Natural Born Man: The Life of Jack Johnson

by Marc Shapiro

Hawaii’s own Grammy-nominated musician was carving out a growing reputation as a professional surfer when an accident left him too injured to compete at the highest level. Jack Johnson switched to making surf movies but gradually found his voice as a singer-songwriter. Initially a cult favorite among surfers, he has now crossed over to the mainstream, acclaimed as a “Dylan for the twenty-first century.” His third album, 2005’s In Between Dreams, sold over two million copies worldwide and continues to ride high in album charts, and he has just picked up a BRIT Award for International Breakthrough Act. Acclaimed George Harrison biographer Marc Shapiro has conducted hours of new interviews with those who knew Johnson both as a surfer and a musician, to produce a compelling portrait of one of rock’s most original new stars.

188 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2007

About the author

Marc Shapiro is the author of the New York Times bestselling biography, J.K. Rowling: The Wizard behind Harry Potter, and more than a dozen other celebrity biographies. He has been a freelance entertainment journalist for more than twenty-five years, covering film, television, and music for a number of national and international newspapers and magazines.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/marcsh...

Reviews

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

From my interest in surfing, I know about Jack Johnson more for his surfing and film-making career (loved the movies he's helped make!) and I've admired his environmental stance as well. Figured I'd find out some more about his life, too. His life has been interesting, but this book does not do it justice! Most of the information was culled from magazine articles the author read. There did not seem to be any first-hand knowledge imparted and it came off as very kissy-kissy and almost fake.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little repetitive - it's a shame the writer doesn't actually know him.

[Lauri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting subject matter, but told in an off-hand, very dry & factual manner. It could've been so much more, dude...