ASSOCIATED PRESS Jack Johnson's "Sleep Through the Static" tour lead him to performances at the All Points West music festival at Liberty State Park in New Jersey, above, and the Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival in San Francisco last week before closing in Los Angeles Sunday.

Always sharing the stage

Singer-songwriter Jack Johnson uses his own success to put other Hawaii artists in the spotlight

It was unexpected because his publicist said Johnson wasn't doing any more press, as his eight-month "Sleep Through the Static" world tour winds down to its end Sunday in Los Angeles. I was there to interview his longtime friend and band member Zach Gill.

Still, Johnson stopped to shake my hand and exchange pleasantries. Suddenly trying to legitimize my press credentials, I told him I've been following his career with interest since I first interviewed him in April 2001, after the release of his debut album, "Brushfire Fairytales."

I also reminded him of the gig he did soon afterward at the now-defunct After Dark club on Nimitz Highway, opening for Alicia Keys' splashier, late-night miniconcert. Johnson and his rhythm section played that night for people who knew him more as a surfer and documentary filmmaker from the North Shore. They were an inattentive if still supportive crowd, most of them enjoying the night out by socializing - loudly - throughout the performance.

"Yeah, I remember," he says. "That was a weird night."

Well, things have certainly changed. Millions of fans around the world now give Johnson their rapt attention during his shows, all the while screaming (the women, that is) over that handsome face.

Taking all this into consideration, I'm surprised by my initial reaction upon seeing him again face to face. Although he's basically that same grounded "surfer dude" born and raised in Haleiwa, he now has a strong underlying sense of rock-star charisma, in spades.

But Johnson remains a generous man by nature, sharing his success. What was once Moonshine Conspiracy Records has grown into Johnson's boutique label, Brushfire Records, with its own roster of artists. Many have performed in the Kokua Festival that Johnson and his wife, Kim, organize every year in Honolulu - G. Love, Matt Costa, Mason Jennings and the Animal Liberation Orchestra.

Paula Fuga, a respected local artist, is getting wider exposure on the mainland, thanks to Johnson. He's a big fan and has taken her on tour as a special guest on these concluding West Coast dates.

About midway through his headlining set Sunday, a bespectacled Fuga came onstage to do "Country Road," a song that she and Johnson sang as a duet on "Mana Maoli," a benefit album for the Hawaiian charter school Halau Ku Mana.

Fuga charmed the large crowd with her singing, ukulele playing and adept whistling. But their approval was more vocal when she gave an impassioned reading of a reggaefied "Give Voice," joined by the horn section of the Culver City Dub Collective, a side group of drummer Adam Topol's.

To feel that warm Hawaii vibe on a clear and cool night in the Bay Area made for another unexpected - and welcome - surprise for me.