John Mayer Knows He Messed Up. He Wants Another Chance.
“I basically realized I’m no good at that, so I’m going to drop
that major.” Also: “What I did was probably semiconsciously just reboot it — control, alt, delete.” “It was an induced coma.” His career had “flatlined.” “It was cat and mouse,” he said, “and the mouse lost.”
Now approaching 40, “I’m old enough to look back on my life and go: ‘That’s probably the photonegative shot in ‘Behind the Music,’” Mr. Mayer said.
On set the next day, there was a makeshift bamboo forest, a woman in full geisha garb
and two people in giant panda suits, making up a bizarre tableau that Mr. Mayer called a “disco dojo.”
Yet for someone so attuned to the risk of offending people again — “I have nightmares about a second occurrence of” the Playboy era, he said
— Mr. Mayer seemed sanguine about the possibility of a controversy over cultural appropriation, an issue that has dogged other pop stars.
“Coming up after the break — boom — the downfall.”
In reality, after those turbulent moments he moved to Montana, grew out his hair and made two more major-label albums — “Born and Raised” and “Paradise Valley” —
that were less “Your Body Is a Wonderland” and more Laurel Canyon.
The syncopation of the guitar riff, he said, reminded him of “ancient Japanese R&B”
— which he acknowledged “isn’t a thing” — so the video concept followed suit.