20 | Rolling Stone | RollingStoneAus.com September, 2017R&R
&A
‘I
have six hours of music
coming up tonight,” says John
Mayer. In a little while, he’ll take
the stage in Atlanta with Dead
& Company – featuring Grateful Dead
alum Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill
Kreutzmann. After that, Mayer will
play a surprise midnight club gig with
Dave Chappelle, one of several pop-
up shows they’ve been doing. “I’m sort
of the acoustic DJ,” Mayer says. “He’ll
just be like, ‘John, hit me with this or
that’, and I’m pretty good at coming
up with any song if I’ve heard it a cou-
ple of times. It’s like two guys taking
over some little back room at a party.”
Following the Dead run, Mayer will re-
sume his solo tour, where he’s been de-
buting songs from his excellent LP The
Search for Everything. Mayer is break-
ing those shows into “chapters”, includ-
ing acoustic and full-band sets, and
another one with his blues trio. “Four
chapters makes four fresh starts,” he
says. “I get offstage feeling like I could
have gone another hour.”It’s your second year touring with the
Dead. What have you learned?
I’ve never had inclusion before. I al-
ways created one-man clubs. When I
was invited into this tribe, I promise
you it was the exact opposite of any-
thing you might think along the lines
of having to reconcile ego or status. It’s
like a basketball team – you are doing
your best to help the team win. I am a
pig in shit.
What was it like for you to watch the new
Dead documentary, Long Strange Trip?
There’s a line where Donna Jean
talks about how she joined the band.
She said [husband Keith Godchaux]
told her, “I don’t wanna listen to this
music anymore. I wanna play this
music.” I was blown away, because
that’s exactly how I felt.
Chris Robinson, formerly of the
Black Crowes, was just on The How-
ard Stern Show and took shots at your
musicianship. Does that bother you?
I care about this band too much to
give that life. I have my thoughts, but
it’s not my place. I realised not long ago
that I’m done debating my own mer-
its: “No, I am very good.” Music isn’t a
sports-page thing to me.
You’ve become a big influence to a new
class of pop songwriters, including Ed
Sheeran and Shawn Mendes.
I didn’t see it coming. We don’t re-
alise that every five years a mother-
fucker is born into the world of music.
I don’t apply as much from the blues
world to my music as I’d like to, but
there’s a lot to be applied from the blues
world spiritually on this: Those guysare me. I looked up to Eric Clapton
and Stevie Ray Vaughan. All my he-
roes were awesome to me, so there’s
a contract to make the new guys feel
accepted.
You’re a great blues guitarist. Why not
apply that more to your studio records?
For all the moves I’ve made on the
musical chessboard, I am now me. I’m
no dummy. I know my record could
use some rock bangers. I went in once
a week and would play a Black Keys feel
on the drums, and distort the guitar,
and start making up words. Then I’d
listen and go, “I don’t buy it.” The older
I get, the more I realise you don’t have
to embody everything you love. Does
that sound depressing? Or does that
sound right? [Laughs]
A little of both! You tweeted you’ve had
a concept for a new Jay-Z album in your
head for years.
I don’t want to sound like I’m try-
ing to publicly DM him, but I think
there’s room for psychedelia in hip-hop.
I just always thought a Cream-Hendrix
rhythm section for hip-hop would be
insanely cool. Of course, all my ideas
are just selfish. They all include me.
You recently said you were “entering
cannabis life”. How is that working out?
I put it where drinking used to go,
and the quality of life has gone up con-
siderably. Drinking is a fucking con. It
always felt wrong.
So weed doesn’t make you weird or too
inside your own head?
I was always the guy saying that
I didn’t like altered states. Once you
know who you are, then it becomes OK.
I’m much more open-minded to small
changes in consciousness. I remember
every trip I ever took. I remember every
thought I ever had when I laid there.
Billy Joel recently said that he some-
times envies your “guitar face”.
Guitar face is not cool. I feel a lit-
tle bit uncomfortable with people
thinking that I made up the guitar
face. God, wouldn’t it be great to go
to the jungles of Borneo and give a
tribe Fender Strato casters and have
them listen to Jimi Hendrix – but not
show them Jimi Hendrix – and come
back five years later and see if there’s
any guitar face? I have a feeling there
would be.
You were just in the tabloids because
Katy Perry called you the “best lover”
she’s ever had. Care to comment?
I don’t have a cool-enough thought
for you. I’ve hacked this game. I pay
very little of the price of fame now. I
get to play the music that moves me the
most. I’m having the time of my life.
I’m 39 – I remember 32. I don’t wanna
do it again.John
Mayer
The guitarist talks about
influencing a new generation
of pop crooners and
the dream album he wants
to make with Jay-ZBY PATRICK DOYLE