was rejected by American Idol — a snub that turned out to be their loss.

“I didn’t even realize until a while after we met that happened to her,” Johnson said. After hearing Fuga play, he signed her up for the Kokua Festival, Johnson’s almost-yearly eco-friendly Earth Day event.

Cruz is a longtime friend and sometimes music partner whom Johnson described as “beautiful to listen to” and “always willing to improvise.”

“He’s not one of those guys who’s so precious that he has to have everything planned out beforehand,” Johnson said. “He’s just always up for playing music, any song, any form. When someone loves playing music, you can feel that.”

When Johnson goes on the road, wife Kim and their three children go along.

I think we’ve found a pretty good balance of touring and being at home,” he said. “I need to be home to write. When I’m on tour, I take in a lot but I don’t really write much.”

The live album “Best of Kokua Festival” is scheduled for release on April 17, just before Earth Day. It features music from five of the six Kokua Festivals, with Johnson and friends including Fuga, Cruz, Jackson Browne, Dave Matthews, Eddie Vedder, Willie Nelson, Taj Mahal, Ben Harper, Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley, Jake Shimabukuro, Tim Reynolds, Ozomatli, G. Love, Kawika Kahiapo and Johnson band member Zach Gill.

“All of them are people I’ve been greatly influenced by, and I feel lucky now to consider them all friends and play music with them,” he said.

Johnson’s Mango Tree Studio is solar powered. He uses recycled paper for his CD art and the nonprofit Kokua Hawaii Foundation works mostly with schools on environmental education.

“That mostly ranges from recycling programs to getting the kids on field trips out in nature, gardens at the schools,” he explained. “We also give out mini-grants, so teachers can do projects they’ve been working on. Any teachers reading can go to kokuahawaii.org.”

In many ways, Johnson has followed the example of his father, professional surfer and environmentalist Jeff Johnson, who died of cancer at 65 in 2009. Johnson described his dad as “a close friend” and losing him as “tough.”

“We did a lot together; he’s greatly missed. I’ve got two older brothers. In a way, it was like I had three dads.”

Johnson himself was a promising 17-year-old pro surfer when he was nearly killed in a freak wipeout at Pipeline in 1992 that left him with a few missing teeth and a gash in his head that took 150 stitches to close. In need of another occupation, he went to the University of California at Santa Barbara.

“I took filmmaking in college and I went out and started making these surf films. It was a lot of fun. I thought it was the best job I could ever have. But music doesn’t even feel like a job. I feel like the luckiest guy in the world to get to play the music and make a living doing that.”

Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.