Jack Johnson reveals how surf legend Kelly Slater inspired his music career

Singer-songwriter Jack Johnson credits an unexpected source for inspiring the start of his music career — his longtime friend and surfing legend Kelly Slater.

In his new documentary SURFILMUSIC, which premiered at the SXSW festival on March 13, Johnson reveals that Slater was the first person he ever knew who wrote a song, a moment that ultimately pushed him to try songwriting himself.

Johnson, 50, recalls spending time with Slater in Hawaii when the future surfing champion brought along a four-track tape recorder. 

The two friends began experimenting with music together while learning guitar chords as teenagers.

“He would leave the thing at my house, and we kind of started learning chords on the guitar at the same time,” Johnson says in the film. “I was 14 when I started playing guitar.”

At the time, Johnson said he had only been learning how to play other artists’ songs and had never considered writing his own.

“You were the first person I ever knew that wrote a song,” Johnson tells Slater in the documentary. “Up until that point I’d just been learning other people’s songs.”

When Slater eventually returned to Florida at the end of the winter season, he left the four-track recorder behind, a moment Johnson says proved pivotal.

“I remember thinking, ‘Wait a second, he’s gone?’” Johnson recalls. “And the four-track was still at my house. I was so stoked. That was the beginning for me.”

Slater, widely considered one of the greatest professional surfers of all time, has remained a close collaborator and friend over the years. 

The pair have performed music together at events, festivals and surf gatherings.

In September, Johnson and Slater joined fellow surfer Rob Machado for a performance of the song A Pirate Looks at Forty during the Solento Surf Festival in California.

The friendship has also extended to Johnson’s filmmaking career. 

Slater appeared in Johnson’s surf films Thicker Than Water 2000 and The September Sessions 2002, projects that blended surfing, storytelling and music.

Directed by Emmett Malloy, SURFILMUSIC traces Johnson’s unconventional journey from aspiring surfer to filmmaker and eventually a globally recognized musician.

The documentary combines rare footage from Johnson’s early surf films with archival family videos and present-day reflections to show how friendship, travel and a deep connection to nature helped shape the sound behind his music.

The film also features interviews with Johnson’s wife, Kim Johnson, whom he married in 2000, along with other longtime collaborators and friends.

Johnson’s most recent studio album, Meet the Moonlight, was released in 2022.