So as a closet musician, I am thrilled to see so many of my peers embracing this fabulous planet we live on. They do it by acknowledging the issues and trying, very hard to make a difference. More than that, they are trying to make us make a difference too. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery after all.

Let’s face it. We’re only human. Whatever walk of life you find yourselves traveling down we always have at least one special person who we admire and while these may very well be the people that we know and love, for a lot of us, these ‘idols’ also include people we have never met and probably never will. Whoever it may be, we all have our soft spots. The key for us is the realization that with adulation comes social responsibility. From political figureheads to sports personalities, celebrities and even Hollywood debutantes with no discernible skill set. These people represent something to some of us at some time in our lives.

So that is why I’m so happy to read about so many more of my favourite musicians getting on their band wagon and helping us to see a cleaner future; and while I’ll probably never get to travel to my sold out stadium gig in a biodiesel tour bus, I can still rest assured that my eco-efforts are just as legitimate when I make sure that I only sing through one of my songs in shower ☺

So, over the next few articles I will take some time to honour a few of the musicians that are actively eco. Here are the first 3 fantabulous ones:

Jack Johnson
Oh yeah – we LOVE him! His 2005 tour was one high-powered eco-tour. Fueled by biodiesel, organic cotton, 100% post-consumer paper and low-energy light bulbs. Snacks were organic and any left over food was donated to local shelters by Rock and Wrap It Up. Venues were presented with eco-friendly alternatives to some of their current practices (and several gladly implemented them!) and significant donations were made to several charities, including a contribution to Native Energy for the creation of windmills to offset the tour’s CO2 emissions. Bloody brilliant!

Willie Nelson
Rumour has it that Mr. Nelson has a truely wonderful saying, “buy local, sell local” and he has been fighting the good fight for many years. It was over 20 years ago that he help found the organization, Farm Aid, which assists family farmers. More recently he’s been actively supporting the use of hemp in clothing and fuel and he even has his own brand of alternative fuel called BioWillie (yep – gotta love that one!)

Pearl Jam
Yummy ☺ These biodiesel rockers donated a total of $100,000 to no fewer than nine organizations working on climate change, renewable energy, and other green causes last year. That’s not all, on their previous tour they also donated funds to help preserve the Madagascan rainforest.