-Thank you so much for being here, bud.
I really appreciate this. -Thank you for having me.
-People know you obviously for being a great singer,
a great guitar player.
And I don't know if people know how funny you are.
You also write comedy bits for "The Tonight Show."
-I did that one time. I did --
So, I was up late at night
enjoying an adult Fruit Chew, let's say.
-Okay. That makes sense. Okay. Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure.
-We.. -[ Applause ]
-This side of the audience understands.
Yes. Okay. Perfect. -The band gets it, too.
-Yes. -And I have all these ideas,
and there's a part of my brain
that doesn't tell me that those ideas aren't good,
and they tell me that I should share them
with everyone all the time.
And I wrote a bit for a commercial for the show,
and I sent it to our dear friend Andy Cohen.
-Yeah. -Just so confident it was great.
"Send this to Jimmy, please. Will you send it to Jimmy?"
And the bit was, "Okay.
It's a product called Crypto Bismol,
and it's for the stomach cramps
associated with the fluctuating price of bitcoin.
He's gonna love it!"
And I never heard another thing about it until...
until you fully produced the commercial.
-We made the commercial and aired it.
Here's a clip from Crypto Bismol.
-Are you suffering from heartburn, nausea,
and an upset stomach
all because you lost your life savings on crypto?
Introducing Crypto Bismol.
Crypto Bismol may be right for you
if you suffer from any of the following
crypto-related illnesses.
-There you go. Thank you, Crypto Bismol.
I feel better already.
-Crypto Bismol.
-There you go. That's it. [ Cheers and applause ]
We love it. It was a good bit.
-Thank you.
-I was so excited that you did that.
We threw an Easter egg in there.
If you do watch that thing in the background,
we put one of your albums. -I saw that.
-You did? -Yeah. Thank you.
-I didn't know if you saw that, but we appreciate...
-And it's only fair that I offer --
If you have any song ideas for me...
-I would never in my life. -No. Send it over.
-I want to talk to you about a couple of music things
if you don't mind.
One is, we were here one night.
I want to say -- The show was back with an audience, I think,
and it was just right at the end of COVID, I would say.
And Questlove ended up
playing drums for you at Madison Square Garden.
-Madison Square Garden, yeah. This was in spring of last year.
I was on the Sob Rock tour,
and the drummer, Steve Ferrone, got COVID,
and we had to rethink the entire show
and had to do it without a drummer.
And someone had the idea, like,
"Well, maybe Questlove is around."
It might have been Pino or something.
"Maybe Questlove is around."
Pino Palladino. Great bass player.
-Pino Palladino is amazing. -And Questlove came to the gig.
He was coming to the gig anyway.
And somewhere along the line of him coming to the show,
he got offered to play like six songs.
And he learned six songs on his way to the Garden
and ended up on stage playing, which was --
[ Cheers and applause ] Thank you, again.
-The -- The best -- Wait. Hold on. Hold on.
The best -- The best reviews, by the way,
of anything I have read, was in the "Post" the next day.
All these -- "This was the greatest thing.
It was the greatest concert." Do you remember it?
-Okay, so, what is the exact term that you used
when you wrote the Bismol -- -Oh. "Adult Fruit Chews."
-Right. So...
I was also on an adult Fruit Chew...
-Yeah. Yeah.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-...and got to the venue, ready to enjoy.
This guy is my idol. Steve Ferrone on drums.
And I'm ready to enjoy it, and then they get to me, like,
[Slowly] "Yo, can you please drum
for Steve Ferrone, please?"
-Everything's in slow motion?
-Everything was in slow motion.
Like, yeah. -But, do you --
-[Normal voice] It was the most exhilarating night of my life,
'cause I don't know how I got through it.
[ Cheers and applause ] -No, he texted --
You texted me either that night or the next day.
You go, "Dude, I just did the craziest thing,
and I think I pulled it off."
And everybody -- Online.
Everybody was like, "This was the greatest..."
-It was the greatest. I think it's because
people get very nervous around their Garden show
and they don't really change it up
and they sort of, like, do the safe show.
And there was -- We didn't have the opportunity
to do anything safe, and it was a magical night
at the Garden that you wouldn't have seen anywhere else.
And Questlove is to thank for the ending,
having some power and energy playing the drums.
So thank you very much. [ Cheers and applause ]
-This is the fall leg, the fall leg of the Solo tour.
Now, by calling it the Solo tour,
I want to remind everyone that it is solo.
It is just -- -Just me alone with
an acoustic guitar on the stage. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Seriously. -Yes.
-But you're doing arenas.
-Arenas solo. And it works.
It's an opportunity for me to play some of these songs
from my career and tell stories around them
and read signs with requests on them,
and they try to stump me and see if I remember an old song.
And it's just very open-ended and great and fun,
and I'm never quite sure where the show is going to go.
And it's just really exciting. -Yeah, that's wild.
But did you -- Do you go like,
"Well, I kind of need the band, I need bass and drums"?
-You definitely trade off the fullness of a band,
but what you get is instant turn on a dime with any moment.
Like, the other night, or a few months back
when I was doing a solo thing, I was, like, playing a song.
And I go -- And you can't do this in a band.
I go, "Boy, I could go right into Def Leppard 'Hysteria'
from the end of this."
And you don't have to get on a talkback mic
or think about doing it tomorrow.
-There's no click track behind you.
-You do it right then and there.
And that's the contract with the audience, is, like,
you're gonna see me absolutely
in a place like the Garden just stand out on the tightrope
and play music on an acoustic guitar.
And it's the most fun.
It's the most fun to have finished.
You know the kind of shows where they're hard
when you're doing them and then when you're done,
you're just so rewarded from having that --
-Yeah, you go, "That was so..." I know that.
-Yeah, it was great. -I mean, not to an arena,
but, yeah, a comedy club.
[ Laughter ]
-I will say I love "Sob Rock." It came out. I go, "Sob Rock."
It was like sad rock or something
or yacht-rock kind of vibe.
I go, "Okay," and I'm listening to it and I'm loving it.
And you're doing my favorite song off the album tonight,
which is "Shouldn't Matter but It Does."
-"Shouldn't Matter but It Does."
-And I will say, if you do listen to this on Spotify
or listen to "Sob Rock," your phone turns into a Walkman.
-Yes. -Cassette player.
And the cassette is spinning. -Yes.
-And it is rad. Was that your idea?
-Thank you. Yes, I am a detail-oriented guy.
-It was rad. I love it. Do it tonight.
-Otherwise, you get the reel on Spotify
and you'll be working out and it's like six seconds long,
and your brain will start learning the cuts.
So it's like person dancing, person twinning...
guy running, boom, person dancing...
-Over and over again. You go... "Oh, this is a loop."
-And I was like, "If it's going to loop,
just make a cassette tape looping."
And you don't know this, but in each song,
the tape inside the cassette
moves relative to the other side of the reel
to the way it would be in a Walkman.
-Wow!
-So the tape is actually moving to the other side.
A whole generation of people
wouldn't understand that reference.
-It's really funny.
You also announced that you're launching your own SiriusXM
channel called
-"Life with John Mayer."
-Yes. -On SiriusXM.
I love the idea of this, but please explain
what this idea is, because I do love it.
-Okay, the idea is a radio channel on Sirius
that isn't genre-based,
but plays music for whatever moment
you're most likely to be in your day
or week, your month, or even your year.
As I hear myself say it. As I hear myself say it.
And so if you're waking up in the morning
and you're on the way to work and you turn it on,
it's gonna be high-energy go-to-work music.
If you're at work, it's already sort of meeting you
where you are in the moment.
Friday nights, going-out music.
So, like, you'll plug your phone into the aux cord
and sound like a genius
because the music's already set up for playing in an Uber
on your way to a bar on a Friday night.
Saturday night dinner-party music.
Sunday night making omelets.
Sorry. Sunday morning making omelets.
You know, there's music for amorous times.
-Ooh! -And I -- I'll be like,
"Hey. What's up? You're listening to
'Life with John Mayer.'
You guys are doing great. Keep it up."
[ Laughter ]
-You're coaching people --
You're coaching people along with whatever.
-Yeah, yeah. I'll whisper those I.D.s, yeah.
-When is that coming to Sirius?
-That's gonna come November.
-November. "Life with John Mayer."
Check that out. Look for that. [ Cheers and applause ]
Check out his Solo tour this fall.
John is performing for us when we come back, everyone.
Stick around! John Mayer!