For well over a decade now, John Mayer has been the biggest star with an acoustic guitar, slinging love songs that make millions sigh and work their way up the charts. After dabbling in Americana and country-tinged rock for a moment, the seven-time Grammy winner went back to where he first found success and began minting original pop-rock once again. The result was a series of releases, all of which hit the charts earlier this year. Two EPs—The Search For Everything Waves One and Two—were eventually compiled into a full-length with a few additional tracks, and all three items performed well. In fact, two of the three stalled in the runner-up spot on the Billboard 200, stopping just short of adding to the three No. 1 records the musician has already racked up.
It's been an interesting few years for Mayer, who has seen his name explode and become a powerful brand, only to have it taken down a peg by a number of interviews where he came close to wrecking everything he had built. Now he's back in the public's eye after retreating, and this time around, he's not looking for the spotlight or grandeur, but rather to write great songs and tour the world with his own tunes and as a member of Dead & Company.
Next up for Mayer is the second round of the Bud Light Dive Bar Tour, which was originally fronted last year by Lady Gaga. The pop star is returning in 2017, but this time around, the beer company has signed up new chart-toppers to keep the tour going instead of sticking with one singer, and Mayer will be performing at an undisclosed location in Los Angeles on July 26.
I spoke with the singer-songwriter recently about his touring efforts and what has changed in his career over the years.
Hugh McIntyre: Your new album took me back to the John Mayer I was introduced to originally.
John Mayer: Thank you.
McIntyre: How does it feel revisiting that style after going Americana/country for a little while?
Mayer: Really good question. And after doing Dead & Company.
It's like, you remove a flavor that you're used to, so that when you reintroduce it, you can enjoy it more. That really is what it is. It's like, I don't think people really understand all the demands of being a solo act with your name. You are your name, and your name is the product, and that's the music, and you are expected to answer questions about...not only do you have to think it and create it, but you have to represent it, and you have to represent it thoughtfully. That's sometimes the hardest thing to do.
I wish I said, "I don't know" a lot more when I was younger. When someone said, "So how is this record different," or, "How do you feel about this," or, "So-and-so said this about you. How do you…," I always had to pick this hyper, at least what I thought was this hyper-intelligent self-representation, and it just didn't work. What I've done now is I've removed myself from the center. It's such a good thing to do. People do it when they get older anyway, they take themselves out of the center. It becomes a less self-centric thing. I have more fun playing music, more opportunity, less time wasted worrying about whether I come off this way or that way. I look at myself as a participant in playing music rather than a force of nature. It was a stupid idea. By the way, when you're young, go for it.
I say, get famous, get successful, then get the therapy. Remove the weirdness that grew in all of the human growth hormone of fame and success, and carry on, you know? To know that I have realized all the things that didn't work, removed most of it from the equation, and now I just get to enjoy the benefit, and I know myself well enough to know what's going to be a slippery slope for me, or my ego, what am I going to get in over my head trying to win, and I don't play most of those games anymore, like masterminding things.
I have access to playing with the greatest musicians in the world. I can make whatever record I want next time. My thoughts and my ideas can become music or any item I want them to become. That's all I ever wanted. It took me a while to realize that's all I ever wanted. The idea of me as this center focus of thing, it didn't... I understand that's the way it looks from the outside and that's great, but I now stand to the side of it, and I know how to turn it on and off, which is great. Most people in my position at this age who've done it long enough learn how to do that. It's a bumpy ride, but you if you figure it out, it seems to make sense once you get where you're going.
McIntyre: Yeah. It sounds like you're not so worried about it now, but when you first went into that world, into the Grateful Dead world, were you at all nervous that long-time John Mayer fans might kinda scratch their heads and say, "I don't understand, I don't know this music, I don't know this John Mayer."
Mayer: None of that sounds bad to me.
McIntyre: Really?
Mayer: None of it sounds bad to me. Scratching your head is a really nice way to keep people on your mind, to keep yourself on people's minds, I should say. When someone's scratching their head, the last thing they've done is put you in their sort of, "Okay I get it" pile. Maybe I don't want to ever go in the "Okay I get it" pile. Even for myself, personally, but I think that I've engendered this understanding with my fans, at least some of them, that if I'm passionate enough about it, there must be some value in it, for other people to come follow.
And look, I mean, if my enthusiasm for this music can help in some way to carry this incredible music into the next generation, that's a fine day's work for me.
McIntyre: As I mentioned, the new album is the John Mayer I knew. How do you keep that style going while things like EDM rise and then fall, and hip-hop is now taking over the world in a way it never has before?
Mayer: Just be true to yourself, and realize that you're not gonna win those trophies anyway. You stick to the fundamentals. The worst crime you can commit is being inauthentic. I would even hate to win with an inauthentic record. That would be even worse. Cause then you gotta go around the world and like, do victory laps on stuff.
McIntyre: You don't want to go play Ultra?
Mayer: Yeah, I mean, I would go do that, if I found a place that I could.
Listen. When I see Travis Scott shows, and I see how those fans are just like firecrackers, I would love to know what that's like. But here's the thing. As you get older, and if you're doing it correctly, you realize that not everything you love you need to be making. So I know what's cool, quote unquote, I know what's popular, quote unquote, and I know where I fit into that and where I don't. At this point in my life I'd rather create what feels 100% authentic to me even if it flies a little bit lower on the pop radar, than to look around on the charts and say, "Get me the guy who made that record." Because I think it's one of the fastest ways to disappear.
I cut it close with the "Still Feel Like Your Man" video. But I wanted... I was like, videos are already weird, right? Like the concepts of videos are already weird, and I've never really done like a pop video. Even that felt a little funny. So, I don't know. I'm in between a couple different lanes, and I've gotta figure out how to have a good time, how not to go stale, but also be true to myself. That's a hard game to play.
I have more interests than I'm able to embody with the music that I make, and I think I've learned how to keep it separate. I make good John Mayer records. I make good John Mayer records. If I'm your "Sunday morning make breakfast" record, maybe I don't need to be your "Saturday night rage" record. Like, let me not be so greedy.
McIntyre: Alright, fair.
Mayer: I'm fine with "let me be your omelet" music. I'm cool with that.
McIntyre: You've got your tour, you've got Dead & Company and you're promoting this album. How are you going to do all this throughout the year? Sounds like a crazy year.
Mayer: One day at a time. Take care of yourself. Put yourself back in your hotel room earlier than you want to. Basically, rollover minutes. Rollover minutes. Take the two hours that you would have loved to have gone out tonight that would have turned into four, and would have stolen from the next day, and roll those two hours over. Go back in your room, light the candles, listen to music, go on your iPad, come in for a smooth landing. It's not as fun as going out, but you got stuff tomorrow.
I think about Michael Phelps a lot. Michael Phelps has to tell his friends very often that he can't go out, and his friends just have to remember that that's Michael Phelps. I tell myself I've got to spend a lot of time in the pool this year, so I can't necessarily go raging, so when you remember that what you're doing is sort of Olympian, at least in the effort of doing two bands over a year, you're like, you gotta treat yourself like you're an athlete, and athletes have to rest. Athletes have to go to bed early when they know they could go get recognized as an athlete and stay at the club all night. You're like "I get to be an athlete tomorrow."
