Online Exclusive: Tour Talk

John Mayer

Touring with: Sheryl Crow
Tour starts: August 24th in Burgettstown, PA

Are you just going to charge ahead and play the new stuff from day one?

I'm damned either way because if I play the stuff that people haven't heard yet, I can't do a good enough job representing the record, even live -- not that first week. I would love people's first impression this time around to be the record. You really have a diminutive effect on people when they start piecing together their version of your record by way of different live cuts and acoustic things from radio stations, and they try to assemble the record. I think I spent too long working on it to have that be the way that people are introduced to the music. But on the other hand, I don't want to be up there playing the 2004 setlist. I'll figure it out.

Once you do start playing the stuff from the new album, how do you think that's going to affect the vibe of the shows?

Oh, I can't wait. I wrote this entire record over a two-year period, almost always with the live tour in mind. As a composer, you're kind of setting up the performer in you. It's almost like in-house writing for an artist, except you're the artist. The end result, every time I've been excited and danced a jig when this record was playing back, it was because I thought about how it was going to feel live. It's engineered to be a really great live set, I don't think there's anything here I won't play live or is impossible to play live.

In general ? tell me what you think the vibe of the record is going to be.

I listen to it, and I just say, 'At the very least, you can't poke a hole in it,' and that's all that matters to me right now. You don't have to love it?I hope people do, but I think it's my first record where it has no holes in it. And 'holes' being anybody going, 'Eh, I don't know if I believe that kid.' I think I've always had sincere sentiments. I know, for sure, I've never put an insincere idea into a song. Even if you put a sincere idea into a song and you're not a good enough songwriter, if you don't package it right, you can bring about that look out of the corner of your eye, like, 'I don't know about that.' I feel like the record is incredibly authentic. Also, it's taken so long to make it, anything that doesn't thrill me over a two-year period is not on the record. It's this kind of net that catches, filters out only the stuff that still moves me over all this time.

I understand you're going to have keyboards and a horn. What do you like about that, as opposed to with the trio?

Oh, man, I can relax. Playing in the trio, I just remember coming offstage and being wet and pissed-off. Some nights I just couldn't get it where I wanted to get it. All these bands that are trios that break up, they don't break up because they don't like each other, they probably love each other, but they need a cover for having to get out of that difficult of a musical situation. It's like, 'Why don't you just punch me in the face right now, and we can call it quits.' It's so much giving, and the thing about having a bigger band is that as a guitar player and as a singer, you can really find some space. I hope to sing some songs, parts of which my hands are at my sides or my hands are at the microphone, and I can let the tune come through.

Anything else you want the world to know about this tour?

I just like the idea of going out with Sheryl [Crow]. I feel like we're both grittier than we're sometimes known for, and the idea that we could bring out each other's heritage, musically, is kind of a cool idea. I don't think it'd be long before you see the both of us onstage, together. I just like the idea that in my fantasy world, I'm Eric Clapton and she's Bonnie Raitt?or whoever she most wants to be. I just like the idea of community, and as you probably know, there's not a whole hell of a lot of community in music. I like the way that she occupies the stage, she does it in a very timeless, classic way.

Is it a co-headlining deal?

Yeah, it's co-headlining in that the opener will be decided by a nightly game of ping pong...best two out of three, winner serves.

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