Jack Johnson Shares the No. 1 Thing He Hears From Fans That He’s Not Sure Is a Compliment (Exclusive)

Jack Johnson’s music apparently puts babies to sleep. He says he hears that from parents all the time and his response essentially is, thanks?

The two-time GRAMMY-nominated artist spoke to ET’s Nischelle Turner in Hawaii, where he lives with his wife, Kim. Together, the longtime couple has spearheaded the Kōkua Hawaii Foundation — working to make a greener future — for the better part of two decades. He talked about the foundation’s new learning farm, the secret to a long-lasting marriage and the compliments he gets from fans.

For starters, living in Hawaii has done wonders for the Johnsons. Jack was born and raised there, but attended college at the University of California, Santa Barbara in scenic Southern California. It was there where he met his wife, and soon after he brought her back to where it all started for him.

And therein lies the secret to their longevity — staying away from Hollywood. Something else that helps? Subscribing to the mantra, “happy wife, happy life.”

“Yeah, I just started listening to whatever she told me to do,” he quips. “I would just do it.”

Jack’s music is synonymous with Hawaii. It’s hard to go anywhere on the island, walk into a restaurant and not hear Johnson’s acoustics and soothing voice filling the air. 

“It’s always an honor when I hear it playing,” he says.

As a native of Hawaii, fans quite often come up to him on the island and tell him the significance his songs have played in their personal lives.

“I mean, there’s so many times that I meet people [who tell me] that they used one of my songs on an important day,” he says. “Say, their marriage, giving birth, putting their kids to sleep. The thing that I hear the most is, ‘I put your music on and it makes my kid sleep’ and I never know, is that a compliment or is my music so boring that it’s putting kids to sleep around the world? And I’m just like, ‘I’ll take it.'”

Since 2019, Jack and his wife introduced the foundation’s Kōkua Learning Farm, which sits on eight acres off Oahu’s North Shore.

“It’s been really exciting to have a community gathering place where kids can come on field trips here,” says Jack, who is also an environmentalist with a passion for restoring the ocean’s health.

“Our mission is to support environmental education in the schools and community of Hawaii,” Kim adds. “And we started with the Kōkua, which is Hawaiian for kids, but now that we have this learning farm, we can bring people of all ages.”

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