Mayer: You Can't 'Un-Jade' Your Heart
John Mayer has been on a great ride since his first album, "Room For Squares," took off in 2002. He's won three Grammy awards and sold over 8 million CDs. Now he's on a nationwide tour to promote his new album, "Continuum," which dropped Sept. 12.
Before he headed to Vancouver for another gig, opposite Sheryl Crow, his touring partner, he stopped by The Early Show and chatted with co-anchor Hannah Storm.
The singer talked about how his third studio album, which has a bluesy feel. "It builds on everything I want to be as an artist up until now and, hopefully, including the next couple of years, at least," he says.
He explained what he wanted to convey on this new album, which Rolling Stone calls a "breezy album that deftly fuses his love for old-school blues and R&B with his natural gift for sharp melodies and well-constructed songs."
"I think as you start to get into your late 20s, you realize that nobody you ever looked up to ever knew what they were doing, either," Mayer, 28, says of the inspiration for the album. "And there's kind of an interesting freedom in that, so try your best — and it's your right to try — and it's a whole record about time passing and how you make peace with it."
"Waiting for the World to Change," the first single off Continuum explores social issues of today's twenty-somethings.
"It's about a feeling in my generation and why there's a silence right now. And is silence a sanity protective measure, or is it apathy? I think it's probably a protective measure," he says. "You only get one heart and once it's jaded you never un-jade it. So, I think we're waiting for the right time to step in, you know?"
The accomplished songwriter — he wrote or co-wrote all but one of the songs on the album — recently tried his hand at acting, playing himself in the seventh season premiere of "CSI," which aired last night on CBS.
"Yes, I'm corpse No. 4," he joked. "That would have been fun. No, I'm playing myself, just in a bar playing music. Yeah, I'll do anything if the guitars in front of me. Take the guitar off and I am blubbering."
Mayer and Crow embarked on their tour Aug. 24 and it concludes Oct. 12 in Tampa, Fla.
"We're having a blast," he says about being on the road with Crow. "It's the right package for a summer tour and it's a really cool moment to bring these fans together who actually kind of share the same love for that kind of music. Sheryl and I are trying to incorporate the same thing in our own music."
Mayer didn't address reports of a romance between himself and Jessica Simpson (both People and US Weekly magazines recently claimed the pair were dating, though neither would confirm it publicly) but he said that he's comfortable with where his is now in his life.
"Not just as an artist, but just as a guy," he says. "I mean, you know, 28 is my 30."