Introduction
[Charles Gibson]: We live in a time when popularity is so much about marketing. And in this age, John Mayer is something of an anomaly. One of the hottest young singers going, and he does it without really trying. He’s got a brand new CD that just debuted as number one on Billboard. He beat out Elton John, Sting, and James Taylor for a Grammy. So why don’t we know much about him? Well it’s because he’s shy and doesn’t do interviews. Until now. Here he is sitting down, exclusively, with Cynthia McFadden.
[playing Your Body is a Wonderland]
Cynthia McFadden [Narration]: Wouldn’t it be wonderful if nice guys, just once, finished first? You know, the quiet guy. The poet. The guy without a prom date. The outsider who gets a job pumping gas and stays home to work on his music. Wouldn’t it be nice if that was the guy who had the number one record? Welcome to wonderland.
John Mayer is the guy who made every nerd’s dream come true.
[plays recording of Grammy Award announcement]
Early Life
John Mayer: [plays part of Grammy acceptance speech] “I’m just a sixteen year old kid in this moment —”, stop right there! I should have said something different because everyone to this day still thinks I’m sixteen years old.
CM: It’s sitting right up there.
JM: The Grammy, incredibly heavy —
CM: And so is being 25, and winning one.
[playing My Stupid Mouth]
CM [Narration]: He’s not hip-hop. No bling bling. Just jeans and a tee shirt. Your parents would probably like him. He’s 6’ 3”. He drinks milk. His first CD was even called Room For Squares.
CM: Were you a square?
JM: I feel small a lot of the time. I stand next to people, and sometimes I feel like I’m not as cool as they are.
CM [Narration]: And another thing. The man who writes with such insight about loving women admits to not having a lot of first hand knowledge.
[playing Your Body is a Wonderland]
JM: I don’t have a lot of experience with women.
CM: This would surprise a lot of people, let me put it this way. Because your insight about relationships seems born out of a lot of experience.
Do you have a girlfriend right now?
JM: I am a very — see here’s the thing, I’ve noticed that in this question, when somebody doesn’t have a girlfriend they go “I don’t! I’m single.” And when they do they go “I want to keep my personal life personal.”
CM: So I take it you’re not gonna answer my question.
JM: Well no, the answer is, I’m not answering, but I want you to know that it can go either way.
CM [Narration]: Mayer’s songs are all Mayer. Words, music, and voice. So little wonder Mayer’s experience as a high school geek are reflected in his songs.
CM: On the stage you move as if you’re dancing.
JM: I am the world’s worst dancer. I am the guy who goes out to the club every once in a while and the girl’s come up to me and go “are you okay?”
CM: Did you go to the prom?
JM: I did not go to the prom. I used to stay home and pretend I was at the dancing and pretend I was playing at the dances.
CM: Playing at them?
JM: Yeah, you know the weirdest thing in the world is that when I used to be at home in my bedroom and pretend I was on stage, and now I’m on stage and I pretend I am at home in my bedroom.
[playing Why Georgia]
JM: Nobody really knew I played or sang when I was in school. So I always had this big coming out fantasy of everyone going “oh, he’s amazing.” My parents saw the guitar as a hobby. My parents did not believe I could do it.
CM: They must have thought you were throwing your life away on a dream that would never happen.
JM: Well it’s incredibly scary.
CM [Narration]: We talked him into taking us to the place where he spent his life trying to get away from. His hometown in Fairfield, CT.
JM: I had to fly, Cynthia. I had wings and they had to spread.
CM: Alright so you can make a joke, and we know that whenever it gets too serious you make a joke.
JM: Really?
CM: Yeah.
JM: I don’t think that a —
CM: I think you do.
JM: I’m avoiding the cliche.
CM [Narration]: First stop, the gas station. When most of his classmates were headed off to college, he came to work here.
JM: I bought my first real guitar from working here. That’s the one real kind of hold over from my old life into my new life is that I have a guitar on stage that I’m playing in front of 20,000 people every night that I played in my bedroom. Isn’t that cool?
CM [Narration]: Cool too is mechanic Pete Pavone. A friend from his days at the gas station.
PV: He’d be working late, and he would come down with a small amp. Plug it in. Started playing. He’s like “listen to this”, he’d start playing along.
CM: Did you think that he’d be playing stadiums with 20,000 people.
PV: Honestly, I did.
CM: You did?
PV: Did I tell you not?
JM: He did. I told him he could drive the bus.
CM [Narration]: Pete turned him down.
[Playing No Such Thing]
Next I wanted to see his high school. The one he sings about in his song No Such Thing. But he wouldn’t even get out of the car.
JM: I went to school to get it over with. I remember asking my mom, “mom, will you please let me drop out?” I said, you don’t understand, this is a minute to minute excruciating experience. This isn’t I can’t wait till June. This was I can’t wait till 3.
CM: Why was it so hard, John?
JM: Because I knew exactly what I wanted to be. I knew how to get there, but I couldn’t do it yet.
CM [Narration]: But now he can. He’s far from high school. And the girls that never paid attention are now lining up.
It seems he’s growing into his coolness as he tours to promote his new CD, Heavier Things. Though he doesn’t think he’ll ever look like a rock star.
JM: I think the reason that I worked so hard as a musician was because I knew that I was never going to be able to float by on anything else. Every once in a while I’ll look in the mirror and go, oh it’s not that bad.
When I see myself in a picture from the side I’m having a giant head.
CM [Narration]: The giant head is full of songs. His heart is too. And the nerdy guy you may not have talked to in high school. The gas station attendant who speaks to the geek in each of us wants you to hear them all.
[ends on live version of My Stupid Mouth]