John Mayer Chokes Up at Show Over Playboy Scandal

By Marc Schneider Posted Feb 11th 2010 07:48AM

His Twitter mea culpa behind him, John Mayer asked a crowd of actual people on Wednesday to forgive him for those race-tinged, hyper-sexual and wholly inappropriate comments made in a newly published Playboy interview. The blues-rock singer teared up as he spoke to fans in Nashville about descending into a "wormhole of selfishness" with his "quest to be clever" in the media. He said he's "done" acting foolish and just wants to "play my guitar."

Mayer's interview went awry in so many ways, including a casual use of the N-word, graphic thoughts on his sex life with ex-girlfriend Jessica Simpson and, perhaps most bizarrely, that his sexual member was a "white supremacist" and prevents him from having intimate relationships with black women.

At the concert Wednesday night, Mayer said he had lost sight of what's important to him: "the people that I love and the people that love me."

"I went as I've begun to do, into a wormhole of selfishness and greed and arrogance," he said, adding he'd begun "thinking that if I just continued to be witty and pull together the most fast phrases that I could, that I could be clever enough to buy myself another day without thinking that anybody had finally pinned me down and said, 'you're a creep.'"

Mayer said he "feels absolutely terrible" for hurting people with his comments. "It feels worse than any headline I thought I could get my way out of."

He then changed the focus of his speech to his band, which includes many African-American musicians and singers, in an apparent attempt to defuse the scandal boiled up by his N-word use. His voice wavering with emotion, he said:

"I think it's important to know that everybody on this stage is here not because they condone what I say in any given interview -- and certainly not the interview that's arisen today. They're on this stage because they support myself as a possible future grown-up.

Maybe they see something that I haven't looked at in a while. So maybe I need to take a break from trying to be clever and just spend a little time looking at what they see. Because they've done an unbelievable thing tonight just being on the stage."

Mayer then made clear his game plan going forward: "I quit the media game. I'm out. I'm done," he said. "I just want to play my guitar to whoever's around."

The "game" as he calls it is one he plays often, both on Twitter and in numerous interviews that tend to teeter on ridiculousness.

Just last week, the singer was quoted by the New York Post as saying, "When I get married that's gonna be my vows, 'Do you, John Mayer, take this woman to have and to hold, to wear her ass like headgear?' Yes, I do -- you're the one whose ass I wanna wear like a hat for the rest of my life."

In an interview with Rolling Stone in January, Mayer introduced his views on the kind of woman he'd settle down with. "You need to have them be able to go toe-to-toe with you intellectually. But don't they also have to have a vagina you could pitch a tent on and just camp out on for, like, a weekend? The Joshua Tree of vaginas?"

Comments

(183)

Thursday 11 February

By Nonaks

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Joshua, you are an IDIOT!

By S.

Why anyone with a brain would want to be around this utter jacks** is beyond me. Taylor Swift, make out like your name and run for the hills from this jerk. He will be talking about you the next day like he has done with the other women who were stupid enough to be taken in with him. He is not good looking, he certainly can't hold a conversation. As for anything else, I wouldn't know and quite frankly don't need or want to know. Being good in bed doesn't excuse you from anything.

By Lisa

Please, could someone shoot this guy and put us out of our misery??

By trixie

No doubt! His music sux. He needs to go away and be quiet.

By BellaMia

He needs to just shut up and women of all colors and ages just need to stay away from this idiot who suffers from diarrhea of the mouth! Seriously - who does he think he is??? He looks miserable all the time and his musical talent is just passable. He's no Justin Timberlake!

By steve-o

This is what happens when the world kisses your ass.

By lisajeffbowden

You are a creep - he makes me want to vomit!

By Gee Head

You are a racist pig, along with an indecent human being. I like a few of your songs (as an African Ameican woman in an interracial marriage in the south.... with a 14 year old stepdaughter who lives with us....! One of your songs was something she and my husband sang every morn to work....because of problems we encounter as a interracially blended family in Alabama. They would sing "Waiting for the World to Change"...with the belief that indicated that YOU were a good man and now....it pains me that we were all so wrong) But once they hear about this...they too, will jump off the Mayer bandwagaon. What a pig you are!!!

By J

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Let's not blow this thing out of proportion. 1.) John Mayer is a true music talent. 2.) John Mayer, although he has a good sense of humor, is pampered, insecure, gets carried aways at times, and needs to grow up. Maybe he will and maybe he won't. 3.)If you enjoy his music, be a fan. 4.) If you do not enjoy his music, then don't...

Sunday 14 February

By eric4u2

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He still hasa Rsponsibility to Younger Fans Young & Old
Not that Simple, Disrespecting Women @ all is Wrong.

By Joe T.

Once a tool , always a tool. Adios A*@Hole

By michelle

people are so stupid they can't shut up and stop yelling like maniacs for three minutes and actually listen to what this guy is saying. This does not deserve applause. This is a seriously effed up guy.

By Phil

Michelle, you are correct. Johns' spoken thoughts, (indicative of a 13 year-old potty-mouth boy,) suggest more than just a stoner trying too hard to be "cool" in an interview. Something is seriously wrong with this man. Perhaps prozac mixed with illegal drug use?
John.... Time to see your doctor, and I wish you well.

By sharri chappell

Never liked him. Now I hate him. What a creep.

By Nancy

Sounds like John needs to be roommates with Tiger. He has absolutely nothing intelligent to say about women. Smoking way too much weed?

By richie boiadro

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over rated pretty boy who can barely play that guitar and has little talent.enjoy your hollywood hoes now because after that stupid interview your stock is falling quickly.can't wait to see him on celebrity rehab with all the other losers....also since you brought your white sheet out of the closed be proud enough to wear it you nimrod..................

By WILL

I USED TO ADMIRE JOHN , BUT HE HAS TURNED INTO ANOTHER TYPICAL HOLLYWOOD LOSER

By Nickie

I really wish I didn't read stuff about him. I used to really like him especially as a singer and now it kinda ruins it for me. I think he is a very talented artist, and I am really disappointed.

By azalou54

When will people learn that the n-word should never be used in any way.It is a negative word in any way you use it.Being a Black woman from the 50's and 60's I know the word well and it will never be something I want to hear from anybody.Mayer and his apology is worthless.I'M WAITING FOR THE WORLD TO CHANGE.

Monday 15 February

By Chris

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negro, from the latin, has many derivatives still being used in many languages, including spanish. "Nigg#r" has received bad connotations because of the hate of people who used it, but also for who it described. You could use any euphemism to describe a black person, and after a while it would have a negative connotation. I could refer to black people as "apples" and due to an overall lack in character in black society, "apples" would soon be an unacceptable term. Take any sociology course and you would learn and accept that its not the word thats bad, its the characters that it describes. I dont judge by race, I judge by character. Coencidentally, there is an aparent correlation between race and character. ...It doesnt matter what you call it, Rubbish, garbage, and waste are all still TRASH.
-still waiting for "change"

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