Previously, we brought you part one of our list of 15 interesting facts about Jason Mraz. Now, we bring you eight more facts about the platinum-selling artist, who has been a hit with fans for more than a decade.
Number Eight: He Toured with a Magician. After taking up magic while recording We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things., Mraz decided to bring magician and comedian Justin Willman on his Musc, Magic & Make Peace tour with him, Bushwalla and The Makepeace Brothers. Parts of the journey can be found on YouTube.
Number Seven: He Has an Investors Stake in a Vegan Restaurant Collective. A known vegan, Jason Mraz bought into a vegan restaurant collective called Café Gratitude. He frequently dines at the collective’s locations and even named his Gratitude Café tour after them as a way to honor their work.
Number Six: He Started His Own Charity. Already known to be a social activist and philanthropist by 2011, Mraz decided to start his own charity, The Jason Mraz Foundation. The foundation aggregates and donates money to charities revolving around human equality, environmental preservation, and education fields. So far, the organization has donated to charities such as VH1’s Save the Music Foundation, MusiCares, the Surfrider Foundation, Free the Children, Life Rolls On, the School of the Performing Arts, as well as the NRDC and The True Colors fund. Mraz has won many humanitarian awards for his work.
Number Five: He was Involved in Two Documentaries. In 2012, Mraz helped produce a documentary called The Big Fix, which chronicled the lives of families living near the 2010 BP Oil Spill. Besides directing the piece, he also lent his voice to one of the narrators of the story. He lent his voice to a documentary again in 2015 for the film Unity.
Number Four: He Secretly Got Married. Jason Mraz posted on his Facebook page back in October about marrying his girlfriend. Until then, he kept it a pretty well-hid secret.
Number Three: He was the First International Artist to Publicly Perform in Myanmar. In 2012, Jason Mraz organized an open-air concert in Myanmar’s People’s Square to bring awareness to the problem of human trafficking. However, the show made history more for its occurrence than its cause. This show made Mraz the first international act to perform in a public place within the country since the end of their military rule. The show also made him one of only two Western artists to have played the area in decades. The other was Ozomatli in 2009.
Number Two: He Played for President Obama. An avid supporter of the president for election, Mraz has played at functions for President Obama and Vice President Biden many times.
Number One: He Has Opened for the Rolling Stones. Just as Jason Mraz was picking up steam in his music career, he had the opportunity to open for a couple of big name artists. In 2005, he got to play with Alanis Morissette during her Jagged Little Pill tour. Even more impressive though were the five dates he opened for the Rolling Stones in 2005 and 2006. Thank you for reading our list of 15 interesting facts about Jason Mraz. We hope you enjoyed them!