If there’s such a thing as your “average” pop star, Jason Mraz probably isn’t it.

For starters, Mraz — whose 2008 smash single, “I’m Yours” has sold more than 4 million copies — is an active environmentalist who lives on a solar-powered avocado farm and was honored last year by the Environmental Media Association for his activism.

On top of that, Mraz recently become active in the fight against child slavery. This year, he went to Ghana with the group Free the Slaves, which helped rescued a group of child slave laborers. He spent five days traveling with a former child slave, visiting rescue shelters.

Free the Slaves, a U.S.-based non-profit group, is partnered with Anti Slavery International in the UK. The groups coordinated the Ghana rescue mission and invited Mraz along.

“When I went out on the boat, you know, my first thought was, ‘What am I doing here, I'm a million miles from home, you know, is this really the place for me?’,” Mraz said in a recent CNN profile.

“And I immediately found that the strength of James Kofi Annan, who was running this boat, that the strength of his became the strength of mine. And that this was really a mission for equality.”

After having been face to face with such a grim situation, Mraz had to get his head into a different space when he returned, so he could prepare for his Gratitude Café Tour, which comes to the EMU Convocation Center in Ypsilanti on Thursday.

Mraz’s latest disc was a 2009 live CD / DVD, “Jason Mraz’s Beautiful Mess — Live on Earth.” The disc features a bevy of moderately improvised variations on his greatest hits, including “I’m Yours,” “Make it Mine,” “Lucky,” “Remedy (I Won’t Worry)” and “You and I Both.”

Jason Mraz performing "The Dynamo of Volition" on the "Live On Earth" DVD:

If that sounds like a fair number of hits, well, Mraz has definitely scored big on the pop charts over the last six years, since his 2002 debut.

But he really sealed the deal with the mass audience when he released “We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things” in 2008. The disc has sold three million copies worldwide and included the aforementioned chart-busters “I’m Yours” and “Lucky.” It was his slinkiest, most groove-conscious record to date, as he mostly downplayed the acoustic guitar textures of his previous discs and focused on a sleek, accessible, blue-eyed soul vibe. And, in keeping with the modern-soul approach, many of the lyrics contained not-so-thinly-veiled sexual come-ons. The disc earned him a pair of Grammys.

“I’m Yours” — a song about about generosity, surrender, and openness to life’s possibilities — actually got leaked way before the album’s release. A demo of the song somehow got out a couple of years beforehand, and it developed something of a cult following.

“I considered it my happy little hippie song and wanted to share it even when it was fresh and new,” says Mraz in an interview for his Atlantic Records bio. “Over the years, as we performed it live, it became the song people sang along to at the loudest volume. And they sang it to each other. That’s when I realized I needed to give it a home on (a) record.”

Good choice. It catapulted to the top of four different pop charts — each tracking a different pop radio format — and earned ASCAP’s “Song of the Year” award.

Mraz likes to hone his songwriting skills by playing a game with various other writer pals, like Texas-based songwriters Billy Harvey & Bob Schneider.

“Bob and company will give me a word or a phrase, and I’ll have to turn that info into a song and email it to everyone else who’s playing,” says Mraz in the Atlantic interview. “The game is like a support group. It’s a way for writers to encourage each other, to stay active in their craft and not get too heady and where their song might end up.”

Mraz’s songwriting was acknowledged when he received the Songwriters Hall of Fame’s “Hal David Starlight Award” at the organization’s 40th anniversary gala. The award had previously gone to such writers as Rob Thomas, Alicia Keys, John Mayer, and John Legend.

Mraz told CNN that the recent rescue mission he participated in will likely find its way into one of his songs.

“You know, I've always been a writer who wants to write about my experiences,” said Mraz. “And so this experience being added to that, I want to live extraordinary experiences. And when I give advice to people, I want it to be sage advice. You know, I think our storytellers — our songwriters — should be great storytellers, and they should be mountain climbers and explorers, because music is something that can cross all different borders.

“And I've seen that in the last couple of years. And so I find it's important for me to have these extraordinary experiences, so that it can filter down into my music.”

Kevin Ransom is a free-lance writer who covers music for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at KevinRansom10@aol.com.