BUT...IS HE STILL WITH JEN?

The only thing the average British music fan knows about (John) Mayer is that he's had, or is having, an on-again, off-again relationship with Jennifer Aniston. The more informed might know him as a middle-of-the-road singer-songwriter. The average American music fan, by contrast, reckons the 32-year-old is one of the sharpest songwriters and finest guitar players of his generation, that he makes music that connects and unites blues guitar buffs, girls seduced by his lovelorn vulnerability, and guys who feel that listening to a Mayer album is like opening a series of supportive letters from an elder brother. Having convinced a mass audience of his talent, he now faces the problem of proving that he's still talented now that he's supermarket-magazine-cover famous in the States."You can't make music as a famous person," he says. "Famous people make really bad records – so I make music as a musician. I've read people say I was the shit, and I've read people say I am shit. I don't have to prove anything any more – all I have to do is play. Now my motivation is not so that people know my name, it's not so I can make money, it's not so I can meet girls – my motivation is to prove to people that you can buck the trend: that it's not an absolute that if you can be really successful, then you're gonna start sucking."

The Guardian
Nov 19 2009