Before I get to the meat of this story, I’d like to briefly recap the recent gossip buzz that John Mayer and Katy Perry have been, for all intents and purposes, “on the rocks” as far as their public, coupley image is concerned. About a week ago, John was spotted getting gropey with Allison Williams despite the fact that he and Katy are supposedly BFFs with Allison and her boyfriend, Ricky Van Veen. Then, Katy was seen getting hot and heavy with Muse’s Dominic Howard, which pretty much told the world that she and John were “over.” Well, guess again, lovelies. According to an eyewitness report on behalf of Michael Knudsen at Popbytes (who has exclusive photos), John and Katy were spotted together on Friday evening in West Hollywood at Club Nokia, and the two “appeared as if it was a first date, with whispering, smiles and cuddling.” So my question is this — are these two in an open relationship, or are they just f–king with all of us? Who knows.
Now onto John’s latest attempt at a media blitz. If you’ll remember, the last time John spoke with Rolling Stone, he was in the midst of trying to recover from his disastrous “verbal diarrhea” phase, in which he told Playboy magazine that his “David Duke c-ck” granted him “hood passes” or some such nonsense. Of course, John tried to rescind his words with RS by saying that he didn’t recall saying such terrible, insensitive things (“it was a very strange time“) to Playboy, but the damage had already been done. In the aftermath, John told Rolling Stone that he didn’t deserve to be the bad guy, and he didn’t understand why Taylor Swift “humiliated me” with her “Dear John” song. I’d feel sorry for John, but he is no stranger to writing songs about his own exes, especially with his latest “comeback album” (Born and Raised) that features a little ditty about Jennifer Aniston. So there.
But times have changed, apparently. John is planning on touring all summer long, so of course, he’s promoting like crazy. John recently stepped back onstage on Jan. 16 for a firefighter benefit (rowrr), which was his first live show in two years. While I do feel poorly for John for not being able to do what he truly loves doing for so long, he’s clearly been coached by his publicist for this interview, so I’m taking it all with a Mayer-tainted grain of salt. Yes, he name drops Ricky Van Veen in this interview, and yes, he speaks of Katy fondly. Gross:
Why he doesn’t consider himself a popstar anymore: “I have gray hair on my temples. Born and Raised is my least popular album. And that could be because I wasn’t ready to tour and promote, but also the videos came out, the record came out, it had a shot. I’m OK with that.”
On finally playing live again: “I’ve been dreaming about playing my own music [while] sitting in with the Rolling Stones and playing with all of these wonderful musicians. So much time had passed in between each of the times that I got to play guitar with somebody. There were days and weeks and literally months of not doing anything, and running out of things to do when there’s nothing to do. For me to get back onstage and play again, it’s just like, ‘Oh right, this is what I’m able to do. This is what I’ve been able to do while I was watching a whole bunch of Westerns every night and making rice bowls with chicken.'”
Exactly who are his friends? “A lot of them are comedy writers, movie writers. I’m actually at my friend Ricky Van Veen’s place, who started CollegeHumor. I met him when I got off the road in 2010. It’s almost like to certain people, the fact that I’m a musician is known but not really understood on a certain level. I feel like when some of my dearest friends now come to a show one day, they’ll have a terrible time renegotiating that that’s who I am. Like, ‘Oh, right, you play onstage in front of thousands of people.'”
On his post-granuloma life: “Everything changed about my voice. I don’t have the projection. My laugh changed. The way I used to laugh is kind of like that ‘I’m embarrassed,’ high-pitched laugh. I don’t really laugh that way anymore. I’ve found new ways around everything — new ways to talk, new ways to laugh. Now I wonder if I can go right back to the shape of my voice that I had when I was singing once I can do what I want to do with it.”
On his big mouth: “I don’t know that I thought of it as a Band-Aid for anything. I just saw it as a protectant from future things. I wasn’t running away, because I would have happily gone back on tour. It was like, I want to have a place over time where I can just get away to, and I happen not to be able to go anywhere else, so I’m gonna start living where I was planning on living two years from now because I was going to be on tour. When I got that place, I thought that I was going on tour. That’s important to know. I thought that was going to be the place I hung out in between legs of a tour. Then it turned out there wasn’t going to be a tour, and I thought, ‘Well, let me just go start laying down my roots there.’ I had spent enough time after some tough times in my life right on the street in front of everybody. I was in New York making Born and Raised for the year after and I was in L.A. finishing the record the year after that. So, no, by that point it wasn’t like, ‘Let me go retreat.'”
On dating Katy Perry: “It makes it hard to live a life where people don’t know who you are, but I haven’t had any trouble in my private life at all. The only trouble I’ve had is maybe people geo-tagging me, but that’s about it. To me it’s just a matter of people knowing where you are on a given day, and I guess assessing your style when there is no style to be assessed. I don’t really call that infringing on a personal life. That’s just where I am, when. That’s all. It’s been . . . I mean, I’m quite happy. I’m happy in all aspects of my life. I’m very happy in all aspects of my life.”
On the internet: “You don’t even need publicists anymore — people are just as scared for themselves as the publicists would be. No, I’m saying that we’re all as freaked out as the publicists would be. Everyone is self-PRing. We’re all worried to express ourselves, because we are scared of the imminent criticism as we are typing. And I think for a guy to express any idea with that kind of bravery, a guy writing without caring what you think . . . What’s fascinating to me is not as much what he’s expressing – it’s that he chose to just make an expression one time, deeply, honestly. I feel like Jodie Foster is the same thing. They’re just like, ‘Here’s what I want to say, and I’m not interested in what the response to this is going to be. It’s important that I express it.'”
On the “new” John Mayer: “I’m interested in living more of a life that’s invisible to everybody and more vibrant to a fewer people that are in my life. I don’t need everybody to think a certain thing that I wish they would think. I’m out of that game. And I think 35’s a great time. You investigate yourself, you know there are things that aren’t growing correctly, or serving you as you get older, and you break yourself down in a period of time. I’m actually lucky that I didn’t have to do that while I was on the road. I had a couple years off, and you deconstruct yourself. It’s very painful, and when you reconstruct yourself, you kind of have a fresh outlook on the next 20 years of your life.”
Does he want to marry? “I want to live a very traditional life with a very untraditional day job. You know what I mean?”
[From Rolling Stone]
John strategically ends the interview with a casual “Thanks, man. Be kind to me.” So I’m not quite sure what to make of all of this except that John, in pop-musical circles, is clearly trying to redeem himself and sell arena-tour tickets in the near future.
On the throat granuloma issue, I am similarly torn. On one hand, John must have been devastated and somewhat humbled to not be able to pursue his own livelihood for a matter of years, and there’s something to be said for that publicly-enforced form of humility. On the other, John has clearly compared his own affliction to being worse than cancer, which is a very deadly disease. So … still a douche?
Photos courtesy of WENN
Very much still a douche. Every time I feel not so fresh down there I just think of John Mayer and it’s springtime again.
Seriously thou, I joke but can I just say, as a feminist how much I hate the word douche to describe smarmy people (particularly men). A douche is far more useful to me than John Mayor. I’m offended on behalf of my vagina every time that word is used.
Douching is not good for you.
I know it throws your pH out of whack and I don’t know many girlfriends who use it, but my comment was more towards this propensity in the west to attach a negative connotation to anything that has to do with the female body when used as insult towards men.
Just to throw something else into the mix – douche is french for shower. I don’t know quite how it became such a derogatory term in english when its origins actually imply cleanliness.
Dee~you are absolutely right. When we as women ALSO use these words so casually, we are in effect putting ourselves down each and every time by 1. desensitizing ourselves to the sex-linked derogatory term and 2. making it “ok” for others to continue using the derogatory term. However the term may have started (ie douche as shower) in the current context what it means is vaginal liquid cleanser~which implies that the vagina is in and of itself “dirty” to begin with, and now a derogatory term to keep it that way. Semantics count~and WE have to be the ones to change the conversation.
He’s so self-obsessed. Ew.
He had lovely things to say about Frank Ocean coming out on internet via Tumblr so Mayer is alright with me.
He was on Frank’s CD Channel Orange. On the track Pyramids. AMAZING song. I hate John Mayer with a passion but he is talented.
I agree. And I also love that song.
he still has a nasty, filthy, david duke penis.
groupies and expensive watches are his only true loves. And his “music” face.
i have no respect for any “lady” that would want to be with a filthy wanged, big-mouth ‘let me tell you (international publication) how such and so’s (white only people!) vagina was’, egomaniacal pecker-head.
sorry, he is disgusting.
What does white people only have to do with anything?
Did you understand her comment? Or did you just give a quick read without understanding the context?
John said he only sleeps with white women because he has a David Duke penis. Google him if you don’t know who he is.
John is a disgusting racist and people should never forget that. Anyone who has stuff in common with Hitler is officially the worst person in the world to me.
You can answer people’s questions without being snarky and rude.
And you could maybe read people’s comments properly before getting snarky and rude yourself, works both ways.
I didin’t really get it either, I read it twice but I think that’s because I didn’t know his dating history or really where the David Duke comment had come from. Thank you for sharing, but you were a little snarky Annie. Deep breaths 🙂
Agree Emma, I don’t know his history of comments and relationships. And there was nothing snarky about my simple question. Don’t assume everyone is trying to start something.
Wow! Some biatches are on today!! 😉
How does this guy ever get a date? Seriously. He can’t seem to curb his idiotic stream of consciousness that just keeps proving that he’s a stunted child. Poor little misunderstood special snowflake.
He can’t curb it in public, but he might be much easier to take in person, out of the public eye.
he really looks like a dong, right?
What a dumbass.
Seriously, you’d rather have CANCER, the killer disease that destroys your body and your psyche? You’d rather have CANCER than some ailment that took you away from work temporarily? You’d rather be on chemo and remission extending drugs for 10 years (my SIL had to deal with just that) than re-train your voice to project in a different, maybe even better way.
Yeah, YOU REALLY HAD IT HARD! Wahwhwawha, sad horns…. Poor little you.
I’m amazed to see that this brush with life-changing illness did nothing to temper your internal douchebag.
Fu@#!ng delusional, self-involved idiot!
This gets to me also – my mother had throat cancer and died of it – he should spend some time with cancer patients, but he’d probably just make their situation all about himself. So not a fan.
I have cancer and I don’t want that f**ker anywhere near me thankyouverymuch! 😯
At the risk of defending the dumbass, did he say he wanted cancer or that it would be easier to get rid of? Because in my case he’d be absolutely right. Don’t get me wrong, no cancer is “good”, but some are far more straightforward to deal with, and less life-threatening, than others.
I’m hearing you Mairead and your description of the difference. What he said was typically really inelegantly phrased and his cherry on top of the self-pity sundae wasn’t required, but I agree with what Mairead has said. He keeps proving himself to be pretty impotent at expressing himself in a non-repellent manner. I’m not interested in discovering what’s under the sleaze, but if he wants to expose it, he’d better consult some speechwriters. All respect and consideration to those who have been touched by cancer.
And Mairead, I’m blown away by your equanimity: You’re pretty incredible!
BEST. COMMENT.
I so agree with you! He’s unbearable! Why are there people who support his music? What an idiot!
Plus throat cancer is one of the worst things! I saw a documentary about a man who wanted to have medically assisted suicide because of throat cancer! The cancer eroded him from the inside! It was really tragic. I hate John Mayer.
Coming from a family with a high rate of deaths due to cancer(a few heart but good 90% cancer none have been natural) and a few of us that are cancer survivors…I say major Douche! He wouldn’t know how to handle living w/ cancer from the sound of it. It does way more harm to your psyche, body, organs, gift etc than a granuloma alone ever could. And I had both(still have damn granulomas.. Have had them for years. Understand singing is his craft… But he needs to get the flip over himself. Every field careers come & go due to health..but people don’t wish for a greater illness saying it would be easier. What an ignorant piece of garbage!
If he’d learned less damaging technique in the first place this likely could have been avoidable at such a young age. I know how condescending that sounds, but without proper guidance it’s so easy for young singers–even in their twenties, because the voice does continue to mature and need special care at that age and beyond–to unwittingly not treat their voices as well as they treat their audience’s ears, or as well as they think they do. It’s more than just pretentiously refusing to speak or drinking honey and lemon. Lozenges aren’t worth anything if you’ve been doing the equivalent of scraping your vocal cords against a barber’s strop. This isn’t something that just happened to him and if they’re smart people like him and Adele are going to seek more effective care than ‘rest’ if they don’t want to be unemployed by the time they’re 40. Their voice may change but at least they’ll have ones. They’ll have better ones, at that.
Okay. There.
Yeah. I have a close friend whose stepdad has metastatic throat cancer, and his remaining time on earth is very limited. It sucks for their whole family, and I think his wife would gladly cut her own larynx out if it would somehow cure him. So for this guy to cavalierly compare his granuloma to cancer, given what a terrible illness cancers of the throat and mouth are — SMH.
Not cool, dude. NOT cool.
F U John Mayer! Cancer is one of the worse things in the world to deal with! My father, uncle and aunt all died from cancer way before their times. Just from your comments, you will always remain a d-bag to me.
I don’t care two hoots about this guy and I don’t think I’ve even heard one of his songs, but if you read the article, it’s the doctors who said cancer would have been easier to get rid of:
—
Last year, doctors told John Mayer it could be years before he sang again. “There was not a lot of hope,” says the singer, who’d already been through failed surgery to repair a granuloma in his throat. “They said cancer would have been easier to get rid of.”
—
Anyhoodle, he looks like he needs a very hot bath. Yuck.
Thanks for making that clear. I wasn’t offended by what he said about cancer, but maybe other readers who were will see this and not hold that comment against him.
He really should not be allowed to speak. Ever.
Wow, he’s so creepy. I don’t understand his fan base. It’s difficult to think of something nice to say about him, but I will say his hair looks good (and clean) in the last photo.
Yes, still a douche! To cancer? Is he kidding? My dad passed from throat cancer, lost his voice box.. gotta say cancers worse. What a jerk.
eeewwwwwww yucky!!! blehhh, gross!!!
this dude is SOOOOOOO garbage can funk/mold, pee stained carpet, vomit mixed w/ moldy cheese GROSS.
GROSS! look at this dude? what’s with his skin? all sweaty and yellow, does he have hepatitus? and what’s with these grease funk hair topped off with another one of his signature ‘dork’ hats…god those HATS!
he looks like a birdwatcher who just got walked out ‘satisfied’ from a peep show/sex toy store…
Dude Erika your awesome 🙂
John Mayer is a cancer. A narcissistic, racist piece of nothing that is a cancer on our society.
Let’s just say I’m not a fan. 😉
Anyone else notice how obsessed he is with age?
the “35s” in this interview
“That’s what you do when you’re 30, 31, 32” – on masterbation
“PLAYBOY: At this point, what’s your ideal relationship?
MAYER: Here’s what I really want to do at 32: f*ck a girl and then..”
UMMMMM…pretty sure playboy asked you about ur ideal relationship. Stop bringing up your age voluntarily like it means something bro
(on battle studies) “Sure. It’s an album about love in this day and age, and at my age, 32″
on Aniston, PB :”But I can’t change the fact that I need to be 32″
AND IT GOES ON…
.’It was like, ‘No, idiot. Go away and be 33 and 34 instead of 28 for the fourth year.” on ellen where tries to show how he regrets his comments and how hes changed.
GAWD. its like hes obsessed with his narrative, and his life/self is this creepy external object he keeps talking about. Hes the type of guy who talks about himself in the 3rd person.
TOTAL narcissist!
My mother worked for many years for a major concert/sports venue, in a position where she was in close contact with the talent who played/performed there. She met quite a few artists and athletes this way over the years. Know who she always said was the biggest jerk of them all? John Mayer, by a landslide. So it doesn’t surprise me that he’d say something like this. He’s disgusting.
Not to make this about me as John Mayer makes things about him, but as someone who had cancer some years ago, I think he is an assclown to say such a thing. Maybe he has never known anyone with cancer, but that was a shockingly thoughtless comment. My heart goes out to you all who have lost people to cancer. It’s hideous & he should shut up about it.
He sure talks a hell of a lot & says very very little.
hey guys, some funny quotes that arent mentioned in the media as much:
“PLAYBOY: Would you kiss Harvey Levin?
MAYER: I would rim him, probably. I can’t just repeat the kissing trick”
WOW.
” I’d rather come home and edge my shit out for 90 minutes. At this point, before I can have sex I need to know somebody. Unless she’s a 14 out of 10.”
he wants to get to know you guys, unless youre a 14/10. then he doesnt need to get to know you…you know? NObody understands him!
this is my fav:
PLAYBOY: Do you do something different in bed than other guys?
MAYER: It’s all about geometry. I’m sort of a scientist; it’s about being obtuse with an angle. It’s sort of this weird up-and-over thing. You gotta think “up and over.”
YOU GOTTA THINK UP AND OVER! bahahahaha!
I THINK I’m going to throw UP and that I’m OVER John Mayer!
He’s still not so nice, but I have to admit I love his voice. I just try to separate his life from his music.
I think everyone needs to just “stop” in general. Stop comparing things to rape, to cancer, to Hitler, to AIDS, etc etc. I mean really, can anyone express themselves without speaking in hyperbole? Just say your situation was difficult. Period. You don’t have to compare it to everyone else’s trauma.
Though not immune to hyperbole, I’ve thought this for a while. I could never get on board with people saying that something ‘raped my childhood’ or the like. I guess the shock of incongruity can be effective the first time but everyone heaps on it and as per these ‘shocking’ memes, it just seems as though there’s so much unoriginal and crass junk floating around, but beware of not falling at its feet gets you the overly-feared title of ‘PC’. Oh, political correctness, the flash-in-the-pan seven-minute phenomenon of the mid-nineties that was gone almost as soon as it began but has forced people to go out out their way to be offensive and obnoxious because for the last fifteen+ years people have been suffering under the boot of widespread sanctions on our freedoms to not be jackasses. I’m remembering that long-lived regime differently. I’m never endorsing censorship, I’m calling out people blaming a long-dead phenomenon for ‘forcing’ them to be pretty depressing in the way they use inflammatory language and cry and cry when people respond to it.
Still, the snot in me cringes whenever I hear ‘…it/I was literally…’ because eye-rolling is on it’s way.
Have you looked at any pictures of him? So yes, still a douche.
It has already been said, but to compare a condition such as a granuloma, which can only be described as an inconvenience, to cancer- a life threatening and horrific disease, is a horribly insensitive thing. This man has no self-awareness or intelligence.
Love his music, would never want him up and over me.
My thought was that he was just saying that in his case, a cancerous tumor would have been easier to treat. I figured a doctor must have told him that. Someone who read the whole interview said that was exactly what happened – the doctors said that. Cancers are all different- some are more localized and slow- growing and we have methods to remove them rather well. Others are more aggressive and metastasize too quickly, involving more organs. His doctors felt they could have handled a cancerous tumor in the same location etc. more easily, that’s all.