Over the past eleven and a half years, I’ve written quite a bit about my kinship with John Mayer. In addition to the relativity I often have with his lyrics, there’s the fact that he seems strangely human-for a celebrity, anyway. He’s approachable, he’s vulnerable. He says stupid shit, he admits that he fucked up and he’s not perfect. As humans, we’re all…at least we should be…works in progress. We’re certainly not perfect every minute of the day (and if you are, I’d like to meet you so that I can definitively prove otherwise. It probably won’t take me very long.)
At any rate, promotion on John’s 2012 album Born And Raised (which was fucking amazing) was halted when doctors discovered a recurrence of a condition on his throat called a granuloma. It put his singing voice in jeopardy, at least for the immediate future, and it could’ve been a potentially career-ending event. John cancelled his tour, and laid fairly low. He popped up on occasion to play guitar for artists like Frank Ocean, but was fairly absent from the scene. Born still sold 500,000 copies–a pretty major feat considering the lack of promotion and the notable top 40 radio unfriendliness of the music.
Wanna know what John’s been up to? You might want to check out this Rolling Stone interview he just did. In typically verbose fashion, John discusses his illness as well as the adjustments he’s made in his career and his life since. He also speaks admiringly of other artists he enjoys (Mr. Ocean in particular) and even talks a little bit about his relationship with Katy Perry (which gives me pause-but hey, whatever makes you happy, Johnny.) He seems to have turned over a new leaf, and is certainly more at peace with his life and career. Something we all can aspire to.