John Mayer
By Kristi SingerAlthough he sings about “waiting for the world to change” on his hit album, Continuum, acoustic-pop-rock singer-songwriter John Mayer is doing anything but in his career.
Mayer took home two Grammy Awards at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards – one for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for “Waiting on the World to Change” and another for Best Pop Vocal Album for Continuum. He added these accolades to his ever-growing collection (two Grammy’s in 2004 for his hit “Daughters” for Song of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance as well as an award in 2002 for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance of “Your Body Is a Wonderland”).
Mayer’s star began to shine in 2001 when he released Room For Squares. With Room For Squares, Mayer filled airwaves with Top 5 pop-rock hits “No Such Thing,” “Why Georgia” and “Your Body is a Wonderland,” which earned him a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. His sophomore album (Room For Squares follows Mayer’s 1999 debut, Inside Wants Out) made John Mayer a household name, setting precedence for artists like Jason Mraz and Gavin DeGraw.
Fast forward to the present, Mayer is now armed with the much-sought-after pop princess (who still has her golden locks in tact) Jessica Simpson, a Grammy-Award winning album with Continuum and live performances that typically sell-out.
Local fans can catch Mayer’s 2007 Summer Tour twice in North Carolina – July 31 at the Walnut Creek Amphitheatre in Raleigh with opening acts Ben Folds and James Morrison and August 1 at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Charlotte, also with Folds and Morrison.
I previously chatted with Mayer via a phone interview. Here’s a few “quotable’s” from the mouth of Mayer:
John Mayer on taking center stage: “Being on stage as the front guy, singing and playing guitar, there’s so many tasks involved in it. If you can find a way to do all of those at the same time, but also not really exert a lot of energy, then I think that’s really the place to get to.”
… On performing: “What you want to do is knock people over with power of the song. So, for the first two years of my touring, I was really throwing the songs at people. Now I feel like, you know, we’ve done that. And if you come to my show right now, you’re there for a different reason than you used to be. Because when you have a first record out, you have hits and stuff, people come out and they want to check you out. And now I think the fact that people are there means something different than it used to. I take my time a lot more now.”
… On touring: “I think I’m becoming so comfortable on the road, and playing, that it doesn’t really jostle me anymore. Like ‘wow, I’m on stage in front of 15,000 people.’ It’s like ‘no man, that’s what you do.’”
… On songwriting: “When I’m home, I’m usually digging every day. It’s a variable as to how much, but I definitely wake up, pick up a guitar and listen to what I did the night before. Nine times out of ten it’s total crap. But if it’s something good then I keep stacking on it.”
… On his biggest career surprise: “That it’s still going. A lot of people put records out and they do really well, then they don’t after that. When I look out at the crowd now and see that many people - they’re still there, they’re still just as excited, as they were if it was my first record - I appreciate that more now than I ever have.”
… On his contribution to bringing singer-songwriters into the mainstream: “I realize that the success of it has sparked the signing of a lot of other artists. I would never make the assumption that people who weren’t writing songs are now. I haven’t made more singer/songwriters, but I’ve probably made more singer/songwriters a little bit of money.”
… On staying grounded: “Having a bunch of people around me who can fully tell me I’m an asshole at any time. I think if you have people around you who can’t, or who won’t, then you’ll never know it. And months will go by and years will go by and you’ll wake up someone that you shouldn’t be. So at any moment, I’ve got someone going ‘that’s not that cool, take that shirt off.’”
… Advice for aspiring artists: “I’d have to meet them. I’d have to meet each and every artist to give them one specific, customized piece of advice for their personality. I don’t think it’s that cut and dry. Don’t die. I guess my first piece of advice – don’t die. You want to be alive to see this happen.”
… Parting words: “You sound incredibly hot.”
