John Mayer is in a bit of trouble. The guitarist used the N-word in an interview with Playboy and is now trying to recover from what could be a costly mistake.

"Someone asked me the other day, 'What does it feel like now to have a hood pass?' And by the way, it's sort of a contradiction in terms, because if you really had a hood pass, you could call it a n**** pass. Why are you pulling a punch and calling it a hood pass if you really have a hood pass? But I said, 'I can't really have a hood pass' I've never walked into a restaurant, asked for a table and been told, 'We're full.'" he said. After the article came out, Mayer frantically apologized on his Twitter account.

"Re: using the 'N word' in an interview: I am sorry that I used the word. And it's such a shame that I did because the point I was trying to make was in the exact opposite spirit of the word itself. It was arrogant of me to think I could intellectualize using it, because I realize that there's no intellectualizing a word that is so emotionally charged," he tweeted.

But is Mayer really racist? Or just a fool who shoots his mouth off too much?