In the 2000s no musician has been able to deftly navigate the terrain between R&B, pop, soul, and rock as successfully as John Mayer. Throughout his career his deference for music traditions, consummate musicianship, and keen sense of melody has kept him atop the charts and in constant radio rotation.
The middle son of two teachers who grew up in Fairfield, CT, John Mayer began playing guitar at age 13, and was soon playing local clubs in blues and cover bands. At 17, he was rushed to the hospital with cardiac arrhythmia, spending a week in bed; it was there, Mayer has said, that he began songwriting in earnest.A year after graduating high school, Mayer enrolled at Boston's Berklee College of Music; he soon skipped that to head to Atlanta to play coffeehouses with his friend Clay Cook as LoFi Masters. Shortly afterward, Mayer left to go solo, and by 1999 had cut an eight-song mini album he released and distributed himself, Inside Wants Out, hitting the road for a tour of the region around Georgia. He caught a break after appearing at 2000’s South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, TX, and was signed to Aware, a Columbia subsidiary, and recorded Room for Squares (Number Eight, 2001), which was picked up for release by the senior label. Columbia worked Mayer steadily until, over the course of a year, he became ubiquitous, thanks to the singles “No Such Thing” (Number 13, 2002) and “Your Body Is a Wonderland” (Number 18, 2002). Columbia further cashed in by reissuing Inside Wants Out (Number 22, 2002).
After the stopgap live Any Given Thursday (Number 17, 2003), Mayer released his follow-up, Heavier Things (Number One, 2003), which yielded “Bigger Than My Body” (Number 33, 2003) and “Daughters” (Number 19, 2004). Another live disc, As/Is, followed in 2004. That year, Mayer began an improbable turnaround, edging his public image from strictly mama’s-boy to sly smart-aleck, thanks to his oft-sardonic blog posts, a column in Esquire magazine, and a memorable guest spot on The Chappelle Show, jamming in a Harlem barbershop with members of the Roots. He later guest-starred on “Go!” — the first single off rapper Common’s Be, produced by Kanye West.
In his own music, Mayer began to focus on meatier stuff, particularly the blues. He played shows with Buddy Guy and Herbie Hancock, and in November 2005 released Try! Live in Concert (Number 34), credited to the John Mayer Trio, with veteran sessionmen Steve Jordan on drums and Pino Palladino on bass; they opened for the Rolling Stones that October. Continuum (Number Two, 2006) followed a year later, and its quasi-protest number, “Waiting on the World to Change (Number 14, 2006), soon wormed its way into America’s collective ear much the way his earlier material had.
Mayer, who also dabbles in stand-up comedy, has been the subject of much tabloid fodder and romantically linked to pop singer Jessica Simpson and actress Jennifer Aniston. In the summer of 2008 Mayer released a live DVD/CD entitled Where the Light Is recorded at a December 2007 concert in Los Angeles.
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