Pearls : John Mayer

"Pain Throws Your Heart To The Ground, Love Turns The Whole Thing Around"

Who Is John Mayer?
John Clayton Mayer (born October 16, 1977) is an American rock musician, singer-songwriter, recording artist, and music producer. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and raised in Fairfield, he attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. He moved to Atlanta in 1997, where he refined his skills and gained a following, and he now lives in Montana. His first two studio albums, Room for Squares and Heavier Things, did well commercially, achieving multi-platinum status. In 2003, he won a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Your Body Is a Wonderland."

Mayer began his career performing mainly acoustic rock, but gradually began a transition towards the blues genre in 2005 by collaborating with renowned blues artists such as B. B. King, Buddy Guy, and Eric Clapton, and by forming the John Mayer Trio. The blues influence can be heard throughout his 2005 live album Try! with the John Mayer Trio and his third studio album Continuum, released in September 2006. At the 49th Annual Grammy Awards in 2007, Mayer won Best Pop Vocal Album for Continuum and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Waiting on the World to Change". He released his fourth studio album, Battle Studies, in November 2009. His fifth album, Born and Raised, which saw another musical style shift, was released in May 2012. He has sold over ten million albums in the U.S. and over 20 million albums worldwide.

Mayer's career pursuits have extended to stand-up comedy, graphic design, television hosting, and writing; he has written pieces for magazines, most notably for Esquire. He is also involved in philanthropic activities through charity work and various environmental causes.

John Clayton Mayer was born on October 16, 1977 in Bridgeport, Connecticut to Margaret, an English teacher, and Richard, a high school principal. He grew up in Fairfield, Connecticut, the second of three children. His father is Jewish, and Mayer has said that he "relates to Judaism". He attended Fairfield High School in Fairfield although he was enrolled in the Center for Global Studies at Brien McMahon High School in Norwalk for his junior year (then known as the Center for Japanese Studies Abroad, it is a magnet program for students wanting to learn Japanese).

After watching Michael J. Fox's guitar performance as Marty McFly in Back to the Future, Mayer became fascinated with the instrument, and when he turned 13, his father rented one for him. A neighbor gave Mayer a Stevie Ray Vaughan cassette, which cultivated Mayer's love of blues music. Mayer started taking lessons from a local guitar-shop owner, Al Ferrante, and soon became consumed with playing the instrument. His singular focus concerned his parents, and they took him twice to see a psychiatrist—but Mayer was determined to be fine. Mayer says that the contentious nature of his parents' marriage led him to "disappear and create my own world I could believe in". After two years of practice, he started playing at blues bars and other venues in the area, while he was still in high school. In addition to performing solo, he was a member of a band called Villanova Junction (named for a Jimi Hendrix song) with Tim Procaccini, Joe Beleznay, and Rich Wolf. Mayer considered skipping college to pursue his music, but the disapproval of his parents dissuaded him from doing so.

When Mayer was seventeen, he was stricken with cardiac dysrhythmia and was hospitalized for a weekend. Reflecting on the incident, Mayer said, "That was the moment the songwriter in me was born," and he penned his first lyrics the night he got home from the hospital. Shortly thereafter, he began suffering from panic attacks, and lived with the fear of having to enter a mental institution. He continues to manage such episodes with Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug. After graduation, he worked for fifteen months at a gas station until he saved enough money to buy a 1996 Stevie Ray Vaughan signature Stratocaster.

Mayer enrolled in the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, aged 19. However, at the urging of his college friend an Atlanta, Georgia native, Clay Cook, he left school after two semesters and moved with Cook to Atlanta. In Atlanta they formed a two-man band called LoFi Masters and began performing in local coffee houses and club venues such as Eddie's Attic. According to Cook, they began to experience musical differences due to Mayer’s desire to move more towards pop music. As a result, the two parted ways, and Mayer embarked on a solo career.

With the help of local producer and engineer Glenn Matullo, Mayer recorded the independent EP Inside Wants Out. Cook co-wrote many of the songs from the EP including Mayer's first commercial single release, "No Such Thing". The EP includes eight songs with Mayer on lead vocals and guitars. However, Cook's only contribution was backing vocals on the song "Comfortable". For the opening track, "Back To You", a full band was enlisted, including the EP’s co-producer David "DeLa" LaBruyere on bass guitars. Mayer and LaBruyere then began to perform throughout Georgia and nearby states.

Mayer’s reputation began to build, and a March 2000 appearance at South by Southwest brought him to the attention of "launch" label, Aware Records. After including him in the Aware Festival concerts and having his songs included on Aware compilations, in early 2001, Aware released Mayer's internet-only album titled, Room for Squares. During this time, Aware inked a deal with Columbia Records that gave Columbia first pick in signing Aware artists, and so in September of the same year, Columbia remixed and re-released Room for Squares. As part of the major label "debut", the album's artwork was updated, and the track "3x5" was added. The re-release also included reworked studio versions of the first four songs from his indie album, Inside Wants Out.

By the end of 2002, Room for Squares had spawned several radio hits, including "No Such Thing," "Your Body Is a Wonderland", and ultimately, "Why Georgia". In 2003, Mayer won a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Your Body Is a Wonderland." In his acceptance speech he remarked, "This is very, very fast, and I promise to catch up." He also figuratively referred to himself as being sixteen, a remark that many mistook to mean that he was only sixteen years old at the time.

In 2003, Mayer released a live CD and DVD of a concert in Birmingham, Alabama titled Any Given Thursday. The concert featured songs previously not recorded, such as "Man on the Side" (co-written with Cook) and "Something's Missing", which later appeared on Heavier Things. The concert also included "Covered In Rain". According to the accompanying DVD documentary, this song is "part two" of the song "City Love", which features the line "covered in rain". Commercially, the album quickly peaked at number seventeen on the Billboard 200 chart. The CD/DVD received conservative, although consistent, praise, with critics torn between his pop-idol image, and (at the time) emerging guitar prowess. Erik Crawford (of Allmusic) asked "Is he the consummate guitar hero exemplified when he plays a cover of Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'Lenny', or is he the teen idol that the pubescent girls shriek for after he plays 'Your Body Is a Wonderland?'"

Heavier Things, Mayer's second album, was released in 2003 to generally favorable reviews. Rolling Stone, Allmusic and Blender all gave positive, although reserved, feedback. PopMatters said that it "doesn't have as many drawbacks as one might assume". The album was commercially successful, and while it did not sell as well as Room for Squares, it peaked at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart. Mayer earned his first number one single with the song "Daughters" as well as a 2005 Grammy for Song of the Year, beating out fellow contenders Alicia Keys and Kanye West. He dedicated the award to his grandmother, Annie Hoffman, who died in May 2004. He also won Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, beating Elvis Costello, Prince, and Seal for the award. In a February 9, 2009 interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Mayer said that he thought he should not have won the Grammy for Song of the year because he thought that Alicia Keys' If I Ain't Got You was the better song. Because of this, he removed the top half of the Grammy and gave it to Keys, and kept the bottom part for himself. At the 37th Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in 2006, Mayer was honored with the Hal David Starlight Award.

Mayer again recorded live concerts across seven nights of his U.S. tour in 2004. These recordings were released to the iTunes Store under the title As/Is, indicating that the errors were included along with the good moments. A few months later, a "best of" CD was compiled from the As/Is nights. The album included a previously unreleased cover of Marvin Gaye's song "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)", featuring a solo from Mayer's support act, jazz and blues turntablist DJ Logic. All the album covers of the As/Is releases feature drawings of anthropomorphic bunnies.

With increased exposure, Mayer's talent came into demand in other areas. Steve Jobs invited Mayer to perform during the keynote address of Apple's annual Macworld Conference & Expo, in January 2004, as Jobs introduced the software application GarageBand. The gig led to Mayer becoming a fixture of the event. He rejoined Jobs on stage for a solo performance at Macworld 2007, following the announcement of the iPhone. Mayer has also done endorsements, such as a Volkswagen commercial for the Beetle's guitar outlet and for the BlackBerry Curve. (Read More)


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