His Stupid Mouth

The Twitterverse exploded early this morning after Us magazine published excerpts from John Mayer's new interview with Playboy. I haven't seen the Us snippets and, because it's not on newsstands until Friday, haven't read the Playboy interview yet, but intend to because I like John Mayer and am always curious to read what he has to say.

I've been a fan of this singer-songwriter-guitar hero for nearly a decade, his song "Why Georgia?" hitting me just right when I was a 23-year-old facing down a quarter-life crisis. I've felt a similar connection to each album he's released since his major-label debut, "Room for Squares." Even though I don't love his latest, "Battle Studies," as much as I did its predecessors, there are still songs on the album that I know I'll be as excited to listen to and sing along with in 10 years as I am today ("Perfectly Lonely," "Edge of Desire" and "Friends, Lovers or Nothing" standing out the most).

I have tickets for his show in LA next month. I have pictures of him on my cubicle walls. His sites are part of my regular Internet sweep. I think he's talented and smart and a great writer and an amazing guitar player and, honestly, super-hot to boot. I appreciate the amount of work he pours into his music, pushing back or refusing to commit to release dates until he's totally satisfied with the end product. I like his introspective side, the columns he used to write for Esquire, the occasional honest, inspiring, life-affirming blog post. I mostly like his sense of humor.

It's that sense of humor that's gotten him in trouble today. For whatever ridiculous, immature, boy reason, he ran his mouth in Playboy, said some things for laughs, for shock value, to bolster his standing in the eyes of the magazine's red-blooded American male readers or something, and the whole thing has failed pretty miserably. Even if the stupid, childish things he said make up only a tiny fraction of the long interview and the remainder is thoughtful, interesting and insightful, it won't matter, the focus will remain on the bad, at least for this news cycle.

John Mayer used his Twitter account this afternoon to try to do some damage control. Here's what he had to say:

"Re: using the 'N word' in an interview: I am sorry that I used the word. And it's such a shame that I did because the point I was trying to make was in the exact opposite spirit of the word itself. It was arrogant of me to think I could intellectualize using it, because I realize that there's no intellectualizing a word that is so emotionally charged. And while I'm using today for looking at myself under harsh light, I think it's time to stop trying to be so raw in interviews... It started as an attempt to not let the waves of criticism get to me, but it's gotten out of hand and I've created somewhat of a monster. I wanted to be a blues guitar player. And a singer. And a songwriter. Not a shock jock. I don't have the stomach for it. Again, because I don't want anyone to think I'm equivocating: I should have never said the word and I will never say it again. I just wanted to play the guitar for people. Everything else just sort of popped up and I improvised, and kept doubling down on it..."

John Mayer is now one more of my favorite artists who's had to learn a very hard lesson on watching what you say and will now have to fight even harder to make his music the focal point and not the regrettable interviews and tabloid headlines. John Lennon had to fight that battle, as have Bono and Madonna. Even though they were never able to completely put those little scandals and missteps behind them (it's been 44 years since John Lennon said The Beatles were "more popular than Jesus now" and apologized for it, yet practically every documentary on Lennon or The Beatles brings it up), creating great music and trying to do good in the world has helped.

John Mayer has a show in Tennessee tonight, his first official stop on his global redemption tour. Perhaps he'll play one of my favorite songs tonight, "My Stupid Mouth," because it's fitting and because maybe the lesson has finally sunken in for him, "think before speaking."

Here he is playing "My Stupid Mouth" at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum a few years back: