Jack Johnson weathers the storm of 2020 in “The Captain Is Drunk,” a new single out Friday.
“Hey what do I do/If the captain is drunk?” Johnson sings over tranquil acoustic chords. “And the winds are too much/He’s out looking for something.”
Speaking about the track with Rolling Stone, Johnson recalled that his favorite books growing up were the Men Against the Sea trilogy by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall, which also includes 1932’s Mutiny on the Bounty and 1934’s Pitcairn’s Island. “With how divided our country felt leading up to the election, the stories from this series kept popping into my mind,” he says. “Big decisions on which way to sail in the middle of a storm as people disagree.”
Johnson released his seventh LP, All the Light Above It Too, in 2017. He recently participated in the 35th anniversary of Farm Aid, performing virtually with other artists that included Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Dave Matthews, John Mellencamp, Bonnie Raitt, and more. In April, he celebrated 50 years of Earth Day by hosting Kokua Festival 2020 – Live From Home, a livestream that included Ziggy Marley, Ben Harper, and others.
