An intimate evening with Jack Johnson at the GRAMMY Museum

It was a brisk evening on a rooftop deck in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, California. However it was also a special evening… one where you could see GRAMMY-nominated and former professional surfer Jack Johnson and producer Blake Mills perform live and discuss Meet the Moonlight — Jack Johnson’s eighth studio album that came out on June 24th, 2022.

As I walked out the elevator to the top of the GRAMMY Museum L.A. Live, the atmosphere was calm and relaxed with about 200 guests taking in the downtown skyscraper views, sipping on their favorite alcoholic beverages and standing around table tops, patiently waiting for their favorite artist to hit the stage. Once that time came for the night to start, Jack Johnson appeared onstage.

Everyone took to their seats and began to cheer.

The night started off with a Q&A discussion, talking about Meet the Moonlight and diving deep into the writing process when creating the songs with producer Blake Mills. When creating this album, Jack mentioned that “a few of the songs that took five minutes to write were in the beginning of the album and songs that took a week were the deep cuts towards the end”. During the creation and writing of these songs, he “was seeing everything in the world at the time that was going on and seeing things from a different perspective”.

The first song they spoke about is called “Open Mind” — the first track on the album. Johnson mentioned that “the song is a reminder to be present in the moment” and “that it’s a good thing to always have an open mind going into situations in life”.

The next song they discussed is called “One Step Ahead”, which is a groovy tune that has sonic textures to it and one of the very first songs they created in the studio. In the beginning of making the album, Mills said they were messing around a lot playing guitar and how that experience felt like they were just two friends hanging out and creating tunes together.

Towards the end of the session, fans had the opportunity to ask Jack Johnson a few questions.

The crowd immediately threw their hands up in the air, with huge grins on their faces, hoping that their favorite singer would pick them. The first question for Jack was, “What can we do to make our community better?”

Jack responded by saying that he likes to volunteer by planting, cleaning up different cities (especially while on tour) and bringing communities together. He also likes to have nonprofit booths set up at his shows to help spread awareness.

Another question: “What is your favorite venue to perform at on tour?” And, some of the
answers were, The Gorge Amphitheater, Santa Barbara Bowl and the Hollywood Bowl. At one point during the Q&A, a fan shouted out that this was their 56th time seeing him live and wanted him to play for the rest of his life so his kids can see him perform when they grow up. Jack Johnson was left in shock and couldn’t thank his fans enough for all their support throughout all these years.

Once the Q&A wrapped, it was time for Jack Johnson and Blake Mills to perform. Throughout the set, songs from Meet the Moonlight were beautifully sung on guitar and the crowd rocked in their seats and enjoyed the night away. Songs such as “Open Mind”, “3AM Radio”, ”One Step Ahead” and “Moonlight” were just a few played from his latest album. Johnson then surprised the audience with “Better Together” off of his album In Between Dreams, which ended up being the fan-favorite and had everyone singing along.

Someone even yelled out that they played it at their wedding recently.

All in all, it was an amazing performance. Despite the loud police sirens in the background from down below and the people yelling on the streets of downtown LA, it was a very special and personal night that his supporters will never forget!

Photography by Mikayla Ragovin

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