Your personal style is always a bit ahead of the wave. What’re you workshopping right now?
John Mayer: "Oh that’s funny, that’s a good way to look at it. Well, I’m trying to integrate the Grateful Dead life with all aspects my life. And right now in that world there’s such a burgeoning scene that’s a combination of streetwear and Deadhead wear. A new generation of really great designers—guys who work as professional designers for fashion houses and for retail places—are Deadheads. The world of people making really limited run Dead-esque shirts that have a modern vernacular style-wise… I am so into this world right now."
When you get interested in something, whether it’s Visvim, watches, sneakers, whatever, you go in super deep. Where does this obsessive curiosity come from?
"Always had it. And I met really cool people when I began to extend beyond music. I met [Fragment designer] Hiroshi [Fujiwara] in Japan. Then Hiroshi would come to New York and I’d lend him an acoustic guitar. Then I’d go to Japan and Hiroshi would take me out. And then Hiroshi introduced me to [Supreme founder] James Jebbia. Eric Clapton was also in the mix, he walked me over to [now-closed streetwear boutique] The Hideout in the UK. And that really turned me on to it—’cause I’ve always had this collector mentality. I got very interested in fashion and how it connects with ambition to just go deeper into a world."
Do you think you’ve achieved a sense of authenticity in your life, in your interests and style?
"I think so. I think it probably works by way of, like, two steps forward, one step back, repeat. I’m OK with dismantling something that works in order to find something else that works down the line."
I have to say you seem pretty fulfilled going into 40. What’re you doing right?
"The reason I’m so happy now is because a lot of expectation that I had for myself was probably a little bit unnecessary. I have a perfect image of ambition and reward for my life right now. I know what to expect, I know how much I should be asking for when I knock on the door, and I get it. I really write down on a piece of paper what I want out of life and what I want out of work and what I want out of “fame”—and I have all the stuff I want. And, yeah, I would probably like another 10, 15, 20%, but that comes with another 85% of headache. [laughs] That’s the truth. It would take another 85% of my happiness to get another 15% to 20% famous and, like, culturally relevant or whatever. You know?"
So you’re actually intentionally drawing back from fame.
"Yeah, there’s nothing in my life that doesn’t feel good. I’m not being pushed into battle, I’m leading the charge. Because I understand what my vision is—and yes, I believe we can still use the word vision. So I don’t walk around going, like, Man, why is The Search for Everything not… Why is it not here? Why is it not in the Top 10 on iTunes? It’s a relatively introspective record. I don’t expect that people are going to bend the way they think about music just to meet this one record. I’m like, John, you made a record full of ballads and R&B songs that nobody knows how to promote because you’re not an R&B artist. So I think “Still Feel Like Your Man” is an ace level song and recording. I will stand up for that song any day of the week as one of the most pure-sounding, most interesting—it’s an R&B little tiny masterpiece, and I’ve worked long enough and hard enough with incredibly, insanely talented people to be able to say that.
It all comes down to understanding that the truest life of a real artist defies convention and therefore doesn’t necessarily recognize itself by way of accolades, sales, or any burning sort of modern day periodical relevancy. It’s also, again, ’cause of my age. Like, what am I, an idiot? It’s my job as an artist is to never complain. Artists should never complain about other art. You just shouldn’t. And I’m only making 12 songs every couple years. That doesn’t take up most of my time. Right now I just DM’d someone on Instagram because they made an incredible Grateful Dead shirt that’s based off of a Digital Underground t-shirt from, like, 1990."
Do you have ambition to create things in fashion?
"I don’t know. I don’t know if I’d be an asset to it. I know I’m good at it. I do a lot more designing than I admit, in terms of stuff for me or collabs. I have a very set idea and I’m very good at designing stuff with other people. And I’m really good at knowing when I’ve taken an idea as far as my head can take it and giving it to someone else and going like, Just fuck with it. If anybody got engaged with me and even started working with me for a couple of days, they’d be like, Oh, this guy just sent me pulls from influences that I didn’t know he even had. You know? The smallest world for me is the one that has singer-songwriting in it."
Read the full interview at GQ.
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