I do not own a John Mayer album. I can’t say that I was tapping my toes when my brother introduced his music to me during a car ride through the New Mexico desert a few years back. I do remember his Volkswagen commercial where he just shreds his guitar while using the car’s audio system as an amplifier. Really, my only exposure to the more human side of John was a fairly popular Youtube clip of him on a VH1 show doing an off the cuff parody of Chocolate Rain.
The day of Michael Jackson’s death, Mayer’s words were the celebrity quote that most accurately conveyed my own feelings at the time:
“Dazes in the studio. A major strand of our cultural DNA has left us. RIP MJ. I think we’ll mourn his loss as well as the loss of ourselves as children listening to Thriller on the record player.”
Then, I saw his musical tribute at Michael Jackson’s funeral. It was a type of synthesis of his unbelievable guitar talent, and the very human connection that John felt with Michael’s music and life. It had such an impact on me, that I made it the theme song to this web site, as odd and as self-aggrandizing as that is. Strangely enough, I’m not sure if I have thought about John Mayer or heard any of his music since then.
It is somewhat poetic and appropriate then, that a recent video interview of John with CNN would catch my attention and paint a nice picture of what it means to be human.
The full transcript of the interview is even better and I gleefully recommend reading it.
Many of the articles on this site deal with the human side of two groups of people who often times aren’t considered as such: criminals and celebrities. I am convinced that both groups of people are judged far too harshly by many, due to the blindingly bright nature of one side of his/her personhood.
If you view John Mayer as a skirt chasing, limelight loving, lucky SOB; you’re only half right, if that. The theme of the interview (and apparently, this new album) is that John is taking ownership of who he actually is, and not who he is trying to be or pretending to be. This is tremendously important for anybody who is looking to know oneself, even if for the sake of trying to change.
Although John’s comments on age are intentionally hilarious and exaggerated, they ring true to me now as I am on the cusp of my thirties. I’m taking inventory of where I have been, and I’m trying to examine the events that most helped to contribute to my current state. I now believe that just a few core beliefs help to guide nearly everything that I do, and in a way, life isn’t as complicated as I sometimes make it.
As Polonius said to Laertes in Hamlet: “This above all: to thine own self, be true.” Before John Mayer was a celebrity, he was… John Mayer. Writing songs about love and heartbreak were natural, well received, and most of all… real. It sounds as if he is trying to keep a hold of that which made his music magical, namely his unapologetic honesty. He may not be politically correct, but he doesn’t seem to be bitter or resentful of much outside of himself either.
I’m a fan of honest conversations and blunt confrontations, in a spirit of love. I want my life to be characterized by more of this. I want it to be one of those core values that everything else flows out of. Thanks for reminding me of that today, John.
