#75 - John Mayer

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to find the location nearest to you. Apply online at Express pros dot com or visit an office near you today Express pros dot Com again, Express pros dot Com Show all right, John Mayer and Studio, Hey, dude, how are you? Dude? Thanks for coming to appreciate that. Thank you for supporting this record in the song and giving me an opportunity to come in. You know, I guess we can start this. We were talking yesterday. The last concert that I paid money to go to was your show.

I saw you in Minneapolis and we went up and watch that show. And I can't go tonight and night. You're like three blocks down the road where you can't afford it. I can't. I spent money I'm doing. I'm at the Opera tonight, so yeah, I can't come and listen. There's always a cool reason not to come to my show because someone has a show of their own. That's the best reason not to come. So I hope everybody goes the whole thing school. You did the show in chapters, yeah,

and kind of breaking it up a little bit. Same thing with your music. Talk about that for a second, because I enjoyed how you put out the songs and waves, meaning I got to enjoy four songs at a time. Yeah. Well, as a music listener myself, I was starting to feel the experience of listening to new music change, where like I wasn't listening to records anymore. I was listening to what was thrown at the top of like if you've got Spotify placement or if you've got like the Apple

Store placement. I would listen to those things. I'd listen to what was in memes, I'd listen to. But I wasn't really listening to records, you know, and the records that came out by artists that I loved. What's sort of like you'd hear about it for a second and then it would kind of disappear, and I go, oh,

that's a shame, is that anything? And then you hear the record, You're like, this record is great, and so all this great music sort of slipping through the cracks, you know, And so I knew how hard that not just I had worked, but how hard people around me had worked on this record. It's not necessarily anymore like this endeavor where I'm trying to get my name out there.

But when you see people who are staying in the studio longer than I am, and I'm in the studio for hours a day, and the fact that there are people who I work with who are there an hour and a half before me, in an hour and a half after me, you want to you want to do it in service to those guys, you know, and in terms of getting the record out and making sure people see it and making sure people understand what it is

you made. And the idea became like, well, what if it came out the way like the way television is going to Netflix and everyone's sort of putting the whole season up all at once. What if records just switched places with it, and it was like, take four songs,

get used to it, get your head around it. Here's another four get used to because I knew each song was really important, and twelve is a funny number to consume now, you know, Like, hey, I want you to watch twelve with these, you know what I mean when someone's like, someone's like, oh, you're gonna love that series,

but you gotta get through the first six. So I wanted to make it a little more easily consumable, and I think it worked in the sense that people felt really familiar with the record by the time I got on the road. Yeah, I did for me because I was able to consume the songs and spend time with four of them instead of going, here's the entire dinner, Like I got to eat a little bit of the clisser on a little bit of chicken, and so I

enjoyed the songs because of that. And I'm not even an album guy anymore, Like when someone puts out a whole album, I don't have time, Like that's not the leading songs. I mean, I'm like, you know, and then I don't listen to it three times. That's the thing I mean, if that. But that's a lot of great you know, there's a lot of great stuff. You think that like the more stuff there is, the worse it becomes, But it's actually the other way, Like everything's really cool

right now. There's a lot of great music. There's a lot of great movies. There's a lot of great podcasts. By the way, everybody has a podcast I'm supposed to listen to, and it's all great, But I just it's very difficult to find these slots in your life to get that in, you know, into your world, and so it for me. It helped also because I could like, this record was so big for me to get out the door that I had to break it down into

four parts just to get it out. What do you mean so big to get out that it took forever to mix it too, you know, the record was in suspended animation for quite a while. That was the only challenge in this record was that the songs had been opened for two years. I mean I was listening to two files that were two years old, you know by the time this record came out. So putting it out in waves allowed me to finish it in waves too. Like I wasn't all done with it and was like,

let's just put four out at a time. I was like, I got four for you now, so let's hear this one here. Why I start with this one. It was the first one that was done, No, it was it was the first so I had played a little bit of cat and mouse with people for a bunch of different reasons, and some of it I didn't mean to be as evasive musically as I became, and I felt like this was the song that was like, Hey, I'm not gone talked up to the post like a good radio guy, right up to the post. You ever tried

to do that? You ever hop in and try to do the radio thing where you talk up to song ramps? Oh? Yeah, I do it in the car? Oh you do if a song comes on you just you see how hard I hit that? Can you do your own? Give me any one of them, I'll do it, okay, any one of your songs. I'll talk right up to the post. All right, I mean here, let's go back to your first ever. Here we go, ready, three to and it's something kind of temperature time out there in Nashville today,

sitting in the studio with John Mayer. Been a while since he's been here with us. We're gonna talk to him right after this. But this is a song from his very first record. It's no such a thing by John Mayor. Check it out. No, yeah, like three seconds loud. But that that was where there was going to be a church John, Oh, you're get an imaging? All right? Have I tried it? Though? That was good? All right, pretty close you did. How about what if I really

knew the temperature? Though? It would have been if you had nailed the temperature. Yeah, improv to the temperature. Whenever, when recording this record, do you have like Steve and Piano record with you or do you just bring them

out and play? Uh? I would write as much as I could and have them come and then kind of flesh out the tunes, and then when we were done with that, I'd be like, hey, stay around for an hour or two, and then we kind of do this thing called free play, which is where you set up and you know, you take I take advantage of being able to jam with those guys any time they're around, So we set up like I set up to Mike, let's try something, and for an hour or two I

try to find something in the universe with those guys in the same room. But most of the time it's uh me writing something getting good enough to where they can come in and play on it, and then they're pretty much the finishing touches on it. It seemed to me having gone to a show, and I think I've been to I mean, I'll show you my nerdiness little. I think I've been a fifteen Mayor show. Yeah, I've been around them in the shows. So I'm a pretty

big fan than you are. You welcome free, though I didn't pay for many of the tickets, Like Lee, is that since what Lee two thousand three or four you've been hooking me up? Why did you pay for the one in Minneapolis? Because well, I didn't pay for the tickets, but I flew up there and paid for the trip. And then he was like, I get your tickets. Don't worry. I got it better. I get better seats. All the truth comes out, I bought worse seats and then he

gave me a front row seats. He weren't standing outside the Coconuts record store, That's true, I wasn't. So okay, Back to Michael, what my question? You were explaining that you have you look the happiest when you're playing in the trio during this show, any trip to that, um probably, yeah, there's a freedom to that that. Nobody's really quite sure what we're gonna do. Three super capable guys who aren't who didn't talk about what they were going to do before they got on stage to do it. Uh, so

anybody could start it. Sometimes I'll just stand there and all of a sudden, you're just here, Okay, Steve starting it. It's like it's it's the it's like total freedom. Also, it's like you can kind of embrace the fact that that's what that band is. You don't have to worry about whether it's going to be whether you're playing a song that people know from the radio, or whether you're playing it whether people are tired of hearing this or

whether they want to hear that they're kind of resigned to. Like, you're playing three songs with this power trio that they're probably not going to really totally know unless they're like super fans. So I have fun in that freedom for three songs. It's like, look, you're gonna get this super powerful blues trio thing. I was thinking about Marty McFly saying like, you might not understand that, but your kids are gonna love it. That's how I feel like I'm

back to Change the Sea Dance. There are times I look out into the crowd and I see some of the people who are not totally initiated into the blues rock thing. And I feel like I'm Marty McFly at the Enchantment Out of the Sea dance in nineteen fifty five, and they don't. They probably don't get who Marty McFly is either. At the same they would also a shame. That would be I hope, I hope it becomes a Citizen Kane reference in the next ten fifteen years, good

back to the future reference. If it's not understood. I'm not sure we have a connection. John Mayor's here now. So I'm buds with the guys from the Zach Brown Band and Clay Cook and oh and I know the story. But you and Clay were Berkeley together and Clay was like, you know, let's move down to Atlanta. And you and Clay kind of had a duo together from you all right, yep, that's how we started. That's how I started right out

of college, was playing in an acoustic duo. And so you move down to Atlanta, and so why at Lanta of all places? He had Clay had family in Atlanta and said, I think we can do and he said there was a great music scene down there, which he was absolutely right. He did have family, and it wasn't long about either family and a music scene. So we moved down there and just started doing open mic nights and writing and you know, he that's how I got my start in music was following him down to Atlanta.

We lived in Snellville, Georgia. Are you on the radio? And Snaillville, Georgia where everybody's somebody that's the that's the catchphrase for that snail like the snail the bug or snell but it's pronounced snail Ville, but it's Snellville, S and E L L. So you guys moved to Atlanta and you ride a lot of things together. Yeah, we wrote of we had we had, we had written you know, five six songs at that point, we're still trying to put it all together. So you guys decided to go

your own different way. Is that big decision for you too? Yes? Yeah, well no one's ever cared about this. Yeah. Uh, falling out. We had a falling out creatively, did you part of it? That was part of it? Uh? The part that I can attest to. Um said, I have pretty pretty big feet, pretty strong head. I don't think anybody could have been in a duo with me at that time. That's the part that I can take responsibility for is that I probably wasn't extremely collaborative. I was, Uh yeah, I don't think.

I don't think I was a strong group worker. Well were your roles and that duo, because everybody's got the role inside of a team. He was and still is hyper musical, incredible musical mind. Um and we were also by the way, completely we're really good friends now. I

mean we are a pure closeness. There's these are two kids where the stars of their town, the musical stars of their town, coming together, obviously seeing something in one another that they identify with making music together, but never having really given over to someone else. I probably shouldn't have two really strong solo kind of mindsets coming together to collaborate. And where I think if you're if you're still going, well it doesn't add up. Uh put me in his life as a guest, and it gets a

little strange. It's like two people sharing a birthday, you know. It's like he I was, I entered his entire social life, you know, and I think there was an identity thing of like wait, what's mine and what's yours? And again taking responsibility for it. Um, I have very big shoes. I'm not necessarily subtle, especially at that age. He didn't want to mess around with young John. You don't want to mess around nineteen year old John Mayor who just figured out that the world is bendable and he's out

to just destroy it. You know. So you decided to move to California, like to make it well. I I had, interestingly enough, like most of my team came out of that time in Atlanta, you know. And then I moved to New York, and then I kind of began this sort of jumping around thing for me, Like I'm still jumping around. Yeah, because you have a house, and I where's your dog by the way, because I was watch on social media. No, that's that's a real question. Did

your dog stay in Montana? My dog does not stay in Montana. This is this is what happened. I got a dog. I wanted to have a dog on the road road dog. Uh. A dear friend of mine happens to be an incredible dog trainer. She took my dog trained. My dog turned into a per fick beast. And then I was like, Okay, I'm taking my dog on the road dog hates music. Hates music. He thinks it's like thunder, like thunderstuck, So he's trembling in the dressing room first night.

I think Red Rocks was like the first place we were like, Okay, well I got a dog, let's do this cowering in the corner. Also, like when he's home with me, if I pick up a guitar and plug it and start playing it, he does the funniest thing that he doesn't want to offend me, but he like slowly SLINKs his two paws front paws off the couch and just waddles out of the room because I'm playing music.

So it wasn't gonna work. But it turned out that my dog trainer, she loved him so much, and she said, well, he's a part of our family too, so I'll be the mommy. And I thought that's awesome. So my dog lives a better life than I do. He lives in Brentwood, California, and I pick him up. It's like doggy daycare, but it's months long. Sounds more like custody. It's joint customer. Yes so, but but I've heard of people doing that.

I know singers who do that. You know they try to get a dog, and it's a very noble idea to get a dog. Okay, I'm growing up. I want to get I wanna get something to take care of and responsibility for. And then you realize that it would be you taking the elevator down to the street level in Denver, Colorado at seven in the morning to make it go potty. So it's it's a wonderful thought. I was like, where's the dog. Yeah, the dog. I was interesting.

I pick up the dog on my way out to Montana and we get to know each other again on the plane and then and we're then we're there and he's got fifteen acres of pure dog park. You don't have to take him out. He's a black lab, so he doesn't want to run too far. There are bears, Yeah, there are Yeah, I've seen the snapchats. There was a bear in my yard a couple of summers ago. I'm scared of bears, man. I'll walk outside across the driveway

in the dark and just totally scared of bears. I know a couple of people in my life were like, walk out in the dark and they're totally scared of bears. Bears are scary. I mean they sell bear pepper spray at the supermarket, and if you go hiking, you're supposed to bring bear pepper spray. I have a feeling in your demographic there's plenty of people who have with them as they listen to this bear pepper spray. Do you know what you're supposed to do if you encounter a bear?

Play dead or run or scream? I think it's different for each bear. It actually is. I think it's deffer bridged person too. It's different for each bear. Uh, well, you need to be prepared. You're supposed to be prepared.

You're supposed to have bear pepper spray. I think if you see bear poop, you're supposed to sort of get out of there if you see you know, there's things that ever, but I've heard I've heard things like like a bear will mall you but not kill you, and then like you think it's left, but it's just hiding under some leaves, just watching you die or just watching you be injured. There, Like these bears are serious, they're

not messing around. This is true that the bear will maim you and then sort of hide and watch you. You just said you heard, and now you're saying it's true. You've converted in like two sentences this this is fact because I have I have people who I trust in me around my life, and they've told you that the bear will attack you and then watch you. Yeah, a bear will attack you. I think a grizzly will attack you, bring you to the edge of death, and then watch you and if you get up, then it will kill

you and you eat that. So it's like Game of Thrones. And yes, it's the revenue. Yes in Montana. Uh, do you have a Facebook page or something? People can verify this. They don't worry, they will every bit of it. I feel really good about this information. John Mayor hanging out all right. Let me talk about blue Apron for a second. So I love blue Apron? Do you love loves? Blue Apron? Is lunch boxes? How many times do you blue apron?

A week? Three times a week? See, I'll have it once twice launch pretty much ever mild just about he's at home. It's so easy. I mean, it comes to my front door and I've already got the recipe. I just pull it out and sometimes I can even surprise my wife and cook it myself. Is that what you do? Is that the move? Yeah, that's the move. I like, I'm a chef, but she knows I use Blue Apron.

But it's still a cool surprise. For less than ten dollars per person per meal, Blue Apron deliver seasonal recipes along with preportion ingredients to make delicious home cooked meals. There's a lot of variety, like what what would you have? We had some spicy beef tacos this week. We also had some potato salad and chicken tinders. So good. Check out this week's man. You get your first three meals

for free with free shipping Blue Apron dot com slash Bobby. Yeah, you love how get it feels, I get it tastes Blue Apron dot com slash Bobby. Blue Apron is a better way to cook Blue Apron dot com slash Bobby. All right, back in the studio, John Mayer's here with us today. Let me play this song here. I like this one, Rosy that's my hall of notes jam Philly Saltzer. It's good. Talk up to the posts again the guitar. Would you talk up to the guitar? Solo vocal? It

depends what format your in. So if I listen, I did rock for a while, would you've talked over this next time? I would have talked over the whole thing. I have been like the vocal. Yeah, I would be like, hey, we're with John Mayre. We're gonna play a whole seven songs in a row, John Ayr, We're here all morning long, Hedge. It's like karaoke, sixty four bars instrumental, and then then you just stand there with your friends. I will that's very vocal. It's almost its own hook. It's its own hook.

But I'd probably talk over it now. I mean I probably talk over it. Well, let's give it. Listen to Rosie right now. Check it out. Come down and proud of yourself on that one. Yeah, I have to make up. I'm truck again, Rember. When we your it's fluffy. Who do you run your songs about you? Right one? You go, hey, we think of this boom? Who who's that person? Me? Yeah? I know? And and even there's even people I would run my songs buying the go that's great, and I go, no,

it's not. So it's me again, big feet, big strong head, most of it's most of it's in house. I don't necessarily, Yeah, I don't know. I don't necessarily collaborate very well, but I kind of know. I kind of know what I know. I don't finish songs that aren't I think strong enough to make records. I don't usually have any extra songs left over that aren't you know, I don't have parts falling off of them or what I'm done with an album. So I know, I I know what makes a me

song now and what doesn't. And they are even good song ideas that I have, like really cool things. I listened back to it and I go, I don't buy it. And I know myself well enough now that I can do more stuff than I should be than I should do. Like I can do more stuff with a guitar or with a band or with a drum programming than I then then I should have as and I you know, as music that's called my music. So it's really weird.

It has to pass like a lot of times I call it like it's like a four quadrant test, like is it good? Do I like it? Which is different than is it good? Right? So you can you can have a song that's of that you don't like. You can have a song you like, that's not good? Is it me? That's the third, So it can be good and you like it, but if it's not you, and you're like, I don't know, if I don't know if I really want this to be my thing. And the fourth question is like, do I want to play this

every night as I go on tour? And if it passes all four of those questions, then I know it's a really good song. I don't know what a hit is anymore, but I know what is one of those songs where you're like, oh, this is bulletproof. Let's go around the world with this and Rosie it's like anywhere you go, people they're don't necessarily like cheer for the recognition of the tune, but the cheer because like, it feels so good, you know. So I'm pretty good about being my own A and R guy. Do you play

all your instruments on your demos? Yes? Yes I do. And sometimes that's tricky because the ignorance of my playing a certain instrument that I don't really play predominantly adds to the um the certain geneseequa of it. And uh, and then you bring a really great musician in and then you gotta be like, will you played a little dumber? You're like, will you do it with just your left hand? Like can I hit you in the head once with a vase? And then can you do it? I go

with the vas. I don't say vase. I'm fancy and uh so I have people try and replicate that kind of half half awake kind of way of playing. What is your day? Like becauld you wake up at what time depending on time zone? Touring, Yeah, depending on the time zone, like anywhere between ten and noon, depending on the times. And you do what when you wake up?

I dive into like the excitement of the day via Instagram, Twitter, text, email, and I do I go round and around for like an hour, you know, like I was thinking this literally yesterday. If you want to offend most of the world with how good you have life, you don't. You wouldn't talk about like how much money you have. You would talk about how you haven't been like underslept in months. Like you could say like, yeah, I have a G four jet, People like, yeah, good for you to be, Like I

have a woken up tired in a month. People would be like, how dare you? How dare you going so I don't really wake up tired. I just wake up at whatever time I have to wait my body system. That's amazing. You wake up whenever your eyes open. Yeah, I got I have. That's the only way to do this for a living. The only way to do it for a living is to sleep has to come first. Sleep is like water. If you're in the survivalism of it, you have to have sleep. I quit drinking so I

don't have to deal with hangovers. And I'm I'm a dangerous man without a hangover. Why did you quit drinking? Two things? Voice and I knew that if I wanted to not cancel shows for either health or mental health, that I was going to have to be um excited every time I woke up, to be honest with you, and I have to be fully portable as a human being. And we've all been hungover on an airplane. Those are long flights. Those are long, sweaty, trembling flights. So I

wake up in the morning, I'm ready to go. Like, I'm like psyched. Do you still practice at all? I do practice? Very good question. Um, I think that I'm about to practice, and then I plug in and I'm like, no, I'm still good, and then I put it down because

I've already started. Like when I was younger, I practice, but now like I played with the best musicians in the world, like in the world that I can brag about, and then to go home alone to play without that sound, You're like, it's more like, yeah, just checking, still good, put it down and then go do something else. So what am I going to practice? I play? So like what's your hobby? I mean, not that's your job, but like what do you do with all this? Like you

you wake up when you want. You don't have to practice, like I burned large swaths of time just to kill it. Just I'm a murderer of you've been on the road before. You're you're just trying to get to the show, the show we love, the show matters, and you're trying to basically encase yourself in a protective seal in between shows and do whatever it takes so that you're rested and you're healthy. And for me, I'm not necessarily into the Anthony Bourdain of life, like, oh I have an off day,

Oh what kind of food they have here? Oh it's good. I might know. I pumped the room to like seventy five degrees. Stay in my pajamas all day. Use every towel. That's what I said, use every towel. Cleaning ladies come in. I just I call them the bad idea cleanup crew. I just come on in and used every towel. Yes I did. Did you use this one as a napkin? Yes? I did ever use a bath towels a napkin? Bobby in a hotel? Yes, I have and X, but no, no,

I've I called the everything towel. It's the I call it the luxury clean X. I get you, man, I get it for the room. Well, that's why we are horrible, horrible people in the hotels. They leave those little notes to be conscious of, you know, the earth, and use one towel. Yeah, A towel on the rack means I'll use it again. A towel in the bathtub means a towel with barbecue sauce on it means I hate my life. I also feel like they don't change the comforter anyway,

so we're even well. I can tell when they change the comfort some places, I'll put the note up it says your comforter has been changed. I think the note just stays up. I think they just put the note back up there. I don't listen. Hotel life is a bit rich. Continue what does that mean? It means you just run bits about hotels all day? Um? Yes, so, uh, we're having to debate in this room before you came in, and you mayn't want to answer this. Which song are

you just tired of playing? Um? I'm tired of playing waiting on the World changed Boom? I said, why that I would have one? Or that would be that one? Yeah? Yeah, why do you think it is? I have a whole different reason. Why do you think it? I have a reason. I'm tired of hearing it? Why do you ever reading? Oh that's funny, let's go, let's boog it, let's book it. Here we go. I'm leaning into this. Why do you why are you tired of playing it? Um? It's it's

honest to god, It's just a tactile thing. It's just after a while, like, by the way, you're gonna be like, oh, well, I hated the message. I was like, I just didn't like the way I felt in my hand. Um, it's right outside of my range. Like when I had vocal surgery that I had a procedure and like it. It cost me like two or three notes, and I needed those notes for winning on the World to Change, So

I kind of kind of to sneak around it. So it's not exactly it never really was the most comfortable thing to sing, so weirdly enough, like all the songs that became very popular are are very difficult to sing for me. Meanwhile, all I wanted to do is like have a hit with like who says a kick is? Don't just wake up at five in the morning be able to do it? And uh so it's out of my range. It's also musically, um, pretty pretty circular, you know, so there's not a ton of room in it. It's

you kind of get into it. You have to say your piece and then get out. It's not necessarily, uh meant for exploring the musical space of the song. Now you go, why don't you like waiting in the world of changing? I feel like it's not in your range anymore, Like you lost a couple of notes. Are you kidding? Are you just saying I didn't know I was going

that I was right. This is the true, the true, because on that record, I feel like that's the one song that is different than all the rest sonically listen, not a whole album. And I'm like, man, that one could probably go on a couple other records. That might be true. But also it's I felt like it was a radio song. Did you write that to be on the radio? You know? Talk about running it by somebody. A dear friend of mine at the time. I sent it to her and she said, I don't hear it.

I don't think it's and I think it's huge. I think it's gonna be huge. It's I don't really hear it. I don't think it's gonna be huge. I'm weird when it comes to hits, man, Like, I don't know what makes a song of mine a hit. I have a feeling it's like there's something in like you do stand up, uh, you know, like your middle funny joke to you is your funniest joke to the crowd? I don't. I never

know what jokes canna be the funniest. It's the one that that you're the least excited about, like it's your throwaway. They the accidental because you're interested in the upper ranges of your mind, Like, how can I be more clever, How can I be more interesting? And then somewhere in your in your middle is where the crowd kind of grabs onto what you're saying, Like the crowd probably applauds,

and you go, You're like, oh that, Oh you like that? Okay, because that really didn't feel like anything coming out of my head. It's the same thing with music. It's like all the stuff where I'm like, oh my god, this is so complex and interesting and people are gonna love it, like they kind of don't. It's the stuff that for me, I feel like it's a little bit um. It bores me, just the slightest bit, and it becomes like whatever I find boring in it, people find accessible. And here's the

joke I'm thinking about the opera tonight. Tell me funny. Yay, I haven't used it yet. We're happy to bleep it out. Okay, you said the guy that got caught pledging himself with the movies to the emoji. Yes, this is good. It's not that good. No, I mean it's a good it's a good. Right. Everyone is freaking out about the guy doing that to himself in a theater. I'm just wondering which emoji he thought was super hot. Okay, so that's

a setup. That's not that's not a punch line yet, it's still a setup, right, So then you break it down. Is that the Sauca Lady? And then I go through the thing and then at the end I end up with the purpose. Yeah, there's a lot of places plants? Is it the poop emoji? But I don't think people are like that's funny as I start rolling through emoji's Like, I think that's funny. It's funny if you can break it out. And I hate that I'm on your radio show telling you how to be funny. It's okay because

I'm telling you songs I think very good. So we're all good. We're in a good place. Yeah, I think. I think as long as you just like there's a place to go there sure like getting basically you're talking about emoji's represent is a fetishist. I like the girl because maybe there see, there you go, there you go, let's see, that's a whole. I probably can't tell that that which emoji if you had only one, Like what do you think? Somebody has a gun in your head?

And like you have to pleasure yourself to an emoji. Yeah, what's the one you're gonna pick and be like, look, I'll make do the Police Girl. Yeah yeah, yeah, see I should join you on on stage of the opry. We have a thing going to come out. We riff and Police Girl too. Mikes. Yeah that, by the way, che did that. We did that. You did it in San Francisco. We did in San Francisco, Atlanta. We're gonna we're gonna do some what we did Red Rocks in Colorado. What do you do? Though? So I go on stage

and I played for like minutes. He comes out and he's he's working on his new hour. He's almost done with this new hour, which is phenomenal, and then he calls me out and I'm sort of a DJ. It's like two guys at a party who found a guitar and I'm the DJ of like a joke DJ. So he loves music, Dave loves to like joke about songs, and he's he's almost like a the Savant where he's almost he's he's a musical MC as well. It's really

straight like he's performing music but he's not singing. It's really hard to explain, but he's he's a genius and obviously, and so we throw ideas back and forth, and I can kind of play anything if I've ever heard it before. So he can throw a song to me and I just kind of know it. So it's a little bit like he throws a song idea to me, I do it, and he works it into this brilliance. Like basically it's like watching the Chapel Shaw. So it's like jazz with jokes. Yeah,

that's right. And and and we have little we're starting to develop things that we know work. So it's like it's like a it's like two people thinking with the same brain. Now, like like the way you build a file cabinet of jokes in your head, we're building a file cabinet of jokes based on songs. Like there's a foot loose joke that's just super funny because I'm I'm playing the footloose lick downing ironing, ironing earner, and with his mind he takes it into you know how out

of place that would be. You know in the quote unquote hood you know the quote unquote which song when you start to get the biggest pot from when you first first second? Now, what's really weird in keeping with a conversation of like who knows what makes a hit of mine? Or whether people like slow dancing in a burning room? Man, Like I play slow dancing in a burning room, and if you had never heard any of my music, you'd be like, oh, was this his massive hit?

You're like, no deep album track, and it wasn't even a thing. Almosn't even a single. I mean there are things about me that I don't end the other people for having to work with. One of those things is like I don't put records out where you're like, oh yeah, Like, first of all, I'm not technically a pop artist. I don't hand in a record where people are like, oh, this is a smash, this is smash. It's hard to

be my record company. Like, not that I think that they've been like brilliant this time out, but we do live in an ever shifting landscape. But uh, it's it's really hard to be my record company. I give twelve songs to you. Four of them are like R and B bangers. Four of them are like, you know, like what someone else would call it sappy who stick ballad? You know, so I don't really know what makes a hit, but this is my new record, the Project, that's the Lindsay L record. So can we get a shot out

of my new record the Project. Part of it was because you know, they didn't really recognize me on the cover, but this is who I this is my new record. I went by Lindsay L and U can we play cut off that? So yeah, so there it is. This this is a great recording, and you're asking me like seriously, yeah, it's a great it's a great recording. What's the difference recording? I just hear a song the way the way it

was engineered. It's set. It's gorgeous. It's the best. That's the Gravity is the best record, Like you know, it's a difference between song of the year record of the year. Grammy's like, that's this isn't this is quite a record. This is how spare it is. If I stopped talking, well now I'm just gonna keep going because we're so really key into the record, especially the vocals. This is gravity from continue checking out Gravity when I want to When I want your show Minneapolis, she didn't play it.

I was sad, and I know you get that every show because you can't play everything. Well, well no, but you saw me at the beginning of this tour where I was like, I'm gonna just play whatever I want, and the crowd was adamant that I played Gravity, so we added Gravity back in every night. That's cool. Look, it's cool to be that artist where you know there are things that people identify with you so so much

that you have to play them. I dig it, and I'll play Gravity every night for the rest of my life. Like that's a song I'll never get tired of. Yeah, there's something about it. It's simple, but you can insert however you feel. And gravity can be different every day when you when you sing to it. It could be emotional gravity, it can be your time spent in space if you literal gravity. Yeah, I don't know the movie with George that's right. And what's your favorite song off

the new record? Oh? Well, you know I have the one about She doesn't know any words to it, she doesn't knows the parts of it. No, I know about how. I just think it's really really clever about how you keep the shampoo in the shower in case and romantic. I'm like, I think every girl sort of would would want a guy to to sing that for her. Got sticky hands man, it's hard, hard, getting hard, getting out.

For me, it's it's good. But this song, no dude wants to have to write this song though, Yeah, but he's both being gonerable all songs. Sorry, enjoy it. No one knew what to do with it for listening because she told me, what do you get this song to like? And this leads in the blood conversation like if you're a station that's like a triple A station, you played John Man music and all of a sudden, Columbia is like, hey, here's the next John May song. Like it doesn't fit

anyone's radio station, but does it have to fit? Because I'm a radio I think nothing has to fit radio. I'm with you, man, I mean, maybe that's why we're still filling the places up with people's because I'm not following this sort of format rule, you know, like I put mixed tapes out. I feel like so and you're here for a reason because you have a song. And I remember I went to this show and I was talking and by the way, Lee Levesner is your you

want to explain you who he is? Lee Livesner uh died in ninette and it's come back as a ghost to set things straight. Is that correct? Yeah? I don't know. Sorry, I'm just pitching movie ideas now, Leah. For years, thirteen years or so, like Lee has been in one way another with you champion, my champion of the stuff that

I make. He I there are times he probably doesn't see where a song could work and promptly stuffs that thought deep deep, deep down inside him and returns back with the thought that this song can be huge and goes out and fights for it. Mean, there's a guy, I've the funniest thing you ever said. It is life was about Still Feel Like Your Man, because I thought that it could change the like I, I always believe that a song can change a format, a song can

change people's thinking. And we're backstage at Madison Square, Carden, Columbia is there and this is right before Still Feel Like Your Bad comes out. And I looked at him. We had just finished a hug, but now we've got hands on each other's shoulders, and I said, I really believe and still feel like you're man, and he said,

and we know that you do. And I thought that was just absolutely the funniest thing that I record company, Like the funniest if it was if there was a Curb Enthusiasm style show about my life, I would write that in and that would be in the trailer. It's hilarious and we know that you do. That's a guy who can't lie. Man. It was amazing. But listen to the jam three days. I lost my mind and I was only thinking about this song three days and a trance.

What are you doing a trance? You're only about bringing the song with life. I was in a therapist office and I said, I still feel like her. I still feel like her Mania and I went, oh, no, here we go. It's I got in the car, I wrote down, still I still feel like your Man. And I looked at that title and I went, if we play our cards right, that is a major song I had felt like. And I immediately googled the title I still feel like your Man, because I thought someone must have had this idea.

Whenever I have a good idea, I'm not even excited about it. I get immediately frightened that someone else has already had that good idea. So I google that good idea. No search results. That's when I got even more excited. I went, okay, I'm actually getting right now, like excited. My heart is racing as I talked about this, because this is about how you sneak up on an on an idea, trying to catch a greasy pig, and you're just like, Okay, there it is. Let's not sing it

too soon. Let's not just throw some BS cliche stuff on this idea. And for for a whole day, I didn't sing it. I feel like your Man. I didn't make a note with it because I knew that whatever I sang, I was gonna start getting attached to and I don't want to get attached to a dumb idea for still feel like. So now I just have sheets of paper and I'm typing all different ideas about still feel like You're Man, and I don't list think. And then I was in the shower and I was like,

could I do it like a Prince ballad? I still feel lack you me? You know, no, that's gonna be shallow. Okay, don't don't even sing it. Don't even sing it. And then I had already had written this idea, this chord changes, and then one day I went in the studio and

it was the greatest luck in the world. That this one idea that I'd written musically locked in would just still feel like you're man thing, And it became this like we I called it ancient Japanese R and B. If you listen to it's like super staccato and clean toda didn't doom like I've never heard anything like it comes from me. And so for the next three days I did nothing but enter like this. It's hard to explain,

but it's true. If you can feel it, you're a little bit not on earth, You're like half of you is in another place. And for three days I did nothing but bring this song into my life, and I listened to a lot of Marvin Gay. There's definitely like some Marvin Gay thing happening in the tune that I didn't want to block. And when I was done with it, this really interesting jam that's like hopeful but also like

has the saddest line I've ever written. I literally cried when I wrote I still keep your shampoo in my shower in case you want to wash your hair. That's the saddest lyric I've ever written in my life. Think of how much desperation is in that line. She's not coming to wash her hair at your house. It's over. But the idea of keeping the torch lit where you say, well, I'm keeping it there. It's like, you know, there's like

this dog in Japan and dog had an owner. The owner would go to the train every day and the dog would follow the owner of the train and then be there at the exact time the own or came back from work off the train. The dog will be waiting on the train platform. The one day the owner died, and the dog still waited at that platform for his owner for years until the dog passed away. I love

that story. It is true. There's a statue of the dog where the dog once stood himself, and I very much in breakups feel like the statue of that dog, not even the dog, I feel like the statue of the dog. Fantastic story that I take a drink of water. Yeah, see, but where are you? I saw hope in you keeping the shampoo there. I think that's I think it's lovely. Yeah, everybody, it's different. Like for me, I was like, oh, that's so vulnerable, and it's vulnerable. But I felt like me,

like I would do that. Yeah, she does come back. So the shower is a very vulnerable play, you know, and and you stare at it as this sort of totem.

It's still life, it's the last It's like someone's shampoo is what they use in their most intimate, solitary moments, and they've brought their shampoo to your place and they've left it there because the implication is I'm going to be here so often it's worth my time to place some shampoo here and get some more for myself because I really feel like I'm going to take, you know, setup shop here and then it doesn't end up working out. But the shampoo, they're like the kids of divorce. The

shampoo and condition are like children of divorce. And how do you break it to the kids? Never wants to suffer? Yeah, I have feeling you and I could bullshit for six hours straight. Let me let me. I gotta call the more because around the time here, How about this the fact that you see colors when you play. I don't have synesthesia, and people, okay, that's that's where people know

people somebody, Um, why would someone fake that about you? Then? Well, people misinterpret my metaphors a lot, which is easily done. And I don't have synesthesia. I have probably some um interpretive form of synesthesis. Synesthesia, by the way, is some people have a clinical I don't know if i'd call it a disorder. It was a gift of sorts whereby words and sounds actually are interpreted as colors in their brain. I have it, but not visually. I'm pretty close to

I have relative synesthesia. Like what are you seeing when you're playing a solo? What are you singing in your head? How are your numbers? Colors? Muscle memory? What is it? Shapes? Colors? Uh? Geometry? That's actually, man, you're a very good interviewer, Like you're asking really interesting, untrodden on questions that are exciting to answer. Uh. The way that I do it is tons and tons and tons of streams of possibilities of shapes, What's where?

Where does it go? And I've done it for so long now that a lot of that data has sort of dissolved and it's all feeling now. I just know where it is. I just it's very Jedi now, like I just know where it is, and it's sometimes I don't know how I know It'll be different every single night. But I found some weird confluence of what I know and what I don't know, but what I'm pretty sure

is going to be there. And it's more fun than ever to play guitar because I'm not playing it like a student of guitar anymore, Like I'm I'm just sort of forgetting it all. It's like a photographer wouldn't think about, like what f stopped there at? You just start shooting after a certain period of time. Is it easier to go for a jog or to play a solo? Because I feel like this, when you move your hands, it's just happening. It's just happening. At this point, it's a whole.

It's I got, you know, it's its own other world. You know, whereas you run you have to be somewhat conscious of your steps. Are you conscious of your hands? And there are sometimes when I'm playing, like I looked out of my hands and I go, what is any of this? Like as I'm playing, I'm like, what is any of this stuff? You know, Like you've had the word mustard twelve times in a rug, You're like, mustard, mustard, this is a weird word. Not much. I did it the other day with certain and I went, did I

ever really hear the word certain? Or did I just kind of ignore it? For did I have a really pay attention to the words certain certain mustard, A certain mustard, certain m's real certain Let me hear one more thing. Uh. So you went out and play with the Dead Company, Yeah, which is fantastic. But I wondered how two things. One you had to learn a lot of songs, and too you had to learn them so good because you're playing with, you know, one of the greatest ever. You're playing a

big shadow. So what's that pressure like as compared to John Mayer pressure, because it seems like it would be bigger. I think I always knew that it was. Sorry, I'm not on Mike always. I think that I all aways knew it was in my heart, like I could do it. I knew that I couldn't do it the day I said that I could do it, or that the day I said I was gonna do it. But I knew in my heart that I had that that I could somehow do something to it and with it that would

be valuable. So I remember looking at it like, Okay, this is this might be in October, it's like April now, And I looked at the number of days that I had. I looked at the number of songs that were to learn, and I went, all right, that's three a day, let's go, you know, And I just knew in my heart. You know.

It's like people ask me sometimes, like will you do this documentary about this person's life because we know you liked them, And I go like, well, I liked him, but I don't know what to say, and I don't really have anything to say. It's like, doesn't it doesn't really reverberate inside of me, So I don't really know if I can talk about it or like I'll have anything to say about it. The topic of Grateful Dead music for me at that time was like I want no thing but to think about it, talk about it.

So I knew that it had taken some sort of purchase inside of me on a deeper level than anything ever had, and all I had to do was just take it day by day. And I felt like with my knowledge of the guitar and I think understanding where the music was coming from, even if I didn't necessarily have that myself, like I could play genealogists like I could I could figure out the d n A. I looked at it like a contractor looking at like an empty space, going like, yeah, I can I can build you.

I can build this out. You can't eat here now, But in six months I think I can think I can build this. And it was really cool to become a student. I didn't tour, I didn't make a dime. Uh, I wasn't out in the world making a name for myself. I sat at home for six months and learned those songs which I was already learning. It wasn't like I um had forced myself to like something what a perfect thing that I was already in the midst of learning

these songs on my own, just as a listener. And it it was like at a certain point in my career where where you'd think that I'd be done learning, it was like going to school for the first time again. And that was really good for me to not feel as if, well, this is your life, John, you spend you you just basically play your own music till you die. Like that doesn't excite me. It will maybe at some point when I'm like, look, I got a wife and kids.

I don't necessarily want to reinvent the wheel. But it brought so much more complexity to the life of a guy like me who craves complexity and gets not bored but complacent really quickly. It was like a whole new world that I could discover, and every day was exciting, and it still is with those guys, it's incredibly exciting.

I'm glad you're here. I'm glad this all worked out where he could come in the day I came back from the show, I was like, man, you know, some of this record sounds like music that we would play, you know, in this format. And I went and listen. I'm not always the most popular guy traditionally in this format, just because I do things at lets out of the box, but I was like, man, some of this record, A couple of songs on there, um in the blood, they're

rolling on, rolling on home for sure. I was like, this is exactly what it is, even more traditional than some of the things being played now. Um. And so I was like, hey, why aren't we playing it? And so I played it and get screamed at, and you know, the whole thing. But now there we come full circle and you've had a little time and some other stations and other people have played it, and I think it's been embraced really well by people outside and with you

to thank for it. Let me ask you a question. If you had played that song in the Blood without telling people that it was me, would they have objected? Now? But this is the truth. Almost nobody, I say almost, man, Almost nobody objected that listen anyway. The only people that objected were radio people. No listeners are like, this song is not country, the song is not anything. They were like, wow, that's a fantastic song, or wow, I love John Marry,

but we don't play John Marry. That's what they're saying. That's what it was, just the thing from the inside. It wasn't people that wouldn't embrace it, that listen to consume it. And that's the weird part. I try to be a person of the people more so than a person in the industry. I get you and then that, well, that's why I feels so good. Like you said outside of the box to give a sense of how different the world is. I haven't heard the phrase outside of

the box. No offense to you. I haven't heard the phrase outside of the box in ten years. Everything is outside of the box every possible, Like there's no box anymore. You know, and I think what you're saying is there's a box here, Well, there's a box here to box here, and and you know, people have vested interest in keeping the box taped up shut you know. And I think it's very interesting to say the least, that you're looking at it going well, why do you have to keep

the box closed? Um? And that just goes to show you there's there's like when's the last time someone asked you what's on your iPod? Once the last time someone said like, what genre of music do you like? It's all completely disassembled and uh, you know, thank you for being a champion of stuff that's cool and fits and saying like, well, whatever your notion is of it, you know, let's try not putting that, you know, as a barrier in front of the song. You know, it's not not country,

It's true, you know what I mean? Down in Livingston, Montana. I live in Livingston, Montana. That's pretty country. That's pretty western. That's pretty western. So a body in my backyard, hey do you want to? Amy gave him this picture in like two thousand and an old six shooter buried in the ground. For my birthday, Amy painted this for me a long time ago ago? Did you only have like one tattoo here? A long time ago? And then I started doing silly stuff and say this is you don't

get to keep it. I'm a fan of Yeah, she painted it for me, So if you wouldn't mind signing that, I would love to. I'mna put it back in my room where it has been a gift from her. Yea, yeah, it was like saying, what do you think UM like as an artist? As an artist, I think it's I could tell it was me. Yeah, yeah, I want that haircut bag. We're gonna play in the blood Busts. I appreciate you coming by. I help shore. It was awesome tonight.

Thank you and yours too. I want to know how the emoji joke works, and I don't think I'm going to do that at the operation giving you my cell phone number, and I want you to I'm like, I have a home number, I'm gonna give you my home office and cell phone number. I'm giving you my cell phone telephone number. I don't want you to tell me how the emoji joke goes, and you can use emojis for it. I will not do that at the operate,

but I'm a California show to California this weekend. We're you gonna be in California and so plug it, plug it well, trust me, I do enough. But I'll be in Monree a modesto both. But like a lot of a lot of TV bookers are coming out to watch because I'm rarely on the West Coast and booking for what for lots of shows night slots? Or would you would you bail on this dump to be on a sitcom? Is this what you're saying? I would not bail, but they are coming out. It is kind of a dumpy theories.

All right. They're gonna give you cones, are gonna give you a reserved spot. You're gonna Lisa Porsche Cayenne. You're gonna you're gonna live in Studio City. It's gonna be great for you. Your shop at Whole Foods. Oh, I see, they're gonna live the life parked right next to Johnny Galecky. You're gonna be on a You're gonna be on a lot, you know, running to Mario Lopez every damn day and forget about all these losers, aren't you? That's the goal, all right, John Mayre. Thank you, John. Good to see

you about it than you have you enjoyed this? This, this was You're great. This was great. This is great. Like, no, I don't do that. I wouldn't do that. Um, this is like we we had a dinner and work already on dessert and I'm like, oh, we didn't even really get to it. I agree, we could have spent when next time you come to town or I'll come over. I'll come up to Mindanna. I would love to hang out with the dog, would love to all right, here

we go, John Mayor. Everybody all right there It is episode seventy five The Bobby Cast thanks to John Mayer. I'm going to twitter now at the Bobby Cast. Its awesome to hang out with John Mayor for an hour and just talk. It was really fun. And here's a little bit of in the Blood from John Mayer. If you haven't heard this song yet, I think you should listen to it. Check it out. There's in the Blood. And we'll see you next week. How much from my

father am I destined to become? You're that lesson? Sad me just to say it is fast and worm, You're not let this woman kill me? A joy with Jennis Love You're little watch out and water, see it always in. I can't feel about