There's a certain lack of gimmickry to what I do that makes people in England go: 'Where's the thing?'
— John Mayer
I have the obsessiveness of someone who's a sober, recovering addict displacing his addiction. Except I never had the addiction.
If you told me I was going to live to 240, I would take 10 years off and try and act. I don't have that kind of time, so I'd much rather stick to playing guitar.
Nothing feels worse than having to break the stage down before the performance, and I mean nothing.
There's so many inspiring people out there.
Every song I put on a record could be a single and I just pack my bags for it... and the minute it takes off, I'm not gonna be home for a while.
I really don't want to be a hunk.
High School is like a spork: it's a crappy spoon and a crappy fork, so in the end it's just plain useless.
I need some kind of emotional stake in it to write my lyrics, assuming that place. It might just be an emotion I understand but am not currently experiencing necessarily.
I'm singing what I want to sing based on the emotion of what that day feels like. That's what comes out of my mouth and guitar. That impacts people. They know anything can happen.
I hope that what it comes down to at the end of the day is that people believe that I believe what I'm singing. It comes down to being believable. You don't have to be likeable; generally, though, I think I am.
If you get half a million, at a certain stage you probably will get 4 million people, if they are able to hear it. The touring thing is unbelievable. It really is amazing from what we did the last tour even to what we are doing now.
I've never done anything because I thought it would look cool.
I've figured out my learning curve. I can look at something and somehow know exactly how long it will take for me to learn it.
When you do an interview with me, you're talking to a cheap imitation of the person that I really am. There's no magic in my words, it's just me talking.
I lost my head for a little while.
I just like collaborating.
Atlanta's my musical home. It really was the place where I really came alive.
I knew what I wanted to do when I was 13 and I had to go through four years of high school to get out. That's a blessing, because I never had to lay on my bed staring up at the ceiling going, 'What am I going to do with my life?'
Everybody is just a stranger, but that's the danger in going my own way.
I like giving people something they don't want to miss the next time. It's a show with little twists and turns and curves. It has me being silly and stupid and compassionate and completely deep.
People want to see musicians sing things that come from their own mind and own heart in real time, responding to the moment for them.
I feel strikingly domestic. We're in our own world with two busses and trucks.
I'm not as surprised in going from playing 1,000 seats to 4,000 seats as I was from 100 to 500 seats.
I don't have anybody telling me what to do.
No matter what I do, I'm going to earn it.
You cannot avoid war in life, you cannot avoid the fear of terrorism, you cannot avoid those things now, they are a part of everyday demeanor.
You get to a certain age where you prepare yourself for happiness. Sometimes you never remember to actually get happy.
I'm trying everything I can not to be jaded 'cause I don't like jaded musicians.
A man's got two shots for jewelry: a wedding ring and a watch. The watch is a lot easier to get on and off than a wedding ring.
Sometimes I wish that I was the weather, you'd bring me up in conversation forever. And when it rained, I'd be the talk of the day.
I'd like to think the best of me was still hiding up in my sleeve.
I feel my shows are like a late-night talk show that we settle down and do every night.
Hopefully people can see my music is tethered to my brain.
I'm getting to a point where everything is becoming streamlined in my life. I'm learning how to stand onstage for two hours and play in front of thousands of people as if I am completely in the moment every moment.
