John Mayer Details
Say what you will about John Mayer, but the man has talent. That fact was clear from a young age—especially to him, apparently, as he dropped out of Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music to take on a songwriting career in Atlanta. A couple of years after first making the trek, he earned a contract with Aware Records in 2000. The label brought in Dave Matthews producer John Alagia to help Mayer work on his debut album, and the result, 2001’s Room for Squares, exceeded all reasonable expectations. In an era where Britney Spears still was dominating the airwaves, the soft-rock Room for Squares charted in the Top 10 and featured two Top 20 singles in “No Such Thing” and “Your Body is a Wonderland.” Established as a star, Mayer shot to No. 1 with his follow-up album, 2003’s Heavier Things, from which single “Daughters” became an enduring hit. After a hiatus spent playing the blues with legends like Buddy Guy and B.B. King, Mayer released another hit album in 2006 with Continuum.
Mayer experienced something of a downfall in 2010 after saying some regrettable things in a couple of magazine interviews, and he retreated to Montana to work on albums Born and Raised (2012) and Paradise Valley (2013). It should say something about Mayer’s stardom that, despite his recent unpopularity and the downtempo nature of the albums, both of them went at least as high as No. 2 on the charts. Complete with a New York Times interview in which he sought to atone for his sins, Mayer made a proper return in 2017 with his latest album, The Search for Everything.