Born in Hawaii, notorious for its sandy beaches and surfing culture, Jack Hody Johnson could not hold back the his passion to take the surf board and go out for a few rides on the waves. Having a surfer father, Jeff Johnson, made it easier for the May 18, 1975 born singer to adapt to the culture since a very early age. By 10, Johnson had been sponsored by Quicksilver and was going pro when he entered the prestigious competition for surfers, Pipeline. He made it into the finals and became the youngest contestant listed then. In between his 'wet' time, Johnson also spared time exploring his other talent, playing guitar. He first picked the instrument at the age of 14 but never thought he would go serious in the music field. It took an accident to bent Johnson from, surfing, the career he thought he would go through, to playing music, the career that eventually got his name heard internationally.

When he was 17, Johnson joined the Pipeline Masters competition that almost took his life. He crashed to a reef, lost his front teeth, broke his nose and almost drowned from the shock. "I was conscious, then I'd start to doze off. It was like when you keep pushing snooze on your alarm clock," he recalled later on. "All of a sudden I said, 'Wait a minute, I pushed snooze too many times here, I'm gonna die if I don't start swimming." Upon recovering, Johnson who received more than 150 stitches, wrote songs in bed but still was not planning to become a musician. Instead, he chose to study film making when he enrolled at University of California and graduated with the title. In 1999, he along with some friends released a surfing documentary titled "Thicker Than Water" and followed it up with another one, "The September Session" the next year. Johnson however, never left his passion in music for beside sitting as the director, he also contributed the score to the films.

The twist of fate came when he was introduced to musician G. Love who intended to learn surfing from him. The friendship led to G. Love recording a track penned by Johnson called "Rodeo Clowns" that was included in G. Love's mixtape. Next thing Johnson knew, his demo tapes ended up on the hand of Ben Harper's producer, J.P. Plunier. In 2001, a debut album from Johnson was released under the title "Brushfire Fairy Tales". It was enough an album to put him into nationwide attention but it was the second effort, however, that really got him the cash flow and applauds from music critic. Recorded in his homeland Hawaii during summer 2002, "On and On" was released in May 2003 and distributed by Universal Music. It peaked at #3 on Billboard Hot 200 chart, propelling his status as one of the acknowledgeable folk singers out there. By then, Johnson had established his own production record, Brushfire Records, and was on his way to bigger stardom.

It took him almost two and a half years to complete the third album, "In Between Dreams". When it was released in March 2005, the copies were flying off the shelves quite rapidly that in May 2006, it was sold 2.1 million copies in U.S. only. The year 2006 also saw him gaining nods from music experts for his single "Sitting, Waiting, Wishing" was nominated at the prestigious Grammy Awards in the category Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. At the same time, he also amassed a huge fan base in U.K. that the 2006 BRIT Awards crowned him International Breakthrough Artist. Not taking too much time, he revisited his old job at penning music scores by releasing the soundtrack to animated movie "Curious George". In the album, Johnson was backed by his friends and idols such as G. Love, Ben Harper and Jack White of The White Stripes. The album successfully topped the album chart in U.S. by selling 149,000 copies in its first week. The last time a soundtrack album made it to #1 was when "Bad Boys II" reached popularity in August 2003. 'Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George' was also named the first soundtrack to an animated film to top the Billboard 200 since "Pocahontas" soundtrack in July 1995.

After several months touring, Johnson settled down at Solar Powered Plastic Plant recording studio in Los Angeles to work on his fifth studio album.