John Mayer Tickets

Since his rise around the turn of the millennium, John Mayer has masterfully drawn a line between the worlds of pop, classic rock and more with a winning combo of smooth vocals and shredding guitar solos. Determined to make a solo career in music for himself after leaving his course at Berklee College of Music, Mayer made his debut in 2001 with Room For Squares, a bright and euphoric blast of acoustic-lead pop that featured head-turners such as ‘No Such Thing’ and sensitive goosebump raisers like ‘Your Body Is a Wonderland’. His gamble paid off as these songs hit the radio, and by 2003 had won his first Grammy award.

That same year he released his second album, Heavier Things, a breezy but emotionally-powered sophomore that incorporated different instrumental styles, such as the bright horns on its fan-favourite opener ‘Clarity’. The record also included ‘Daughters’, which garnered many awards including 2005’s Grammy award for Song of the Year. Though clearly a talented singer-songwriter, around this time people also began to realise Mayer’s guitar chops were exceptional, and his musical interests roamed way beyond the realms of contemporary pop; in 2005 alone he performed with the likes of Eric Clapton, B.B. King and Buddy Guy, as well as opening for the Rolling Stones with his bluesy John Mayer Trio. 10 years later he would fill in Jerry Garcia’s shoes in Dead & Company, featuring members of The Grateful Dead.

“I'm not the man I used to be lately,” sung Mayer on his third album Continuum in 2006, and indeed, gone was the bright eyed boy behind an acoustic guitar and here was an artist growing ever more confident in a sound that melded elements of jazz, soul, blues and R&B into a pop sound that could appeal to a wide range of audiences. The LP’s summery opener ‘Waiting On the World to Change’ was a commercial superhit, and despite its laid-back feel conveyed an astute observation of societal apathy.

In the years that followed Mayer released further commercially successful records, including Battle Studies (2009), the folky Born and Raised, which spent two weeks atop the Billboard 200. After a granuloma threatened to end his singing career for good, Mayer finally recovered, as 2017’s gorgeous The Search for Everything confirmed.

While the bouncy bop ‘New Light’ helped many a fan through the difficult period of lockdown, it wouldn’t be until 2021 that Mayer released the 80s nostalgia-inspired Sob Rock. The record, Mayer’s eighth studio album, featured the retro stadium-filler ‘Last Train Home’ (which featured in the hit show The Bear) and the radiant slow burner ‘I Guess I Just Feel Like’.