Welcome back to another post on Everything Music. This coming Friday, John Mayer – one of my favorite artists – will be releasing his second single this year (the Friday of the week this is being written). The first single released back in February, dubbed “I Guess I Just Feel Like” is an honest disclosure of Mayer’s current view on the world around him. The upcoming single, that’s BPM and length has already been disclosed on his Instagram, will be titled “Carry Me Away.” In honor of this upcoming single, and a recent reveal of an album entering the works next year, I’d like to provide a brief overview of John Mayer’s transition from mainstream pop fixation, to tabloid fixture, to one living the life all true-blue musicians long for.
An incredible documentary made by a fan of John’s that I would highly recommend, as provides an excellent timeline of John’s life in music. Mayer actually liked the documentary so much, he wrote a letter to the creator praising his work!
John Mayer was born on October 16th, 1977 in Bridgeport, Connecticut and was raised in Fairfield, Connecticut. After younger years of developing an unyielding passion for the guitar and music, John Mayer would inevitably attract the attention of Aware Records, and then Sony’s Columbia Records, the latter of which would put out his first highly successful album Room for Squares. Alongside the album’s success, Mayer’s famous “Your Body is a Wonderland” would go on to win a Grammy for Best Male Vocal Pop Performance in 2003. Following this success, an eventful career ensued, where the only the sky seemed to truly be the limit. Mayer would go on to win 6 more Grammy’s and receive 19 nominations for various works, such as his critically acclaimed 2006 album Continuum (an album many consider his best) and hit single Daughters off of 2003’s Heavier Things.
Years go by and John Mayer still remains very much a hot topic. However, Mayer’s headlines would eventually be made for all the wrong reasons. The public became increasingly more concerned about who John Mayer’s next love affair was with, rather than when the next body of work would be released and in what direction would he take it. Mayer’s transition from musical praise to repeated tabloid features reached a devastating climax when a 2010 interview with Playboy magazine left many of Mayer’s fans in utter dismay (and myself when I first encountered it!). Following his various unsettling remarks, John Mayer would disappear from the spotlight, beginning what could be seen as the second act of his career.
Following the removal of a granuloma on his vocal chords, Mayer (with a noticeably weakened the voice that, today, has considerably improved with time) would go on to release his 2012 album Born and Raised, as well as Paradise Valley the following year. Both of these albums would be noticeably different from his formerly bluesy-adult pop, now with a more obvious country influence. However, John Mayer would make a return to his original style with 2017’s The Search For Everything, though with a new, more matured vibe.
Today, John Mayer has been living the dream he always wanted to live – to play and “make music for the rest of my life,” as he put it when thanking a crowd following a sold out show in L.A. I, myself, can attest to Mayer’s content with his current life in music, as I was very fortunate enough to witness one of his electric performances at Madison Square Garden back in July. During the show, Mayer shared several heart to hearts with the audience members, telling us the stories behind several of his enduring hits, and how he loved being able to perform them for us that night. To read of the once chart-topping pop icon’s newfound path on his long road of a musical career is one thing, but to truly experience it during his outstanding 2019 Summer Tour was another. Simply put, John Mayer is living the life of his musical dreams.
Some pictures from July 26th, 2019 at MSG!
