Book John Mayer

Born in Bridgeport, CT, and raised in the nearby town of Fairfield, Mayer began playing blues as a teenager. By 1997, his skill on the electric guitar was enough to warrant admission into the Berklee College of Music, although Mayer dropped out after two semesters to pursue a songwriting career in Atlanta. Working alongside former classmate Clay Cook, he frequented the local coffeehouse circuit and began co-writing material that melded palatable pop/rock with unexpected flourishes. Cook and Mayer parted ways shortly thereafter, however, with Cook joining the Marshall Tucker Band’s touring lineup for several years. Now a solo artist, by default, Mayer recorded several of the duo’s songs, packaged them alongside a handful of his own compositions, and self-released the EP in 1999 under the title Inside Wants Out.

Mayer secured a deal with Aware Records in early 2000, and recording sessions for his debut album commenced later that year with producer John Alagia, renowned for his work with Dave Matthews and Ben Folds Five. Although Inside Wants Out had been a decidedly acoustic effort, Room for Squares proved to be a more expansive affair, with several of Mayer’s old songs receiving new, radio-ready arrangements. Released in 2001 by both Aware and Columbia Records, the album quickly launched Mayer’s career, with ‘No Such Thing’ and ‘Your Body Is a Wonderland’ both becoming Top 20 hits.

Mayer returned to his solo career with 2006’s Continuum, a warmly received album that saw him focusing on blues, pop, and contemporary soul. ‘Gravity’ found modest success as a single, but ‘Waiting on the World to Change’ proved to be the album’s commercial highlight, cracking the Top 20 in February 2007 and winning a Grammy that same month. Later that year, Mayer achieved his highest-charting single to date with ‘Say,’ a song from the Rob Reiner film The Bucket List. After ‘Say’ peaked at number 12, the song was included in a reissued version of Continuum, and it took home yet another Grammy Award (along with ‘Gravity’) in early 2009. Following the release of a live album, Where the Light Is, Mayer once again returned to the studio in 2009, this time to record Battle Studies.