Jack Johnson and Ben Harper to tour Australia — ABC News Australia
Jack Johnson and Ben Harper will embark on a joint tour of Australia in November. Australian performer John Butler will join all the concerts. The tour begins on November 7 in Brisbane, followed by performances in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne, ABC News Australia reports.
Meeting during the 2001 tour
Johnson first toured Australia in 2001 and played several dates at the East Coast Blues and Roots festival. According to him, Harper helped him get a better slot in the lineup and took him on his first tours.
On the final night of the festival, Johnson performed immediately before Harper. As the musician recalled, tens of thousands of people gathered in the tent for the headliner's performance, and after his set, some of the audience became fans of the then little-known performer.
After that, Johnson organized a day of surfing for Harper's band members. He noted that Harper had experience in surfing and skateboarding, while for some of the other musicians it was their first time in the water. Johnson said that such episodes on tour sometimes remain in his memory no less than the performances themselves.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
Since his first trip to Australia, Johnson has played around 100 concerts there. He associates his sense of closeness to the country with its surf culture, which reminds him of life in Hawaii. The performer also noted that he is still a fan of Harper, whose music he listened to even before they met in person.
The Taylor music video with Ben Stiller
After his first Australian tour, Johnson gained widespread popularity. During the tour for his second album, On and On, in 2003, he was already headlining arenas. That same year, actor Ben Stiller appeared in and directed the music video for the song Taylor.
According to Johnson, he initially asked Stiller to play him in the video. The actor instead proposed a plot about a director dissatisfied with the musician's overly calm behavior in front of the camera. The video was filmed a few days after their meeting, and most scenes were improvised.
