Daniel Johnson retires the j j persona, launches In Search of X

Daniel Johnson explains that last July he retired his artist persona j j — a name he created at age ten or eleven — because he had outgrown it and his ideals had evolved. He is reemerging with a new project called In Search of X, built on the idea that everyone is searching for something, and hopes to be writing now, in the studio by March, and back on the road by summer. A host asks whether stepping out of the Christian-artist box changes his relationship with God, and Johnson says the old brand's impossible pedestal made honest talk about struggle impossible.