Porque John Mayer É Um Superstar Não Muito Lembrado

Why John Mayer Is Music's Forgotten Superstar

First of all thanks to Steve Baltin for this article.

Headlining last night (Friday, April 21), on his current tour, John Mayer sold out the L.A. Forum, playing more than two hours for over 17, 000 rapturous and adoring fans who even stood for an entire acoustic segment. Keeping fans standing during the acoustic segment was just one of the many impressive feats Mayer and his devoted audience performed last night, starting with selling out the Forum.

For a former pop star who doesn’t currently have a hit song on a radio to sell out an arena is an incredible anomaly in music these days. But then Mayer now stands on his own in pop music, something he is well aware of and he addressed last night near the end of the set.

One of the sharpest and savviest musical minds you will ever encounter, and I have interviewed him numerous times to know this, Mayer thanked the crowd for “Giving me the freedom to make music that doesn’t compete with anybody” and for letting him make music for the rest of his life, which is all he ever wanted as a musician’s musician.

While many have found reasons to dislike Mayer since the beginning of his career, he is a consummate musician’s musician, an artist who has been embraced by Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder and Buddy Guy among others. The first time I saw Mayer was when he played a blues show at the Viper Room in L.A. and ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons jumped on stage and began fanning Mayer with his arms and said, “Give it up for my man.” I spoke with both men in the days after the show and that was not planned, that was just Gibbons being swept up in the fervor of Mayer’s phenomenal playing.

After the Grammy-winning multi-platinum success of songs like “Daughters” and “Your Body Is A Wonderland” and work with , as well as, constant appearances on VH1 and in the media, Mayer spoke to me about being “Airport famous," that level of fame where people recognize him in airports and he often appeared in the magazines that graced airport gift shops. He spoke about not wanting that fame, which is exactly where he is now.

Of all of Mayer’s impressive career feats the transformation he achieved from pop star, the early 2000’s version of Ed Sheeran, to Pearl Jam, a career artist who can still sell out arenas and occasionally come back into the mainstream public consciousness when they choose to, is arguably the most dazzling. Pop stars who no longer have radio play don’t become career artists, they become where are they now fodder.

So how did Mayer do it? Besides, as I said, being a sharp musical mind, the reality is he is too musically talented not to be successful. Since he is not of the moment as a singer/songwriter like Sheehan or as a guitar hero like Gary Clark Jr. the general public forgets just how tremendously gifted Mayer is as a musician.

But the Forum fans were reminded of that again and again as he laid out the two hour and 15-minute set in five chapters – full band, acoustic, the trio, full band reprise and epilogue. Drawing on all phases of his career and versatile talent, from blues man to troubadour, Mayer dazzled with an effortlessness that left jaws dropping consistently on songs like “Slow Dancing In A Burning Room,” covers of “Crossroads” and Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’,” “Gravity,” the tour debut of “Dreaming With A Broken Heart,” “Changing” and the beautiful finale of “You’re Gonna Live Forever In Me.”

The set and production, framing it like a movie, with opening and ending credits that chronicles all of Mayer’s career, is truly special. As spectacular as it is musically though, it’s perhaps even more remarkable how it showcases Mayer’s career trajectory. It’s the stuff music movies should be made of, except Mayer wouldn’t want that. He is quite content being the forgotten superstar for the majority of music fans. Those that didn’t forget though got to experience an incredible night from a very unique artist.