A few years ago, John Mayer was just a Fairfield High grad working at the local Mobil station. Today, at 25, Mayer is rapidly becoming one of today’s hottest new singer/songwriters.
But don’t think that it’s gone to his head. Mayer has decidedly avoided the jaded rock star cliché, he told The Mirror in a telephone interview.
“I don’t really know my own level of recognition at all. I just feel lucky when the DJ doesn’t pronounce my name wrong.”
Don’t expect anyone to be pronouncing his name wrong anytime soon. His platinum-selling major label debut, “Room for Squares,” is quickly approaching 1.5 million copies sold, riding on the popularity of his singles “No Such Thing” and “Your Body is a Wonderland.”
All this in the same year he was singled out by Rolling Stone as one of the “Ten Artists to Watch.”
Mayer recently proved his humble nature on a typically brisk November night in Portland, Maine, when he played to a sold-out crowd of 6,000 at the Cumberland County Civic Center – in his sweatpants. But what else would you expect from the guitarist who modestly refers to himself as the “AAA league” of mainstream?
“I feel really lucky to have ascended in my career in such a way that I’ve stayed close to my music.
I’ve been holding the hand of what I’ve been doing this whole time, so my head has never gotten away from me,” said Mayer jokingly, “I just request that I have Evian in the toilet.”
Despite his success, Mayer has kept a level head with his goals in clear perspective. “If my dream was ever to become a name on the mainstream list, it’s not what I want anymore. I want a lasting corner, a neighborhood where I can hang out and make music the rest of my life.”
Born in nearby Bridgeport and raised in the Fairfield area, John grew up listening to pop radio until age 13, when he fell in love with the blues after a neighbor gave him a Stevie Ray Vaughan tape. Shortly after Mayer picked up his guitar, and within only a few years he was playing at local blues bars.
After graduating from Fairfield High School, Mayer took time off, and recently told the Connecticut Post, “[I was] honing my guitar-playing and singing skills [while working] at my local Mobil station.” After a short stint at the Berkley College of Music in Boston, John moved down to Athens, Georgia, where his career began to really take off.
Although people refer to Athens as his adopted hometown, Mayer hasn’t forgotten his roots.
“Growing up in Fairfield is the context of my comfort. I need to go in my mind to those places a lot. When I’m on-stage and I’m tired and I just want to go home, I can kind of sedate myself mentally with these images of comfort – and they’re all from that town.”
After two years of touring, Mayer is looking to take some time off and look at his life and how it’s changed two years into realizing his dream. “When you’re successful you want to go home and cash in that emotional bill. I can’t wait to go back to Fairfield. I want to stand inside the room I stood inside of growing up having come full circle.”
John, Fairfield can’t wait either.
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