Last night, we came from Boston.
Oh, OK.
With a trip to New York,
in between two nights in Boston,
to do this Vanity Fair shoot.
Oh!
With Annie Leibovitz,
she knows how to focus.
No! - Yeah, She knows how to keep
things in focus, you know what I mean?
You don't question it, like,
“Well, Annie Leibovitz is in.” Like, she says like —
What is she —
what are they having you do?
Can I ask about it? - It was, yeah, we did this —
I wanna ask about this. This is fascinating.
Let’s just start rolling now!
[Camera Person] Oh, I'm rolling.
[SuChin] OK. So, let's talk about tonight,
and what you're doing here at SummerStage.
Is this your first time performing on SummerStage?
This is the first time in Central Park on SummerStage, yeah.
It's beautiful.
It's really cool. - I mean, this has gotta be
one of the, kind of
really cool things about the job.
This is the best part of the job.
I think that the due paying,
as short as it was,
was really cool.
[Laughs] - And it used to be that
everything, every part of the day
was a task. - Right.
And the show was the last task,
of which I really didn't have a lot of energy left.
And so, now, because of this production, you know,
there's so much of the job
that's been kind of moved on to other people,
that, for me, my job is playing now.
And so, when I get onstage,
all my energy for every day is dedicated to playing.
Yeah, there's, like, this little guy going around,
pretending he's John Mayer
for all day long. - Right, “This is my stand in.”
Yeah, and then, you come in, and you’re like,
"Move it, bud. I'm here." - Right, “Let's go. Here I am.”
[Laughs]
“And let's just raise the microphone up for me now, and let’s go.”
And when you look at, I mean —
of course, it's empty now,
but people will start filing in. I mean, there are thousands —
[John laughs] That’s like a very Spinal Tap moment.
[SuChin] No, but seriously!
When you look out, and — - [John] “When you look at the crowd,
of course, there's no crowd here.”
[SuChin] But is it an odd thing to be
playing here in Central Park
in New York City?
I mean, it is a very New York City thing to do. You know,
everybody goes to SummerStage.
I think it's great to be accepted
in New York City. - Yeah.
I mean, it's definitely a discriminating —
It's a hard city, yeah.
It's a discriminating city,
in terms of people's tastes,
and to be embraced here — - Right.
There's a song coming.
Yeah [laughs].
No, it's really cool.
It's an honor, and, you know,
because these things are so special now,
they make it virtually impossible for me
to phone any show in. - Yeah.
You know? We're not in Lawrence, Kansas, anymore.
Yeah [laughs]. - You know?
Hi, Lawrence, Kansas.
[Blows kiss]
[Soulful electric guitar music]
[SuChin] What is, sort of, the official story
of how you got here, to this point?
You know, I don't know.
The part that I feel really thankful for
is that there was never any real crossover
from like, bam.
Now, you've made it.
And I think that's because
I love playing so much
that I always felt successful.
Mhm.
So, I never really felt like there was this moment
where it went from black-and-white to color.
So, I guess that just has to do with,
I moved down to Atlanta in 1998
from Berklee College of Music,
the special one-year program
that costs a whole lot of money
you don't get anything for, and —
And your parents are still so proud of that.
Aren't they, though? - Oh, they're still really
proud of it, yeah. - [Laughs]
But, you know, I'll tell you something:
When you're successful, everything makes sense.
Everything you've done makes sense.
All those mistakes, it's inspiration.
Instantly validated.
Genius. Of course, only one year. - Hey, Axl Rose wore a kilt,
and, like, a catcher's outfit. - And now you have a kilt
back in your dressing room. - Yeah.
And no one ever questioned that.
Yeah.
So, I'm hoping no one questions the Berklee thing,
but I moved down to Atlanta in '98
and just started playing,
just started playing in acoustic clubs,
which is all I could do
because I couldn't find a band,
and I didn't wanna spend two years
looking for a band
and making excuses, you know?
'Cause when you work for yourself,
which you are when you're a musician,
all you have to do is make an excuse
and you can go to sleep for a week.
Yeah. - You know, so I wanted to get started,
and just started playing acoustic clubs,
and people started going, "You got a CD?"
And I went, "No."
And they put their $20 back, you know,
back in their pants, and you go, "I'll get one!"
You know? - [Laughs]
And so, I made a CD. - How about something
on layaway? You know,
take the 20 now — - Right, right. Give me $20.
I'll make a CD with it - And I'll send it to you, I swear.
Well, that's kind of what you do with pre-order.
That's called pre-orders.
That’s how you do it. - [Laughs]
But, and then, just made a record,
and just started touring,
and people started to tell other people,
and the amazing thing is that
I think we kind of live in a,
somewhat of a selfish age
of, like, pop culture,
where everybody wants to
keep their music for themselves.
Everybody wants to keep their art for themselves,
and for some reason,
people come up to me after shows and say,
"I just handed your CD to, like, eight of my friends,
and I brought them all tonight."
And there's this sharing thing that’s
really kind of against the grain,
I think, for people,
and I take that as the biggest compliment of all,
that someone finds it and goes,
"Not only do I want this, but I wanna prove to
other people that I was on this first,
and I want John to do well.”
Yeah. - You know? People wanna
see me do well, which is really kind of
hard to summon in people, I think, you know?
Yeah. - And so, in that sense,
the duty is on me to always honor that, you know?
Yeah, make sure you fulfill that? - Yeah.
There never was a moment when you were like,
“OK, this isn't gonna work out. I need to go study something else.”
There were a couple nights.
There was one night, when I moved down to Atlanta,
and I hadn't had anything going on yet.
It was in the first couple weeks,
and I really felt the rock and a hard place-ness
of having my grades come back from school.
And so, behind me,
I had these grades come back, which were all —
And were they good grades?
They pronounced more like a [imitating static].
[Laughs]
Like static, sounded like static, and —
Like a, huh? - Yeah, yeah [imitating static].
[Laughs]
And so, I had that, kind of, to totally burn that bridge.
And then, I didn’t know what I was doing.
But for the most part,
I’ll write a song one night, and I’ll go to bed, like,
“How could I not?”
That’s just in me.
Like, it’s not a cocky thing,
’cause I feel pretty objective,
in the sense of what I don’t nail and what I do,
and I’ve had more nights of going, like, “Come on.”
“Hello, look at me.”
“Come on, I’m gonna go shopping tomorrow,
‘cause I’m making money back next year.”
[Bluesy guitar music]
I’m really lucky that,
by the time I came to a record company,
I already kind of had built my world a little bit,
and what I brought to a record company was,
“Here’s what I am, this is what I do. Would you like to help me?”
Which, I think, is the only position you should be in.
If you’re a young artist,
you should never wait for someone else to say, “Go.”
Right. - You know, and that’s the —
being a musician is the only job
where you can give it to yourself.
You don’t have to wait for anyone else. And so —
And believe me, I was giving it to myself for years.
Years and years,
before you got the guitar, even. - [Laughs] Yeah.
But is it one of those things
where they’re like, you know,
“The girls really love you, if you can just keep
the hair back and the shirts this way.”
It was never that way. I’m really lucky,
it’s always been focused on the music.
I remember a few comments coming back
when I was kind of auditioning,
I guess is the best word, for other labels,
that I was too wordy.
“Too many words, John. The American public
doesn't know that many words.”
They have all their research. They’re like,
“John Q. Public only knows six words.”
[High-energy electric guitar solo]
Aw, you gotta keep doing that.
You gotta do it every day to be able to do it right.
[Audio Technician] How you doing today?
Good, how you doing?
[Audio Technician] Excellent.
Hey, can I ask a big favor? - What’s that?
Can I just get the stage quiet for, like, 15 seconds?
Sure!
[SuChin] Is that a misconception,
that you’re a nice guy?
Are you really a nice guy?
Yeah, I think I’m a nice guy.
I like being nice.
I think what it is more is that
I feel like, a lot of times,
artists are purposely not nice,
because they feel like it really augments their whole thing.
And I like the idea of not having a whole thing.
You know, I like the idea of making records,
and being really good at making records,
and being really good at playing guitar and singing,
and then, purposefully —
And one of the most liberating things that you can do is
just remove your faith out of everything else,
in terms of, like, how you want to
be to somebody.
That’s my job. It’s like,
I have a job, and it’s really fun,
and when I’m not on the job, it’s like, “How are ya?”
[Laughs]
Which is really weird around, like,
radio festivals and stuff, ’cause other bands are like —
they have their line of sight,
like, tilted down. Like, you must know —
’Cause they’re hard-ass, you know what I mean.
Right, but they’re really not hard-asses.
But it must be hard being a hard-ass,
’cause it takes a lot of dedication
to ignore somebody.
So, you don’t have, like, advice,
or something awful that you’ve done,
or you continually do?
No. - A bad habit?
I’m a nerd.
Oh, bad habit?
I don't think so.
And is that why your album’s titled —
‘Room For Squares’?
Yeah, that’s why I’m on the
cover my record, doing this.
[Laughs] Lookin’ like a square?
Yeah, and I always liked that about
Dryden Mitchell, from Alien Ant Farm.
Yeah.
That he always managed to say,
“I don’t care about looking cool.”
And almost purposely going against the grain,
And I always really respected —
I respect him for that
because my job —
I wanna be a badass
wearing white socks and shorts, you know?
’Cause I feel pretty confident
that what I do is contained
inside music and singing,
that I can almost purposely remove
how cool I want to be anywhere else,
and still get away with it.
[Laughs]
[Strumming guitar]
Check, check, check, check.
Check, check, check, check, check.
[SuChin] Looking back on this year,
which has been an incredible year for you,
just in general. - Absolutely.
Any moments that really, really stand out in your head?
Yeah, but you know, the amazing thing is that
there's really too many to ever call out.
You know? - OK.
Going platinum was amazing.
We just went platinum last week,
and I think most of it takes place onstage.
Most of those memories take place onstage,
after some really, really incredible experiences,
where you know everyone’s going home,
like, “I can’t miss that again.”
Right. - You know?
And ’cause I feel the same way.
It’s not that I’m onstage, just kind of on output.
Yeah. - You know? It’s like,
I’m going home, also going,
“What was that?” You know?
So I think most of it takes place onstage, but —
and I almost feel like I have two different jobs.
I’m onstage as one of my jobs,
and the other job is selling records.
and the selling records accolades are really cool,
but they don’t really come close to, like,
you know, packing a place,
or getting a place —
selling out a place with more people than
the clubs ever had, or the venues ever had, you know?
That’s cool.
Platinum, that’s stuff you think about
when you don’t tour for a while
and you need something to go to, you know?
Go to that platinum thing.
I’ll think about that later on.
Not bad, not a bad thing to go to.
No, it’s good, but like,
my reinforcement comes from looking at people
and looking at their faces when they’re listening
to me play, you know?
Thank you all.
[Crowd cheering]