I admit that I had a couple of John Mayer CDs – they were pop music with nice hooks, and I admit that I was impressed with some of his attempts to be taken seriously as a blues musician. He can play, and if he wanted to follow in the footsteps of the late Stevie Ray Vaughn, fine with me.
And I don’t care that he’s dated Jessica Simpson and Jennifer Aniston – Ms. Simpson is a talent less bimbo, and Ms. Aniston has some talent and I’ve always thought she was pretty, even though I never watched “Friends.” I think she has been a bit needy from what little I read about her relationships, but I don’t really care.
In these media fueled days, I couldn’t help but know that Mayer has a new CD (but I was “over” him after his second CD), but now he’s a pretty boy, clean cut enough to be listened to by 50-year-olds, but with enough tattoos to be “hip” to younger people. So, I saw him on the cover of Rolling Stone, but despite the fact that I’ve been a subscriber since the 1980s, I avoided his interview – I just didn’t care what he had to say.
Perhaps I should have paid some attention. He said that his relationship with Ms. Simpson was his addiction, and he regrets ending his relationship with Jennifer Aniston, but hey, he’s 32. but I guess Mayer made some racially insensitive remarks; one of them using the “n” word. From what I hear, that comment among some others have started a social media backlash of sorts against Mayer, and he has since apologized via Twitter.
CNN.com reported that around 4:50 p.m. Wednesday, hours after news first broke of his interview, Mayer tweeted, ” 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.”
Mayer added that “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.”
After a bit of rumination, Mayer once again took to Twitter - the same social media site that allegedly was a point of tension in his relationship with Aniston - and said around 5:15 p.m., “And while I’m using today for looking at myself under harsh light, I think it’s time to stop trying to be so raw in interviews.”
“It started as an attempt to not let the waves of criticism get to me, but it’s gotten out of hand and I’ve created somewhat of a monster,” he tweeted. “I wanted to be a blues guitar player. And a singer. And a songwriter. Not a shock jock. I don’t have the stomach for it. Again, because I don’t want anyone to think I’m equivocating: I should have never said the word and I will never say it again.”
As I said above, I haven’t read the interview, but maybe now I will. I’d like to see what he said, in the context of the interview. After all, one of my all time favorites, Elvis Costello made some drunken comments in his youth that he has had to carry around for years, and I am still one of his biggest fans. And, black people, myself included, use the “n” word, right or wrong.
But it’s not like I expect John Mayer to have anything profound to say about anything. I don’t think he has much to say musically, either, which is why I’ve avoided his music like the plague. I would have expected someone who professes to emulate black musicians to be a little more sensitive in using derogative terms that were used on his idols.