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John Clayton Mayer (born October 16, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Originally from Connecticut, he briefly attended Berklee College of Music before moving to Atlanta, Georgia in 1998, where he refined his skills and began gaining a following. His first two studio albums, Room for Squares and Heavier Things, did well commercially, achieving multi-platinum status. In 2003, he won a Best Male Pop Vocal Performance Grammy for "Your Body Is a Wonderland".
Mayer began his career performing mainly acoustic rock, but gradually made a transition towards the blues genre in 2005 (including collaborations with renowned blues artists such as BB King) and formed the John Mayer Trio. The blues influence can be seen on his album Continuum, released in September 2006. Mayer won Best Pop Vocal Album for Continuum and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Waiting on the World to Change" at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards in 2007.
Mayer's career pursuits have extended to stand-up comedy, design, and writing; he has written pieces for magazines, most notably for Esquire. He is also involved in philanthropic activities through his "Back to You" fund and his efforts in reversing global warming.
Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Mayer grew up in nearby Fairfield, the second of three sons. There, he became friends with future tennis star James Blake. Mayer mostly attended the former Fairfield High School, although he was enrolled in the Center for Global Studies at Brien McMahon High School (in Norwalk, Connecticut) for his junior year. Then known as the Center for Japanese Studies Abroad, it is a magnet program for students wanting to learn Japanese. Mayer listened to pop music as a child. During an appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, he said that he had played the clarinet for a while in middle school, with minor success. After watching the Marty McFly character (Michael J. Fox) guitar performance in Back to The Future, he became fascinated with the instrument. Subsequently, at the age of thirteen, his father rented one for him.
Soon after getting his guitar, his neighbor gave him a Stevie Ray Vaughan cassette, which began Mayer's intense love of the blues. Despite the reservations of his parents, Mayer became consumed with playing the guitar, and after two years of practice, he started playing at blues bars and other venues in the area, while in high school. In addition to performing alone, he was in a band called Villanova Junction with Joe Beleznay, Tim Procaccini, and Rich Wolf.
When Mayer was seventeen, he was stricken with a cardiac arrhythmia that sent him to the hospital for a weekend. The trauma of the incident sparked his songwriting, and he penned his first lyrics the night he got home. Shortly thereafter, he began suffering from crippling panic attacks and even now he keeps Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug, with him.
Mayer played the guitar for several years before enrolling in the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts at the age of nineteen. After two semesters, he chose to cut his studies short, and at the urging of his college friend and Atlanta native, Clay Cook, the two moved to Atlanta, Georgia. Quickly making a name for their two-man band, LoFi Masters, they began their career in earnest there, frequenting the local coffee house and club circuit in venues like Eddie's Attic. Cook has said, however, that they began to experience musical differences due to Mayer's desire to take the duo in more of a pop direction. The two parted ways and Mayer embarked on a solo career.
With the help of local producer and engineer Glenn Matullo, Mayer recorded the independent EP Inside Wants Out. Cook is also cited as the co-writer of many of the songs from the EP, most notably, Mayer's first commercial single release "No Such Thing". The EP includes only eight songs, all with Mayer on lead vocals and guitars, with the exception of "Comfortable" in which Mayer only recorded the vocals. For the opening track, "Back To You", a full band was enlisted, including the EP's co-producer David "DeLa" LaBruyere on bass guitars. Mayer and LaBruyere then began to tour throughout Georgia and the surrounding states.
Mayer's reputation began to build, and a March 2000 appearance at the South by Southwest Music Festival brought him to the attention of "launch" label Aware Records. After touring in the Aware Festival concerts and having his songs included on Aware compilations, in early 2001, Aware released Mayer's internet-only album entitled Room for Squares. During that time, Aware inked a deal with Columbia Records that gave Columbia first pick in signing Aware artists, and so in September of the same year, Columbia remixed and re-released Room for Squares. As part of the major label "debut", the album's artwork was updated, and the track "3X5" was added. The re-release also included reworked studio versions of the first four songs from his indie album, Inside Wants Out.
By the end of 2002, Room for Squares had spawned several radio hits, including "No Such Thing", "Your Body Is a Wonderland", and ultimately "Why Georgia" (a radio-only single). In 2003, Mayer won a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Your Body Is a Wonderland". In his acceptance speech he remarked, "This is very, very fast, and I promise to catch up." He also figuratively referred to himself as being sixteen, a remark that many mistook to mean that he was only sixteen years old at the time.
In 2003, Mayer released a live CD and DVD of a concert in Birmingham, Alabama entitled Any Given Thursday. The concert featured songs previously not recorded, such as "Man on the Side" (co-written with Cook) and "Something's Missing", which later appeared on Heavier Things. The concert also included "Covered In Rain". According to the accompanying DVD documentary this song is "part two" of the song "City Love", which features the line "covered in rain". Commercially, the album quickly peaked at number seventeen on the Billboard 200 chart. The CD/DVD received conservative, although consistent, praise, with critics torn between his pop-idol image, and (at the time) emerging guitar prowess. Erik Crawford (of All Music Guide) asked "Is he the consummate guitar hero exemplified when he plays a cover of Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'Lenny', or is he the teen idol that the pubescent girls shriek for after he plays 'Your Body Is a Wonderland?'"
Heavier Things, Mayer's second album, was released in 2003 to generally favorable reviews. Rolling Stone, All Music Guide and Blender all gave positive, although reserved, feedback, with PopMatters describing the album as "a sophomore effort that doesn't have as many drawbacks as one might assume". The album was commercially successful, and while it did not sell as well as Room for Squares, it peaked at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart. Mayer earned his first number one single with the song "Daughters", as well as a 2005 Grammy for Song of the Year, beating out fellow contenders Alicia Keys and Kanye West. He dedicated the award to his grandmother, Annie Hoffman, who died in May 2004. He also won Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, beating Elvis Costello, Prince, and Seal for the award. At the 37th Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in 2006, Mayer was honored with the Hal David Starlight Award.
Mayer again recorded live concerts across seven nights of his U.S. tour in 2004. These recordings were released to the iTunes music store under the title as/is, indicating that the errors were included along with the good moments. A few months later, a "best of" CD was compiled from the as/is nights. The album included a previously unreleased cover of Marvin Gaye's song "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)", featuring a solo from Mayer's support act —- jazz and blues turntablist DJ Logic. All the album covers of the as/is releases feature drawings of anthropomorphic bunnies.
With increased exposure, Mayer's talent came into demand in other areas. Steve Jobs invited Mayer to perform during the keynote address of Apple's annual Macworld Conference & Expo, in January 2004, as Jobs introduced the software application GarageBand. The gig led to Mayer becoming a fixture of the event. He rejoined Jobs on stage for a solo performance at Macworld 2007, following the announcement of the iPhone. Additionally, in 2004, Mayer had one-shot half-hour comedy special on VH1, entitled John Mayer Has a TV Show, with antics including wearing a bear suit and anonymously teasing concertgoers in the parking lot outside one of his concerts. Mayer has also done endorsements, such as a Volkswagen commercial for the Beetle's guitar outlet and for the BlackBerry Curve.
Mayer began to collaborate extensively, often working with artists outside of his own genre. He worked with hip hop artists Kanye West and Common, appearing on Common's song "Go!" and on West's "Bittersweet Poetry". Due to these collaborations, Mayer received praise from rap heavyweights like Jay-Z and Nelly. Spoofing his sudden ubiquity, TV comedy Family Guy referenced John Mayer in the 2005 episode Brian the Bachelor. When asked about his presence in the hip hop community, Mayer said, "It's not music out there right now. That's why, to me, hip-hop is where rock used to be."
It was around this time that Mayer began hinting a change in his musical interests, announcing that he was "closing up shop on acoustic sensitivity." In 2005, he began a string of collaborations with various blues artists, including Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Eric Clapton, as well as the jazz artist John Scofield. He also toured with legendary jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, which included a show at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. These collaborations led to recordings with several of these artists, namely, Clapton (Back Home, Crossroads Guitar Festival), Guy (Bring 'Em In), Scofield (That's What I Say) and King (80). Although Mayer has maintained a reputation for being a sensitive singer-songwriter, he has also gained distinction as an accomplished guitarist, influenced by the likes of the above artists, as well as Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robert Cray and Freddie King.
In the spring of 2005, Mayer formed the John Mayer Trio with bassist Pino Palladino and drummer Steve Jordan, both of whom he had met through previous studio sessions. The trio played a combination of blues and rock music. In October 2005, the Trio opened for The Rolling Stones during a sold-out club tour of their own, and that November, released a live album called Try! The band took a break in mid-2006. On September 12, Mayer announced plans for the Trio to begin work on a future studio album.
Mayer's latest album, entitled Continuum, was released on 2006-09-12, and was produced by Mayer himself and Steve Jordan. Mayer suggested the album was intended to combine his signature pop music with the feel, sound, groove and sensibilities of the blues. In that vein, two of the tracks from his trio release Try! — the funky "Vultures" and the blues centerpiece "Gravity" — also were included on Continuum.
The first single from Continuum was "Waiting on the World to Change," which debuted on The Ron and Fez Show. The song was the third most downloaded song of the week on the iTunes Music Store following its release on July 11, 2006, and debuted at #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. On August 23, 2006, Mayer debuted the entire album on the Los Angeles radio station Star 98.7, giving commentary on each track. A subsequent version was released the next day on the Clear Channel Music website as a streaming sneak preview. On September 21, 2006, Mayer appeared on CSI, playing "Waiting on the World to Change" and "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room". The song "Gravity" was featured on the television series House in the episode "Cane & Able". He recorded a session for the British program Live From Abbey Road at Abbey Road Studios on October 22, 2006.
On December 7, 2006, Mayer was nominated for five 2007 Grammys, including "Album of the Year". John Mayer Trio also received a nomination for their album Try!. He won two: Best Pop Song with Vocal for "Waiting on the World to Change" and Best Pop Album for Continuum. Mayer remixed an acoustic version of his single, "Waiting on the World to Change" with vocal additions from fellow musician Ben Harper. In preparation for recording Continuum, Mayer had booked the Village Recorder in Los Angeles to record five demo acoustic versions of his songs with veteran musician Robbie McIntosh. These recordings became The Village Sessions, an EP released on December 12, 2006. As usual, Mayer oversaw the artwork of the release.
In a December 2006 blog entry, Mayer announced he had begun writing new material. He also indicated that he was in the studio experimenting with music in a sort of a blend of jazz (citing Elvin Jones as inspiration) and pop music — aiming to produce what he calls today's "modern music," as jazz was once called.
Mayer made the cover of Rolling Stone (#1020) in February 2007, along with John Frusciante and Derek Trucks. He was named as one of the "New Guitar Gods" and the cover nicknamed him "Slowhand, Jr.," a reference to Eric Clapton. Additionally, he was selected by the editors of Time magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2007, and was listed among artists and entertainers.
Despite being principally a solo musician, Mayer has toured with many groups, including Maroon 5, Guster, Counting Crows, Ben Folds, The Wallflowers, Teitur, and Sheryl Crow. Crow and Mayer, who had just previously appeared on the Cars Soundtrack together, co-headlined a tour that ran from August to October 2006. Shortly thereafter, he began promoting Continuum in Europe with his band, as he has yet to reach the popularity abroad that he enjoys in North America. Beyond this, other international dates that included United Arab Emirates, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. The initial North American leg wrapped on February 28, 2007 with a show at Madison Square Garden, a performance which the New York Post described as "career-defining."
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