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What drew you to the blues as a suburban
teenager?
It's so fundamental in me that I have to imagine that it was just
born into me. You either want to hear those notes bend or you
don't. When I heard Stevie Ray Vaughan, the grammar of it made
perfect sense to me, and I just instantly wanted to do that. He was
my portal to Jimi Hendrix, Albert King, Albert Collins, Freddie
King, Buddy Guy. And I'm still on the same unbroken course as I was
when I was 13.
What does the guitar mean to you now?
For me, it's my flotation device, because I now exist in this
celebrity sort of world. But I don't feel like anybody's been able
to truly knock me off my legs, because I have a trade. You can't
just walk onstage and start playing guitar 'cause you thought it
looked neat. With guitar, you get out what you put in, and it's the
ultimate shield for other people trying to fuckin' take away your
heart and soul. It's a completely exposed craft. There is no
facade.
Do you worry that your pop hits overshadow your
playing?
I understand how people would say, "I don't think he's pure at
heart. I don't want him getting anywhere near the same kind of
circle as Buddy Guy." So it's a really weird sort of incestuous
situation for me, because if I wasn't me, I'd stand in front of me
and say, "Prove it to me for the next 15 years, and maybe I'll
think about accepting you." Because everything else you can buy,
man. But guitar is the stuff that takes your life to figure
out.
What are some of your favorite guitar
moments?
One of my favorite guitar solos in the world is from Metallica's
"Hero of the Day." Clapton's got a bunch of songs where he's really
playing blues but he's playing it over these chordal changes, like
"Old Love" and "Wonderful Tonight." It's not really about the solo
— when I hear Prince at the end of "Let's Go Crazy," I get
it. But for me, it's more about the way the harmony and the melodic
movement of the chords support the guitar-playing. People respond
to chords. I mean, Jimi Hendrix was a songwriter.
What goes through your head when you're deep into a
guitar solo?
You just get out of the way of yourself, and I've got a big self
for me to get out of the way of. I've had a few nights where I got
so close to leaving the ground that I didn't know where it was
going and kind of got freaked out — close to feeling like my
wheels were gonna come off. For me, it's like finding the zipper on
the back of my body and just coming out of it.
You're in constant pursuit of the perfect guitar tone.
How would you describe it?
There's so many clichés about this, which I hate, like
"molten glass." But I want it to sound like a voice. That's all.
And you want that voice to speak back to you in a tone you don't
expect — so it doesn't sound exactly like you. You want to
listen to what it's saying back to you.
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How do you feel about the whole Guitar Hero-game phenomenon?
I don't ever want to be the kind of guy who rails against whatever progress has taken place. But Guitar Hero was devised to bring the guitar-playing experience to the masses without them having to put anything into it. And having done both, there's nothing like really playing guitar. I mean, what would you rather drive, a Ferrari or one of those amusement-park cars on a track?
What about how easy it is for kids to get into music and
produce music now?
The fact that you could record a song tonight greatly dements the
creative process. The fact that if you wanted to right now, you and
your friends could get together, do a photo shoot. Within 20
minutes you could have a band name, a photo shoot, a Website, a
logo. The first time I ever got a four-track recorder I didn't
write a song. I did like as many-part harmony to "Star Spangled
Banner" vocally as I could do, because you just want to experience
the technology. So I think that's part of it too. I'm trying to be
compassionate about it and not say oh, these fuckin' kids, you
know? But it is.
What would the 16-year-old John Mayer say if he saw what
you do now onstage and where you are?
Man, I'd say I like the blues stuff. I like your Blues stuff, me.
'Cause it is going for a sophistication. I'm not leaving my mark on
the way that I soloed, you know? I'm gonna leave my mark on sort of
the combination of lead playing, rhythm playing, vocal. I'm just
trying to build one solid sound out of these elements of singing,
songwriting, chord changes, lead playing, rhythm, melody, harmony,
all these things that really are trying to get funneled into one
sound. And like that one sound — I feel like that's my
mark.
[From Issue 1054 — June 12, 2008]
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