john mayer tour band

• Manage Account

John Mayer Is Hitting the Road Solo for an Acoustic Tour: Here Are the Dates

The singer-songwriter's trek will feature his guitar work.

By Starr Bowenbank

Starr Bowenbank

• Share on Facebook
• Share to Flipboard
• Share on Pinterest
• + additional share options added
• Share on Reddit
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Whats App
• Send an Email
• Print this article
• Post a Comment
• Share on Tumblr

See latest videos, charts and news

Putting the BigX in Xanadu: Texas' BigXthaPlug Takes Brooklyn at Billboard's Hip-Hop Live

Trending on billboard.

“I began my career on stage with only a guitar and a microphone. A lot has changed since then, but I knew one day I’d feel it in my heart to do an entire run of shows on my own again, just like those early days,” he shared . “It took a couple of decades, but I feel it now. I’ll be playing old songs. Newer songs. Songs you haven’t heard yet that I’ll be road testing – all on acoustic, electric, and piano.”

John Mayer Reveals Who ‘Your Body Is a Wonderland’ Is About on ‘Call Her Daddy…

As for the finer details, such as when fans can buy tickets, Mayer added: “Tickets go on sale to the public Friday, Feb. 3. at 9 a.m. local time. Presales start Wednesday, Feb. 1, at 9 a.m. local time and run through Thursday, Feb. 2, at 10 p.m.  Sign up to access presale tickets now at johnmayer.com.” Tickets will be sold via seated.

See Mayer’s post and the concert dates for the tour, below.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by John Mayer (@johnmayer)

Here are the tour dates:

• Saturday, March 11                Newark, NJ                             Prudential Center                   
• Monday, March 13                 Boston, MA                             TD Garden
• Wednesday, March 15          New York, NY                         Madison Square Garden
• Saturday, March 18               Pittsburgh, PA                        PPG Paints Arena
• Monday, March 20               Toronto, ON                            Scotiabank Arena
• Wednesday, March 22         Detroit, MI                              Little Caesars Arena
• Friday, March 24                   Nashville, TN                          Bridgestone Arena
• Saturday, March 25              Cleveland, OH                         Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse 
• Monday, March 27                Atlanta, GA                             State Farm Arena
• Wednesday, March 29         St. Louis, MO                          Enterprise Center
• Friday, March 31                   Chicago, IL                              United Center
• Saturday, April 1                    St. Paul, MN                            Xcel Energy Center
• Monday, April 3                     Denver, CO                             Ball Arena
• Wednesday, April 5              Phoenix, AZ                            Footprint Center
• Thursday, April 6                  Palm Desert, CA                     Acrisure Arena            
• Saturday, April 8                  Sacramento, CA                      Golden 1 Center
• Monday, April 10                  Vancouver, BC                        Rogers Arena
• Tuesday, April 11                  Seattle, WA                             Climate Pledge Arena             
• Friday, April 14                     Los Angeles, CA                      Kia Forum

Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox

Want to know what everyone in the music business is talking about?

Get in the know on.

Billboard is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Billboard Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

optional screen reader

Charts expand charts menu.

• Billboard Hot 100™
• Billboard 200™
• Hits Of The World™
• TikTok Billboard Top 50
• Songs Of The Summer
• Song Breaker
• Year-End Charts
• Decade-End Charts

Music Expand music menu

• R&B/Hip-Hop

Videos Expand videos menu

Culture expand culture menu, media expand media menu, business expand business menu.

• Business News
• Record Labels
• View All Pro

Pro Tools Expand pro-tools menu

• Songwriters & Producers
• Artist Index
• Royalty Calculator
• Market Watch
• Industry Events Calendar

Billboard Español Expand billboard-espanol menu

• Cultura y Entretenimiento

Get Up Anthems by Tres Expand get-up-anthems-by-tres menu

Honda music expand honda-music menu.

• Subscribe to Relix
• Radio Charts
• Livestream Guide

Current Issue Details

Buy Current Issue

Published: 2022/02/04

John Mayer Reveals 2022 Sob Rock Touring Band

Photo by Carlos Serrano

John Mayer has revealed the touring band for an upcoming run of concerts supporting the LP Sob Rock, which was released in July 2021. 

Joining Mayer on stage are fellow guitarists David Ryan Harris and Isaiah Sharkey, alongside bass guitarist Pino Palladino, who is a part of the John Mayer Trio. 

Steve Ferrone will sit in on drums following an extensive run with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Additionally, Jamie Muhoberac (Jane’s Addiction, Chris Cornell) and Greg Phillinganes (Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder) will play the keys. Percussionist Lenny Castro (Billy Preston, Taj Mahal) has also signed on for the tour. 

Vocalist Tiffany Palmer (Chakan Khan, Janet Jackson) and Carlos Ricketts (Patti LaBelle, Kool & The Gang) round out the 10-piece ensemble.

Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased here . 

See John Mayer’s official announcement via Instagram below. 

          View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by John Mayer 💎 (@johnmayer)

SOB ROCK TOUR 2022 DATES:

Feb. 17 – Albany, NY – Times Union Center

Feb. 18 – Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Center

Feb. 20 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden

Feb. 23 – Washington, DC – Capital One Arena

Feb. 25 – Pittsburgh, PA – PPG Paints Arena

Feb. 27 – Toronto, ON – Scotiabank Arena

March 1 – Belmont Park, NY – UBS Arena

March 4 – Boston, MA – TD Garden

March 11 – Las Vegas, NV – Grand Garden Arena

March 13 – Los Angeles, CA – Forum

March 15 – Los Angeles, CA – Forum

March 18 – San Francisco, CA – Chase Center

March 22 – Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena

March 25 – Salt Lake City, UT – Vivint Arena

March 27 – Denver, CO – Ball Arena

April 2 – Sunrise, FL – BB&T Center

April 5 – Tampa, FL – Amalie Arena

April 8 – Atlanta, GA – State Farm Arena

April 11 – Charlotte, NC – Spectrum Center

April 13 – Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena

April 20 – Austin, TX – Moody Center

April 23 – Houston, TX – Toyota Center

April 24 – Dallas, TX – American Airlines Center

April 28 – Chicago, IL – United Center

Show 2 Comments

2 Comments comments associated with this post

John Mayer Pauses First Headlining Performance in Two Years to Help Fan in Distress - Bestinau

[…] Learn more about Mayer’s recently released touring band lineup here. […]

John Mayer Pauses First Headlining Performance in Two Years to Help Fan in Distress

Note: it may take a moment for your post to appear.

• Watch: David Gilmour Delivers First Performance Since 2020 at Pub’s Open Mic Night
• Big Ears Festival Shares 2025 Initial Artist Lineup: Béla Fleck, Esperanza Spalding, Les Claypool, Waxahatchee, Sun Ra Arkestra with Yo La Tengo and More
• Phish to Perform Three Nights in Albany to Benefit The Divided Sky Residential Recovery Program
• Listen: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young to Put Out Previously Unreleased 1969 Concert From First Tour, Share “Helplessly Hoping”
• Billy McFarland Brings Fyre Fest II into Focus 
• My Morning Jacket and Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats Announce Two-Night Event Benefiting HeadCount, Detail Livestreams
• Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith and Producer Andrew Watt to Join Forces at Brooklyn Bowl 
• Watch: Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo Joins Joe Russo’s Almost Dead at Pier 17

Most Popular

• Most Commented
• Neil Young Announces Two-Night Run at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester
• Liam Gallagher Confirms New Oasis LP and US Tour Dates on Twitter/X
• Goose Unleash More First-Time Material During Boston Stand
• Yonder Mountain String Band Preview Forthcoming LP ‘Nowhere Next’ with Initial Single Featuring Jerry Douglas
• Dead & Company Gain Over $130 Million from 30 Night Las Vegas Sphere Residency
• Jimmy Carter 100: A Celebration in Song Expands Lineup with Duane Betts, Angélique Kidjo, Carlene Carter, The B-52s and More
• Soundside Music Festival Adds Bleachers to Inaugural Lineup, Unveils Set Times
• Watch: Bill Murray Joins Blood Brothers for “Like a Rolling Stone” at Big Blues Bender
• Report: Dead & Company Cancel West Palm Beach and Tampa Shows
• Willie Nelson, Bob Weir and More to Participate in ‘Biden For President’ Livestream Fundraiser
• SiriusXM Announces Launch of Phish Radio, Jam On Moves to App and Online
• Eric Clapton Releases Politically-Charged “This Has Gotta Stop”
• Thousands of Music Fans Sign Petition to Bring Jam On Back to SiriusXM
• “You Should Fuckin’ Pay Attention”: Chris Robinson Gets Frustrated at Philadelphia Crowd During “Brothers of a Feather” Gig
• Nike Confirms Grateful Dead Sneaker Collaboration, Sets Release Date
• Zach Deputy Responds to His Attendance at DC Trump Rally
• Monthly Contributors

John Mayer Announces North American Spring 2023 Tour

Groundbreaking Solo Acoustic Arena Tour  

March 11 th  – april 14 th, tickets on sale starting friday, february 3 rd , at 9 am local time @ johnmayer.com.

For the first time in his career,   trailblazer  John Mayer  has set a groundbreaking solo acoustic tour for spring 2023. 20 years in the making, this audacious trek features solo performances by Mayer, leaning heavily on his acoustic guitar work with special performances on piano and electric guitar, in arenas throughout the U.S. and Canada. Produced by Live Nation, the tour kicks off Saturday, March 11 th , in Newark, New Jersey, at the Prudential Center and will run through Friday, April 14 th , in Los Angeles at the iconic Kia Forum. Tickets go on sale starting  Friday,   February 3 rd , at  9 AM  local time at  Johnmayer.com . A full listing of tour dates can be found below.

Known for an effortless blend of mind-blowing guitar playing, soulful voice and impeccable songwriting abilities, Mayer has lit up the charts with numerous massive hits such as “New Light,” “Gravity,” “Love on the Weekend,” “Heartbreak Warfare,” “Daughters,” “Waiting on the World to Change,” “Last Train Home,” and “Your Body Is a Wonderland.” The 2023 tour has been 20 years in the making and will feature rare, full acoustic sets from John Mayer performing these songs, and many more.  Singer-songwriters Lizzy McAlpine, Alec Benjamin, and a special guest to be announced at a later time, will open these concerts.

Presales start Wednesday, February 1, at 9 AM local time and run through Thursday, February 2, at 10 PM.  Fans can sign up to access presale tickets via  seated  now at  Johnmayer.com .

A limited number of VIP packages will be available including premium tickets, exclusive merchandise, and more!

Two pairs of front-row tickets will be auctioned off for each show on the tour through  charityauctionstoday.com . All proceeds from the ticket auctions will go to the Back To You Fund, which has supported many charities, including John’s Heart & Armor Foundation, as well as programs supporting at-risk youth and the homeless.

Check  Johnmayer.com  for full tour and ticketing information.

SPRING 2023 TOUR DATES:

Saturday, March 11                 Newark, NJ                             Prudential Center                   

Monday, March 13                  Boston, MA                             TD Garden

Wednesday, March 15             New York, NY                         Madison Square Garden

Saturday, March 18                Pittsburgh, PA                         PPG Paints Arena

Monday, March 20                 Toronto, ON                           Scotiabank Arena

Wednesday, March 22            Detroit, MI                              Little Caesars Arena

Friday, March 24                    Nashville, TN                          Bridgestone Arena

Saturday, March 25                Cleveland, OH                         Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse

Monday, March 27                  Atlanta, GA                             State Farm Arena

Wednesday, March 29            St. Louis, MO                          Enterprise Center

Friday, March 31                     Chicago, IL                              United Center

Saturday, April 1                     St. Paul, MN                           Xcel Energy Center

Monday, April 3                      Denver, CO                             Ball Arena

Wednesday, April 5                Phoenix, AZ                            Footprint Center

Thursday, April 6                    Palm Desert, CA                     Acrisure Arena            

Saturday, April 8                    Sacramento, CA                      Golden 1 Center

Monday, April 10                    Vancouver, BC                         Rogers Arena

Tuesday, April 11                    Seattle, WA                             Climate Pledge Arena             

Friday, April 14                       Los Angeles, CA                      Kia Forum

There’s nobody quite like  John Mayer . He has emerged as a GRAMMY® Award-winning artist, celebrated songwriter, and iconic guitar player all at once. The Bridgeport, CT native introduced himself on the quintuple-platinum  Room For Squares  in 2001 and has earned three #1 debuts on the  Billboard  Top 200 with the triple-platinum  Heavier Things  [2003], double-platinum  Battle Studies  [2009], and gold  Born and Raised  [2012]. In addition to selling over 20 million albums worldwide and gathering billions of streams to date, he has garnered seven GRAMMY® Awards, including  “Song of the Year”  for  “Daughters , ”  and has earned a record seven U.S. No. 1s on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart and 25 entries on the Hot Rock Songs chart, the most for any solo artist. In 2015, Dead & Company was founded, with Mayer on lead guitar as well as vocals. Since its formation, the band has completed seven tours, playing to four million fans, and has become a record-breaking stadium act. In 2021,  Sob Rock , Mayer’s eighth studio album was released to critical acclaim featuring the hits,  “Last Train Home”  and  “Wild Blue.”  

About Live Nation Entertainment

Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE: LYV) is the world’s leading live entertainment company comprised of global market leaders: Ticketmaster, Live Nation Concerts, and Live Nation Sponsorship. For additional information, visit  www.livenationentertainment.com .

#  #  #

Photo credit: Frank W. Ockenfels 3

Hi-res  HERE

MEDIA CONTACTS:

John Mayer Larry Solters |  [email protected]    

Anna Loynes |  [email protected]    

Live Nation Concerts

Monique Sowinski |  [email protected]  

Valeska Thomas |  [email protected]  

Read more about

John Mayer Reveals 'Sob Rock Tour 2022' Band Members

The tour will kick off on February 17.

John Mayer's 'Sob Rock' Tour 2022 kicks off Thursday, February 17, and will feature John Mayer performing songs from his latest album Sob Rock, including his hit singles "Last Train Home" and "Wild Blue," as well as career-spanning fan favorites.

"It's my honor and pleasure to introduce to you the 'Sob Rock 2022' touring band. The combined years of experience between these extraordinary musicians, as well as their contributions to the art form, is really something special to see and hear all on one stage. We've been rehearsing for the past 10 days or so, and it's been more of a revelation than a recital. I couldn't be more excited to hit the road with them, and I hope you can come out and see us." - John Mayer

Band Members

John Mayer (Guitar, Vocals) Lenny Castro (Percussion) Steve Ferrone (Drums) David Ryan Harris (Guitar, Vocals) Jamie Muhoberac (Keys) Pino Palladino (Bass Guitar) Tiffany Palmer (Vocals) Greg Phillinganes (Keys, Vocals) Carlos Ricketts (Vocals) Isaiah Sharkey (Guitar)

Showcasing the band for the first time, John is performing live at Hollywood Palladium on Wednesday, February 9, in an exclusive SiriusXM + Pandora "Small Stage Series" performance. The special concert will air live on SiriusXM's The Spectrum via satellite (ch. 28) and on the SXM App on Wednesday, February 9 at 8:00 pm PT with multiple rebroadcasts throughout the week.

The event will be hosted by Andy Cohen, who will sit down with John Mayer for an exclusive interview to discuss his music, upcoming tour, and more, ahead of the concert.

For non-SiriusXM subscribers, Pandora will feature a John Mayer performance on February 12 at 9:00 pm ET / 6:00 pm PT and in addition to the performance, Mayer will conduct an in-depth Q&A with Andy Cohen.

The performance will also air on Andy Cohen's Kiki Lounge (ch. 312) on Friday, February 11 at 8:00 pm ET with rebroadcasts throughout the weekend. Additionally, Radio Andy (ch. 102) will air Andy Cohen's sit-down interview with John Mayer on Friday, February 11 at 7:00 pm ET with rebroadcasts throughout the weekend.

Thu Feb 17 - Albany, NY - Times Union Center Fri Feb 18 - Philadelphia, PA - Wells Fargo Center Sun Feb 20 - New York, NY - Madison Square Garden Wed Feb 23 - Washington, DC - Capital One Arena Fri Feb 25 - Pittsburgh, PA - PPG Paints Arena Sun Feb 27 - Toronto, ON - Scotiabank Arena Tue Mar 01 - Belmont Park, NY - UBS Arena Fri Mar 04 - Boston, MA - TD Garden Fri Mar 11 - Las Vegas, NV - Grand Garden Arena Sun Mar 13 - Los Angeles, CA - Forum Tue Mar 15 - Los Angeles, CA - Forum Fri Mar 18 - San Francisco, CA - Chase Center Tue Mar 22 - Seattle, WA - Climate Pledge Arena Fri Mar 25 - Salt Lake City, UT - Vivint Arena Sun Mar 27 - Denver, CO - Ball Arena Sat Apr 02 - Sunrise, FL - BB&T Center Tue Apr 05 - Tampa, FL - Amalie Arena Fri Apr 08 - Atlanta, GA - State Farm Arena Mon Apr 11 - Charlotte, NC - Spectrum Center Wed Apr 13 - Nashville, TN - Bridgestone Arena Wed Apr 20 - Austin, TX - Moody Center Sat Apr 23 - Houston, TX - Toyota Center Sun Apr 24 - Dallas, TX - American Airlines Center Thu Apr 28 - Chicago, IL - United Center

• Moscow concerts Moscow concerts Moscow concerts See all Moscow concerts ( Change location ) Today · Next 7 days · Next 30 days
• Most popular artists worldwide
• Trending artists worldwide

• Tourbox for artists

Search for events or artists

• Sign up Log in

• Get the app
• Moscow concerts
• Change location
• Popular Artists
• Live streams
• Popular artists

John Mayer tour dates 2024

John Mayer is currently touring across 1 country and has 1 upcoming concert.

The final concert of the tour will be at Unknown venue in Glastonbury.

Currently touring across

Upcoming concerts (1) See nearest concert

Past concerts.

View all past concerts

Recent tour reviews

It was his birthday and his band played Happy Birthday To You for him after the first song, Belief!

After the intermission, he covered Tougher Than The Rest by Bruce Springsteen, saying that it was one of his favourite songs of all time.

It was a good setlist: he played some songs that he doesn't usually play, like Waitin' On The Day, Born And Raised or In Your Atmosphere.

Before playing Changing, he said that to finish the song he thought about Irish people in a pub singing it together, and that every time he sings it he thinks about Ireland.

He and all the band were really great.

Report as inappropriate

WHAT A MAGICAL EVENING OF PURE MUSIC & ART!

The Viejas Arena at the SDSU campus is simply a fabuous venue- and on a perfect cool night in San Diego, the sold out show was an artistic masterpiece- the setlists were spot on. The artsy colorful 3D Backdrop, that I believe Mayer himself was a key designer in its creation, blended beautifully with the video montages displayed above it.

Speaking of the video special effects- subtle, colorful, real-time gems, shadow effects in a stacatto pattern of the guitar neck, I've never seen anything like it in 40 years of concert outings. The crowd was captivated- a long 30 minute intermission appeared relatively early in the show.

I've been going to John Mayer shows since 2002 and though I am obviously a biased super-fan, I can honestly state that this production is-- far and away-- much more amazing than what I saw at the Forum just two years ago.

JM is continuously expanding horizons, getting more creative-- and has the crowd in stitches laughing when he chats up his latest insights & specific San Diego references... I just wish I had the whole show on video so I could watch it again and catch every little thing I missed!

My Husband and I were blown away at the complete show. John is a master of master's at playing the guitar. I still can't get over how amazing it was to watch him get into playing and what we heard. It made so much of a great difference seeing him in person play. His band is extremely talented with the gifts they brought to the stage too. This year we've seen 4 concerts so far and John Mayer was the best! I hope he continues to perform for many years because we'll see him every time if he comes to Phoenix or Tucson (where we live). John spoke to the crowd and made us laugh during the show. They even dropped confetti on the main floor during their encore - it was so cool!! No other band this year we saw live did as much for the crowd entertainment as John Mayer.

• Most popular charts
• Campaigns for promoters
• API information
• Brand guidelines
• Community guidelines
• Terms of use
• Privacy policy
• Cookies settings
• Cookies policy

Get your tour dates seen everywhere.

• Show Reviews
• Festival Preview
• Band Spotlight
• Venue Spotlight
• Artist Review
• Instruction & Advice
• Sign in / Join

John Mayer Sob Rock Tour Opener

Hollywood Palladium , Hollywood, CA on February 9th, 2022 hosted John Mayer on the first show of the tour. by Joel Shover

As if having tickets to ninety percent of the East Coast leg of the tour wasn’t enough John Mayer announced a pop-up VIP show hosted by his longtime friend Andy Cohen in conjunction with SiriusXM and Pandora Live Small Stage Series at The Hollywood Palladium, in Hollywood, California. And magically, this day was my 50th Birthday, February 9th, 2022. This show was the first on this tour to promote his latest Album, SOB ROCK.

With a quick finger to RSVP, I was on the list to enter this special VIP event. Airfare is now booked, it’s time to head west with my headphones on. I boarded a flight with a song in the back of my soul. What is it about the mystique of John Mayer that we want to live vicariously through his music catalog, through the joys and through the heartfelt pains? Mayer’s musical journey has made us aware, in a room full of squares as we continued to study battle through, where we were born, and how we were raised into the valley of paradise, to find everything in our search for Sob Rock.

See the full gallery of photos from this show here .

Love him or loathe him, he is the total package. A true gentleman and a legendary musician, and just an overall great guy that is nothing short of being a musical genius. John Mayer is a Fairfield Connecticut native who attended Boston’s Berklee School of Music but dropped out to pursue his dreams. Those dreams started with a VHS of Back to the Future where Marty McFly wowed the crowd with his blues playing and a Stevie Ray Vaughan cassette. Those same dreams have earned John Mayer seven Grammy awards, including four Male Pop Vocal Performance awards.

On Feb 1st 2022, John humbly announced his touring bandmates through all facets of social media. The tour buzz was in the air and you could feel it. The band is as follows: John Mayer, (Guitar & Vocals), Lenny Castro, (Percussion), who played with the famed Boz Scaggs on the Silk Degrees world tour. You’ve also heard his unique sounds on Toto’s hit songs “Hold the Line”, “Rosanna” and “Africa” just to name a few. Next up is Steve Ferrone, (Drums,) born in England and is most notable for his tenure as the drummer for Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers . David Ryan Harris (Guitar, Vocals) is Mayer’s longtime friend that has been playing music with Mayer since he left Berklee for Atlanta, GA.

On the first set of keyboards is Jamie Muhoberac who has worked with The Rolling Stones , Phil Collins, Seal and Jane’s Addiction just to name a few. Our next keyboardist hails from Los Angeles, California is Greg Phillinganes . Greg has an impressive resume that includes works with Stevie Wonder and the late Michael Jackson. Taking the role as the guitarist’s guitarist is Isaiah Sharkey from the windy city of Chicago, Illinois that has played all over the spectrum with the likes of Keith Urban, Boyz II Men, and Mike Posner. Two veteran vocalists put the finishing touches on the band and they are Tiffany Palmer and Carlos Ricketts who have worked with Kool & The Gang, Chaka Khan, and Janet Jackson respectively.

I arrived in Los Angeles just after midnight on the 9th. After checking into my suite at the beautiful W Hollywood Hotel, in the heart of Hollywood, I was only a short walk to the Palladium. This is where I met Caleb from Pasadena, CA as we staked our claim for the rail. As the sun rose over the City of Angels, more fans from Montana, Florida, Washington DC, Connecticut, the nearby surrounding counties and as far away as Argentina were forming the line. Everyone in the line was full of anticipation as the sun beat down upon them. The super friendly staff hired for this event brought water out to thirsty fans. The hours passed and passed. There were Cheerleaders doing air stunts for our enjoyment while we waited. A-listers like Vanessa Hudgens and Heidi Klum were in attendance, just to name a few.

John Mayer  Night One MSG review

Another hour had passed and the venue was now packed and ready for the intimate show of a lifetime. The crowd was surprised by a special giveaway, 2 signed new PRS Silver Sky Guitars. It was no surprise that our crew had a lot of luck on its side but Erin O’Malley had the true luck of the Irish when they announced her name for one of the guitars.

Next up was our gracious, heart of gold host, Andy Cohen. Andy made sure the crowd was happy and ready to hear his brother from another mother rock these small walls of the Palladium. And we were. John walked on stage as he thanked and hugged Andy. This was it. This was what we had all braved for the last 24 hours. All the traveling, it was finally here. I looked around that theater from the front row and thought for a moment how lucky I was to be celebrating my 50th birthday with all these beautiful souls on this special night.

John Mayer came out rocking with “Last Train Home” (Sob Rock), perhaps signaling that we were all home now. From emptiness to everything, “Belief” (Continuum). John had the crowd from the first note, as they stood mesmerized and singing along at the same time, we finally made it, like only we can. It was now time to tap into John’s last album, (The Search for Everything) for the rock ballad “Love on the Weekend”. “Wild Blue” (Sob Rock) was the next track that kept us singing and dancing along. If we were searching for a night together where things didn’t fall apart it was definitely here and “Shot in The Dark ”

John Mayer night two MSG acoustic

(Sob Rock) was the next hit with the crowd’s biggest response so far. The night was just getting started. It was now time for a little acoustic guitar for John Mayer and from the familiar scent lofting in the air came our next song from the album (Battle Studies) “Who Says” by the end of the song we were all ready to plan a trip to Japan alone. So, consider me as good as gone as we opened (The Search for Everything) one more time with “Moving on and Getting Over.” “It Shouldn’t Matter but It Does” another new track from (Sob Rock) brought back another fine-tuned acoustic guitar for John to play.

Now that road keeps rolling on forever, but if I’m “Helpless” please tell me now, tell, me now, tell, me now. I yelled up to John and asked if he solved the WORDLE today? He proceeded to tell the crowd he solved said WORDLE at 12:01am and that he only lives WORDLE to WORDLE as he has some fun with the crowd. Up next was the heart pulling blues tones of (Continuum) “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room.” As Mayer slowly swayed and methodically noodled his PRS Guitar to our inner minds and souls the room was definitely heating up but what happened next was not the meaning of the lyrics, “We’re going down.” A fan was having a medical emergency and John Mayer, being that straight up good guy we know and love, stopped the music mid note to make sure the fan got the medical attention that they needed.

Talk about taking a knee to another level! Well done, John, well done, hats off to you.

Everyone by now had caught their breath and we were waiting for more. “Waiting on the World to Change ” (Continuum) brought the crowd’s vocals back as they sang along with every word. It was all hush and don’t say a word as John tuned for the next hit “Edge of Desire”.(Battle Studies) This fan favorite had everyone swaying along with the rhythm singing along the chorus Don’t you forget about me.

John Mayer  Albany NY review

John then put the crowd where the light is with his chart topper “Gravity.”(TRY!) The clock was working like gravity now as we realized that there’s only an encore left but we still have goosebumps from waiting in line. How is that possible? Go see John Mayer on this tour and you’ll see for yourself. We were now treated to a first time ever played live “All I Want Is to Be with You” (Sob Rock) which brought tears to many of the fan’s eyes as they gazed up at the stage. John then told the crowd “I’m the boy in your other phone,” with his hit “New Light” (Sob Rock). Now what do we do with all this love, with all this love that’s running through our veins? John Mayer Sob Rock Tour Starts February 17, 2022 MVP Arena in Albany, New York. Go see live music.

Till the next show……Joel

TOUR DATES Please note, tour listings include both John Mayer and Dead & Company . Dates and ticket selections should be made carefully.

FEB 17, 2022 MVP ARENA ALBANY, NY

FEB 18, 2022 WELLS FARGO CENTER PHILADELPHIA, PA

FEB 20, 2022 MADISON SQUARE GARDEN NEW YORK, NY

FEB 21, 2022 MADISON SQUARE GARDEN NEW YORK, NY

FEB 23, 2022 CAPITAL ONE ARENA WASHINGTON, D.C.

To submit an article an article or review, or to just say hello hit us at [email protected]

Also- check out the search feature in the upper right hand corner and search for your favorite artist, event, venue or genre. You’ll be surprised at what you find!

Check out the Live Music News and Review.com Facebook page for updates and announcements.

RELATED ARTICLES MORE FROM AUTHOR

Pink Martini: 30th Anniversary show

Andy Frasco and the UN Ignite Dewey Beach with Raw Energy and Emotion

Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters Celebrate 50 Year Anniversary of Seminal Album at Hollywood Bowl

Latest news.

DeadMau5 Hollywood Bowl

Rest in Peace Dickey Betts

Skull and Roses Festival CANCELLED

History of Black Women and Album of the Year

Editor's pick's.

• All time popular

Home Body at the Shea

D Generation Announces First Album in 17 Years, ‘Nothing Is Anywhere’...

Matt Gilmour releases new music

Even more news.

Andy Frasco and the UN Ignite Dewey Beach with Raw Energy...

Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters Celebrate 50 Year Anniversary of Seminal...

Popular category.

• Show Reviews 1359
• Cork Board 353
• Festival Preview 244
• Band Spotlight 62
• Venue Spotlight 20
• Artist Review 17

• Skip to content
• Accessibility
• Buy Tickets

John Mayer: SOB ROCK TOUR 2022

• Date May 9 – 10 , 2022
• Doors All doors open at 6:30PM
• Availability On Sale Now
• Ticket Prices $49.50, $69.50, $89.50, $115.50, $179.50
• Parking Buy Parking

Event Information

John mayer announces ‘sob rock’ tour 2022.

John Mayer’s ‘SOB ROCK TOUR’ scheduled for March 4, 2022  and March 5, 2022 at TD Garden has been rescheduled to May 9, 2022 and May 10, 2022. Tickets for the originally scheduled date will be honored for the newly announced show date. Additional questions should be directed to the original point of purchase.

John Mayer has announced concerts for his 'Sob Rock' Tour 2022, kicking off Thursday, February 17, in Albany, New York, running through Thursday, April 28 in Chicago, Illinois. Produced by Live Nation, the tour features stops in New York at the new UBS Arena in Belmont Park (March 1st) and Madison Square Garden (February 20), and two nights at the Forum in Inglewood, California (March 13 & March 15), among others. Tickets go on sale starting Friday, July 23rd, at 11 AM @ JohnMayer.com . A full listing of tour dates can be found below.

In album news, Sob Rock, the eighth studio album from the GRAMMY® Award-winning artist, guitarist, and producer is available in stores through all DSPs via Columbia Records. Produced by John Mayer and Don Was, and recorded at Henson Studios in Los Angeles, the album marks Mayer’s first solo offering since 2017’s The Search for Everything. A full track listing can be found below. Check out Sob Rock HERE .

A signup to access presale tickets via seated is available now HERE . Fans can register until Tuesday, July 20, at 9:45 AM. Seated presales start Tuesday, July 20, at 10 AM Local, and run through Wednesday, July 21, at 10 PM Local. 

A limited number of VIP packages will be available starting Tuesday, July 20, at 10 AM Local. Premium seats, preshow ‘Sob Rock’ lounge access, exclusive merchandise & more.

Two pairs of front row tickets will be auctioned off for each show on the tour through  https://www.charityauctionstoday.com/ . All proceeds from the ticket auctions will go to the Back To You Fund, which has supported many charities, including John’s Heart & Armor Foundation, as well as programs supporting at risk youth and the homeless.

There’s nobody quite like John Mayer. He has emerged as a GRAMMY® Award-winning artist, celebrated songwriter, and iconic guitar player all at once. The Bridgeport, CT native introduced himself on the quintuple-platinum Room For Squares in 2001 and has earned three #1 debuts on the Billboard Top 200 with the triple-platinum Heavier Things [2003], double-platinum Battle Studies [2009], and gold Born and Raised [2012]. In addition to selling over 20 million albums worldwide and gathering billions of streams to date, he has garnered seven GRAMMY® Awards, including “Song of the Year” for “Daughters,” and has earned a record seven U.S. No. 1s on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart and 25 entries on the Hot Rock Songs chart, the most for any solo artist. In 2015, Dead & Company was founded, with Mayer on lead guitar as well as vocals. Since its formation, the band has completed six tours, playing to 3.4 million fans, and has become a record-breaking stadium act. Most recently, 2017’s The Search for Everything bowed at #2 on the Billboard Top 200 and went gold. 

For more information, visit  Johnmayer.com  and  Sobrock.net.  

* Lineup subject to change without notice.

Limited Ticket Inventory

Special ticket inventory is released for various events throughout the year. Call 617-624-1847 to speak to someone from our staff to learn more.  

Suite Rentals

Looking for the perfect group entertainment option? Look no further than your very own suite rental. Call 617-624-1847 today to book your unique event. Visit our Suite Rentals page for more information.

Ticket Availability

Tickets are available online, at the TD Garden Box Office & all Ticketmaster outlets.

Courtyard Boston Downtown/North Station

Experience a unique sense of comfort and style at the Courtyard Boston Downtown/North Station, located in the heart of downtown, steps away from the TD Garden and within walking distance to Boston’s Financial District, Government Center and North End neighborhood

Latest News

DELAWARE NORTH HIRES VP OF FINANCE FOR BOSTON BRUINS & TD GARDEN

Connecticut Sun Sell Out TD Garden

ScriptsWidget

John Mayer Verified

Similar artists on tour, john mayer merch.

Live Photos of John Mayer

concerts and tour dates

Fan reviews.

About John Mayer

• Statistics Stats
• You are here:

John Mayer Kicks Off "Sob Rock" Tour with 22-Song Setlist

• On Tour Now
• Last updated: 18 Feb 2022, 19:05:03
• Published: 18 Feb 2022, 19:05:03
• Written by: Bree Wilde
• Photography by: Mike Coppola, Getty Images
• Categories: On Tour Now Tagged: John Mayer

Last night at the MVP Arena in Albany, New York, John Mayer kicked off his Sob Rock Tour. As you may have guessed from the tour name, the set was heavy on the Sob Rock tracks - he played 8 of 10, starting the set with the album's opening track, "Last Train Home."

Fans in attendance noted that the show didn't really find its groove until about 8 songs in, but were delighted by the visual tribute to Bob Saget (RIP) during "I Don't Trust Myself with Loving You."

A highlight was the first full band version of "Your Body is a Wonderland" in YEARS. He followed that throwback with a cover of Prince's "The Beautiful Ones."

Sob Rock track "All I Want Is To Be With You" got its second-ever live performance - the debut happened earlier this month at the Hollywood Palladium, see that setlist here .

Mayer closed with a two-song encore, "Born and Raised" and "New Light."

Check out fan footage and the full setlist below:

Trying to decide what to wear to the show? Here's a protip via reddit .

The Sob Rock Tour continues tonight in Philly and runs through May 3 where it wraps in Toronto. Full list of dates here .

Latest News

Billie Eilish and Reneé Rapp Attend Clairo's Crush Tour Kickoff

Post Malone Kicks off F-1 Trillion Tour in Utah with Live Debuts

Kehlani Kicks Off Crash World Tour with Live Debuts

The Weeknd Live Debuts 'Hurry Up Tomorrow' in São Paulo, Brazil

Most played songs.

• Why Georgia ( 751 )
• No Such Thing ( 703 )
• Your Body Is a Wonderland ( 600 )
• Gravity ( 570 )
• Waiting on the World to Change ( 519 )

More John Mayer statistics

Gigs seen live by

6,704 people have seen John Mayer live.

esthersmusic rohitrmohanty Vikki86 Aidan369 supersalad sarahjane_oc JenConhil Kia1983 AbeVentura filippobertoli diaMondsocks tombom07 stevielatphoto leighmegan13 Divv4k eraohkcaj Neus whatsername13gd pennylane_85 KeithB75 Brokske isaac2002 akbaxter irishgigguy nanzica mnclss SarahJMS jbeckerjeck Jecko999 StevenR DockOfTheBay furioustrout benjykp Bevbrooks blazzo szyndarek unstamped9536 XJC06 2thumbs06 EmilSt Rachelsm Cantarim chicagomav pparker884 Crabysackz MissBraveheart leglessnation Coatesy89 Lenny67 privateland

Showing only 50 most recent

More from John Mayer

• More Setlists
• Artist Statistics
• Add setlist
• Setlist Insider See the artists dive into their own setlist data.
• Live Debuts Witness the first time a song is performed live.
• Setlist.fm Exclusives Videos, photos and interviews - see it here first.
• Covers Better than the original? You decide.
• Guest Appearances Keeping track of the on-stage cameos.
• Setlist History Looking back on moments in music history.
• Tour Dates How to catch your faves: The who, what, where and when.
• Festivals News about the multi-artist, multi-day extravaganzas.
• General News Other music-related news.
• Sep 9, 2024
• Sep 8, 2024
• Sep 7, 2024
• Sep 6, 2024
• Sep 5, 2024
• Sep 4, 2024
• FAQ | Help | About
• Terms of Service
• Ad Choices | Privacy Policy
• Songtexte.com

Find anything you save across the site in your account

John Mayer and Mickey Hart of Dead & Company Talk About Their Big, Strange Sphere Trip—and the Future of the Band

All products are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission.

I’ll start by telling you one of the first things I told John Mayer when we spoke by phone for this story: I saw Dead & Company’s Sphere show in Las Vegas in mid-May, on the third night of the first weekend of the band’s spring-summer residency there. A few days after that, I was back home in LA, walking my dog down a concrete staircase cut into a steep hillside. Halfway down, I stopped and looked up and out at the far-off hills opposite the one I was standing on. In the afternoon sun the hillside in the distance looked fake and flat, and seemed to be tilting away from me. I reached for a railing, feeling a twinge of vertigo—a specific kind of vertigo, novel yet familiar, and after a second I realized where I’d felt it before: in Vegas, during the Dead & Company Sphere show, where the all-encompassing wall of LED screens lining the Sphere’s interior is always doing something to fool your dumb eyes and therefore your brain, making you think you’re in motion, like you're soaring over a snowy mountain range at sunset or sinking beneath the ocean or watching the West Coast shrink as you ascend through the troposphere before jumping into psychedelic hyperspace. Now, back in the real world, I was looking at things I knew to be real and questioning their veracity. I was having a Sphere flashback .

When I say all this to John Mayer —who served as the conduit between Dead & Company and Treatment Studio, the creative agency that produced the visuals for the Sphere shows—he doesn’t laugh at me. He knows exactly what I mean, knows even better than I do what too much Sphere can do to your brain. “There was a period of time, while we were making this show,” he says, “where I was in the Sphere overnight for three, four days in a row.” Starved for perspective, he’d go in search of a real view: “You really just have to look at something that’s truly off in the distance,” he says. Even he's not immune to the power of the world's most immersive live-entertainment venue. “I mean, we’re really hijacking your senses," Mayer says. "This is sensory hijacking. And it’s very fun to be behind that mischief.”

In August it’ll be nine years since Mayer joined forces with Bob Weir , Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann of the Grateful Dead to play the Dead’s music under the Dead & Company name, raising eyebrows and hackles among those who knew him chiefly by his pop-radio hits. But his arrival coincided with a broader resurgence of Deadhead-dom in the popular consciousness, and helped grow Dead & Company—with Oteil Burbridge on bass, Jeff Chimenti on keys, and, eventually, Jay Lane, of Primus and Weir’s Ratdog, taking over for Kreutzmann on drums alongside Hart—into the most commercially vital spinoff in post-Dead history. The band’s 2023 tour was the year’s fifth-most-lucrative rock outing, behind only Metallica, Depeche Mode, Elton John, and Coldplay—28 shows, gross revenue around $115 million, more than double the take of any previous Dead & Company tour. It was also billed as the band’s final tour, which it may well have been—but sometime in the fall, as Mayer remembers it, chatter about the Sphere turned into a conversation about Dead & Co. following U2’s inaugural run with a residency of their own, which led to the show they’ve been doing three nights a week since May, leveraging everything state-of-the-art about the venue to fully engulf guests in the sonic and visual legacy of the Grateful Dead.

It’s easy to be cynical about the Grateful Dead’s latter-day transformation from a band into a brand, a process that began around the time the first Jerry Garcia neckties hit shelves in the ’90s and has arguably reached some kind of zenith or fear-and-loathing endpoint out here in the desert, inside an 875,000-square-foot globe adjacent to the Venetian, where you can spill out of the show and onto the casino floor with Since it costs a lot to win/Even more to lose still ringing in your ears. But rather than overplaying the attendant ironies here, we’ll just note that the embrace of cutting-edge technology as both a delivery system for mischief and a means to sensory overload has been a part of the Dead’s M.O. since the Acid Tests, where they played while various Merry Pranksters bounced tape-looped voices around strobe-lit rooms. By 1973 the Grateful Dead were touring with a mammoth, bleeding-edge, and wildly impractical PA system known as the Wall of Sound —600-plus speakers tuned for maximum clarity and reach, nearly 29,000 watts of power, separate quad channels for each string on Phil Lesh’s bass. Decades later, at the tour-closing Oracle Park dates last summer in San Francisco, squadrons of drones lit up the night sky, forming images of top-hat-doffing skeletons and dancing bears.

The “Dead Forever” Sphere shows are a leap far beyond all that—they’re moving tributes to the living legacy of the Grateful Dead, a sentimental journey blown up to blockbuster scale, and also metaphysical theme-park rides that leverage this multibillion-dollar venue’s remarkable vibe-manipulating capabilities to trippy and visceral effect, particularly during the “Drums/Space” portion of the evening , when the haptic seats vibrate your bones in time with Mickey Hart’s percussion. “It took a while to get used to it,” Hart tells me in an interview a few days before I speak to Mayer. “You have to understand this is an extraordinary robot and you're in the belly of it…. Once you get used to it, like anything, you can really make some serious magic happen.”

During “Drums/Space” Hart plays an instrument called the Beam, a massive low-frequency generator whose earliest incarnation—developed for use when Hart and Kreutzmann recorded a drum score for Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now —was an actual 8-foot aluminum C-beam strung with bass piano strings and wired for amplification. “Sometimes I’ll go to 16, 17 cycles, which is really low, lower than anything in the band,” Hart says. “Most people have never heard that. And then it’s coming right up your perineum, and it’s just filling you with that kind of energy—the serpent power, we would call it in yoga. That vibratory stimuli. So, tip to toe, it's a beautiful feeling. I go right to that place before sound turns into feeling, where you can't hear it. That's my sandbox, that's where I play. And that really moves people.”

It’s harder to be cynical when you think about it in these terms: Mickey Hart, at 80, has been given the keys to a giant robot and the means to bombard an audience’s root chakra with pure serpent power, and this is happening in Vegas, as casino entertainment . At 80, Hart is learning to play the room, sonically and physically and psychically. New tricks in old age. It’s that way for everyone. Working with the visuals, Mayer says, changes the way the band approaches its nightly set list: “I think we're probably working on each show up until about four o'clock in the afternoon. So it's the very living, breathing thing and nobody is on autopilot, which is actually kind of fun. Everyone's fully engaged all the time.”

“I mean, it’s Vegas,” Mayer says. “It’s a Vegas show. And it's actually incredible how Bob and Mickey have risen to the challenge of almost overnight rethinking the way that they play and having these cues inside of the show, and having these moments that are kind of fantastical elements on top of the music.

“The backstage of the Sphere is more like the backstage of The Tonight Show than it is the backstage of a rock and roll thing. It's like, ‘Okay, we have a meeting in Derek's office at four o'clock.’ It's very regimented, but underneath all of it, we all feel like, Oh my God, I can't believe we get to do this. "

I spoke with Mayer by phone last week, before he headed back to Vegas. The following conversation has been edited and condensed. (Also, technically, the venue's handlers prefer it be called Sphere, not “ the Sphere,” but just saying “Sphere” sounds weird. Mayer says “the Sphere,” so we’re saying the “the” too.)

GQ: Whenever I’ve tried to describe the experience of this show to people, I find myself reaching back to reference points from childhood. I’ve been telling people it feels the way the planetarium used to feel when you were a kid. Or like the old Mission to Mars ride at Disneyland. Or Star Tours .

John Mayer: It's all in there. A lot of the show is based on Star Tours.

Yep. I'll go back to the early ’80s at these festivals and midways where they had the space shuttle that you got into and it was on hydraulics. And you would take off and it would just basically move 15 degrees left, right up, down, but you would feel like you were taking off from Earth. So somewhere in the back of your brain, your childlike self still remembers that, and I think the show is just tickling that, the whole time.

But, yes—it's funny you mention Star Tours because the show, as a narrative, is based on that. When it came time to think about what's the most we can make out of our time on that stage in the Sphere, the idea was obviously right in front of everyone—the long, strange trip. But what if the Sphere was our vehicle, not just a venue, and everything happening on the screen was our heads-up display? What if we were moving and that was our windshield? So the story really is that we're on a ship the whole time.

The takeoff and the landing [sequence of the show] was actually done by ILM, which is very exciting, that Industrial Light & Magic did that. So that was always cooking separately. It just made a lot of sense to have this bracketed takeoff and landing, and everything that happens in the middle is a different stop along the way, instead of just different video pieces. They're actually different stops in the adventure.

And I think what makes people want to go back is that because it's a ride, you want to take the ride again. You don't want to just see the show again, you want to go on the ride again. There's this moment where the entire crowd bonds all at once because they're all on the same ship, taking off to the same place. And it's almost really magnifying what's always been there inside of a crowd in the first place. But now you're all on the same road trip together.

I mean that's what I like so much about Titanic. I love Titanic. One of the reasons people kept watching that movie so many times is because the ship actually leaves. So the audience is actually getting on the ship with the characters. And there's just something really powerful about taking the ride. That was, to me, making the most of the venue, was creating the sense of Thursday, Friday, Saturday, 7:35, we leave the station and we plant back down at 11:00 or 11:15, but in between there, you're gone. And we're all gone together.

The other obvious metaphor here is that it’s a simulation of the psychedelic experience, that sense of traveling without moving. You start in one place and then after this hallucinatory cosmic odyssey you’re deposited right where you came in.

Yes, yes. And there's also another layer to the story. To me, I wanted a message of metaphysical hope and optimism. And the show is called “Dead Forever,” and the end of the show [depicts] the beginning of the Grateful Dead. And there's a very interdimensional optimism that somewhere, somehow, this is all just getting started, and we got to visit for just one second at the very end.

So let’s go back to the very beginning. When did the idea of doing a show like this first come up?

I remember the idea being there, probably, [at the] end of last year. I think I was on tour, the solo tour—probably November-ish, I think was where the conversation got real. And then it was up in the air as to whether we'd get the slot. And we got the slot, which was sort of dependent on the promise that this could be done with the budget we had, which was smaller than the budget that preceded our show at the Sphere, and in a period of time that was very, very condensed. And I looked at it and I said, I think we can do it. I think this is not a Hail Mary play, I think this is doable.

And so we all started talking, meaning Bob, Mickey, me, and a couple other people involved in this production started banging around ideas. And I went off in a corner and kind of put together a treatment for the name of the show and the narrative of the show, and I pitched it. I mean, there's no other way to say it. I mean, I really very semi-nervously pitched it to Bob and Mickey, and they really liked it. Here's the greatest thing about it, man; I'm telling you, I'm not making this up—trust is the greatest asset in my life, creatively. I'll never lose gratitude for it. And I think that Bob and Mickey trusted me not to go off and dream up stuff all by myself but take their notes. So we had a bunch of conversations, sometimes for hours. What do you want to see? What are the things you remember? Where are the places you want to go?

And I asked them if I could be the one to organize those things on their behalf, in constant contact with them, but just go back and forth myself with Treatment Studio. And they were really, really good to me. They said, "Okay, we believe you can do this." And I took that as something I could not fail them on. And so I became what I call surgically obsessed. If you're obsessed correctly, that's how projects happen. And it became my life for four or five months. And part of the reason it made sense for me to do a lot of the heavy lifting was because I lived just over the hill from the Sphere Studios in Burbank, which is—I think it's a one-third scale replica of the Sphere where you can demo [Sphere content].

So I made it a part of my life to go look at content, make notes. And every time I saw another piece of content and had another feeling about it, I just became more of the conscientious pack leader of this idea, and making sure that it did right by Bob and Mickey and it did right by the fans. A lot of people coming to this show knew the music before I knew the music. That's a hell of a lot of pressure to get a story right, that does justice to their dreams of what this could be. And from that point, everything got broken out into these blocks. Where are the places we can go? What are the pieces? And they really start as very rough animatics. If you see how cartoons are made, they start with sketches, they're storyboards. And you get excited to see storyboards. And then you get even more excited to see a rough animatic, which sometimes would look like it was made on a PS3. It looks like Minecraft. But you go, Well, this looks better than it did last week when it was just an image .

Bob came and watched the very first rough showing of content probably back in February, right after the Super Bowl. And it was great because he would look at something, for instance [the “Dead Forever” segment recreating the Dead’s 1978 performance at the foot of the Great Pyramid in Giza, Egypt], and it would unlock all these memories. He was very effusively explaining what he remembers from Egypt, and we added it into the show. He remembers bats were flying everywhere, so there's bats [in the Sphere segment], and the Bedouins who would come on horseback to listen to the music, they're in there. So the more the show could be a living, breathing embodiment of Bob's memories and Mickey's memories—that was just like, I couldn't write fast enough, the stuff that he was mentioning. Then you have to keep rendering these things and designing them even further and further and further.

And at a certain point, probably back in March, it ended up on a Meta Quest headset. So [Sphere Entertainment] have their own proprietary software where you put the VR headset on and you're in the Sphere, and you're demoing the content in VR. So I traveled with a VR headset and I’d get new downloads, and I would just keep giving notes.

And every time I saw another revision, it just got more and more exciting. And then it started to get to the point when we would see stuff that was pretty close to the real thing at Sphere Studios in Burbank. I started having incredibly exciting involuntary reactions—screaming and standing up and putting my hands in the air. Which is funny because I see other people do it now, and I did it too. There's just certain things you see where you stand up and you go, yes, and you put your hands over your head and you're just enthralled by it.

There were also, at the same time, a number of things that I saw that made me want to throw up. I donated my stomach to science for a few months. A lot of people are light-sensitive or sensitive to movement. There were some things that I think some people would've really loved and other people would have left the building if it had stuck. I really got to learn how the Sphere works, and got into its mind a little bit. There's certain motions—if you turn on a certain axis, it's fine. Other axes you turn on, it's like, "Nope, uh-uh." And it was very interesting to test my equilibrium. I think it was the first time I'd ever been nauseous but not anxious because I knew what was going on. It was the most utilitarian nausea I've ever had. It was like, "Yeah, I'm nauseous, but I am almost just testing this on my own stomach."

That was another thing too—getting the show to be exciting, but not to the point where, neurologically, you would rather leave. There are some people I know could take even more, but you kind of have to average it out. There were a couple things we smoothed the edges on—a couple moments where you come to the edge of whether you think you can handle it, but the trust with the show is that you're going to be fine. We're taking care of you, we got you. Someone someday will be in there and their whole MO is going to make people think they're upside down, and that will be very easy to do, and maybe if you're 17 years old, that would be cool.

The thing that was interesting about opening night was that the crowd's excitement and their reactions had us overly excited too. Because the first time we lifted off, people were screaming. And you still have to perform. You still have to play that tune, even if that tune is being drowned out by people yelling with excitement. We [had to] learn how to play irrespective of what's happening in terms of the reaction.

One thing I love about it is that the visuals really embrace all of the Dead's kind of iconography, even the parts that might seem a little sort of kitschy or tied to a particular era. You're not trying to impose a cool modern aesthetic on everything. I've seen people complain about the dancing bears; I couldn't disagree more. I loved it when the bears showed up.

Is it the bears themselves or the manner in which the bears are presented?

You know that some people dislike the bears , right? I've come around, over the years, on the bears. But there's a prejudice against the bears.

Well, it sounds to me like this is a bit of the Ewok argument. It's like there's an Ewok aspect to the bears.

It’s a good comparison.

I also am a Return of the Jedi guy. I love the Ewoks. I wouldn't have known the difference because I was too young. I think probably, if you remember the Dead from 1972, the bears might not be representative of your experience. But could you imagine them not being in the show? What an oversight that would be.

No, exactly. You’re not running away from the Day-Glo of it all. Parts of the show made me think of the spiral skeleton T-shirt design , which was omnipresent Deadhead fashion when I was growing up. There’s something really powerful about using this technology to bring to life that very specific visual language the Dead have always had.

I mean, it's funny you mentioned it's not overly futuristic. That was one of the main focuses of this whole production. Everything to me is binaries, a whole bunch of different spectrums, and you gotta move the slider between both ends of the spectrum the right way, up and down all across the line. And the one that was the most important was futuristic versus familiar. If you go too far into futuristic, the Sphere becomes a natural science museum. If you go too far into intergalactic space travel, you can go to 2001: A Space Odyssey . But if you don't respect that we are in a state of the art environment in 2024, then you end up in something that's kind of stodgy and a little too VW bug for the moment. And that was the main binary for me. I was calling [the two poles] 2001 and “Monster Mash.”

And I think somewhere between those two things, you can go too far and you get one or the other. You don't want to be the worst parts of futuristic, or the now sort of most picked-over part of nostalgia. But there's all these binaries, right? Familiar versus unexpected. Old versus new. Motion versus placid, for a moment. The same way that you have songs on a set list that are high energy and then you have to come down and play a ballad—same thing, visually. I'd gotten a few too many headaches looking at a bunch of content back to back that was moving and it was like, "Oh, this has to breathe."

So if we're going to move a lot in one song, we've got to [then] give people's brains a break and just watch the band play. So there's all of these different contours happening, which explains why [making the set list] is time-consuming, because you have to have both of these contours moving at the same time and they have to agree with each other. So the music goes up and down, but the content has to go up and down as well, so that your brain isn't constantly shouting, “What's happening?” every 10 seconds. You have to give your brain a break.

And I think it works really well. I think that every night's been a different journey and sometimes we have to change the music a little bit to fit that. There's only a couple places in the show where we have to think about timing. That part's been fun as well. How do you change the music just a little bit to fit the timing of the story? And again, credit to Bob and Mickey, who took that challenge on day one and haven't missed a beat. The thing about musicians is their animal brain for timing is better than anyone. So Bob, knowing how to change the length or to change the sequence of something or the length of something in a song, four minutes before it comes to the end of the song, knowing that that's going to plant us in the right place at the end of that song—only musicians have that part of their brain and Bob is so good at it. He's so good at it.

Right. Being able to finish the sentence in the amount of time that you have to finish it, almost.

Yes. Yeah. I mean, musicians—if you think about it, Grateful Dead and myself as well, have been going up against curfews where if you go a minute over, you’re charged a fee. And you just pick up the knack for how to make that last chord ring out before they pull the plug on you or charge you a bunch of money and you then piss [the venue] off because they're not going to get their 25 grand because you made it seem like you were going to play forever, and then you figured out how to land on your feet right under the line. Musicians are actually freakishly good at that.

Yeah. I feel like I saw you do it at Citi Field last year. You guys got to the end of “Black Muddy River” and then the second you finished the lights came on.

Yeah. I've never gone over. I really haven’t—I don't think I've ever been charged. I don't think I've ever been charged. I just hit it to the minute. And it's just that much more of a fun dance we do with the show. I mean, it's this duet, right? There's the band and then there's the Sphere, and we are duetting every night.

This is why Mickey Hart calls it a giant robot.

Yes. We are duetting with this technology. And the other slider too, the other binary, is how much is [the show] music with visuals and [how much is] visuals scored by music, and how does that change throughout the show? I think it flips back and forth. And hopefully it flips back and forth in the right measure, so there's certain moments where you feel as if the music is scoring what you’re watching, and then there's other moments you feel like you're listening to music and there's some visuals along with it.

I mean the fact that the screen is as vast as it is means you can't actually catch everything all in one show because there's so much happening in different directions. I did think about people's necks, by the way. We moved a lot of things that were down in front of people. This could have been a neck-breaker, this show.

What was it like spending all those nights inside the Sphere as the deadline got closer?

I must have started going there at the end of April, flying into Vegas. But the challenge was that they show this movie Postcard From Earth all day, and I think the last showing is at 10 o'clock or something. So we couldn't get in there until 11:30 p.m. So I would fly to Vegas and start working at about 11:30 or midnight and go to 4:00 in the morning and then sleep in Vegas and wake up and fly back to LA. But towards maybe five, six days before the show itself, we were there a bunch of hours, empty Sphere, lights out, watching content. And we'd be there a really long time. And the first two weeks were tough because I would've been up all night Wednesday night, so I was pulling all-nighters.

I'm not tiny-violining. Getting on a plane at 9:30 at night to go to Vegas, to go straight to the Sphere and look at this show that people are going to see in a week, for the first time, was amazing. And sometimes you can show yourself how much you love something by how much you're willing to go without sleep for it. It's kind of a way of proving to yourself that you love something. So credit to Treatment, who were there much longer than I was, and they were running on such little sleep, up to the beginning of the show and beyond. And it was that way from January until May 15th. And beyond. Even still, we're coming up with some new content for the August shows to make sure that we keep this percolating as much as we can.

So August is coming, and then in September the Eagles are coming . There is an endpoint on Dead & Company’s Sphere run, which followed a tour that was billed as the final tour. What happens next?

The endpoint is the last show listed on Ticketmaster right now. There are no more shows getting added in August. That's a very good question and a very kind one to ask me, because the answer is the shows that are up and announced, that's it. That's it for at least this year. And the only reason I'm saying that is because I'm sensitive to calling things “the last.” So I don't know—but [August] would be the last time this year, for sure.

But it also seems like you guys are going to do this in some form forever. The last tour was billed as a farewell tour, but I’ve also heard Bob say he wants this to go on even after he’s not here anymore. So is there no end in sight?

I can tell you this, and I'm not being coy—the show is designed to be modular. We can go anywhere at any time in between taking off from Earth and setting back down. And that openness is exciting. I'm excited by—what's the word? Future-proof? The show is future-proof. We can go any number of different ways. I would be honored to make it a part of a stop along the way in the future in certain periods of time, I don't know, years or what. But the thing about being in this band and the Grateful Dead universe at large is you just don't know what tomorrow's going to bring. Just don't know.

I don't think I've ever spoken to anyone and known something that was happening in the future and gave a little wink and went, I don't know. I truly do not know if we’ll come back. Last I heard, bands could only play once at the Sphere. Then I heard chatter of that no longer being a rule. That's the most I know. But I'll tell you this: If someone asked me to do more, I would absolutely do more. But if we did that, it wouldn't be this year.

Right. You’ve still got a solo career to think about.

I'd like to make another record at some point. [ Laughs. ] That would be fun. But all that record-making energy—I don't want people to think I'm not making records because I don't want to work. Basically, all the energy I learned how to compile based on making records, I've just been putting behind other things. This Sphere show took as much energy as making a record would make or would take. You come home every night, okay, got to take a break, rest your mind, go to bed. Wake up, listen to the mixes again, [or in this case] look at the content again, or look at that email. I just really love putting months together to make great things. Very soon I will put the months together to make another album. But I think it's fair to say I'm having too much fun playing around on side quests right now to lament not having a record.

• Work & Careers
• Life & Arts

John Mayer live at London’s O2 Arena — angst, heartbreak and syrup

• John Mayer live at London’s O2 Arena — angst, heartbreak and syrup on x (opens in a new window)
• John Mayer live at London’s O2 Arena — angst, heartbreak and syrup on facebook (opens in a new window)
• John Mayer live at London’s O2 Arena — angst, heartbreak and syrup on linkedin (opens in a new window)
• John Mayer live at London’s O2 Arena — angst, heartbreak and syrup on whatsapp (opens in a new window)

Ian Gittins

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

For a long time, Britain resisted the charms of John Mayer. In the 2000s, even as the blues guitarist was scoring number one albums and picking up seven Grammy awards in his native America, a resolute indifference in the UK saw his records routinely beach in the lower depths of the charts.

The story changed with his 2012 Born and Raised release, the first of three albums to reach top five in the UK. These increased levels of interest have enabled him to switch up from touring intimate British club and small-theatre venues to now filling two nights at the O2 Arena.

This uptick in his fortunes is somewhat puzzling as Mayer is essentially an anodyne, unremarkable performer. His shtick is a mode of antiseptic, down-the-line blues-pop that appears to regard the glossy late-eighties soft rock of the likes of Phil Collins, Dire Straits, and Huey Lewis and the News as pinnacles of popular music.

For this current tour, he has eschewed his gently rocking backing band in favour of solo acoustic run-throughs of highlights from his 20-year-plus back catalogue. He thus took to the stage at the start of the night, dapper in smart-casual slacks and shirt, armed with no more than an acoustic guitar, a high stool and a bashful aw-shucks grin.

The opening “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” typified the syrupy over-emoting that was the night’s default mode. Mayer’s stock-in-trade is presenting himself as a bruised soul and a hopeless romantic doomed to be unlucky in love. “I’ve loved seven other women, and they all were you,” he sighed on the mellow “Shot in the Dark”.

This is arguably a little rich as Mayer’s list of celebrity exes includes Jessica Simpson, Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Aniston, Taylor Swift and Katy Perry. Indeed, strumming “I Don’t Trust Myself (With Loving You)”, he cautioned a prospective future lover of his bad rep: “If my past is any sign of your future/You should be warned . . .”

His voice was strong and his songs were slick and sturdy, but there was no emotional ballast to his efficient musicianship. This was a pity, as his stoners’ anthem “Who Says?” (“I don’t remember you looking any better/But then again, I don’t remember you . . .”) demonstrated he can be sharp and witty.

It was perplexing to hear words of supposed angst and heartbreak crooned over the musical equivalent of a pair of comfy slippers. Twice, Mayer earnestly praised the crowd for being “sophisticated” enough to hear out his pained laments in silence. This tribute ignored the possibility that some of us might have fallen asleep.

His virtuosity was not in question. On “Changing” he simultaneously played guitar and piano, while “Edge of Desire” saw him dexterously pick at a double-neck acoustic guitar. Yet, really, it was a little like seeing a unicyclist on stage. Very clever, hard to imagine achieving yourself, but how long do you really want to watch it for?

Mayer rounded off an adept, soporific show with an extremely adequate version of Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’”. It had been a long night, or maybe it just felt like one.

johnmayer.com

Promoted Content

Follow the topics in this article.

• Music Add to myFT
• John Mayer Add to myFT
• Ian Gittins Add to myFT

John Mayer solo tour to launch in NJ, with Trio, Dead and Company shows on the way

2 minute read.

This spring, it’s just John in Jersey.

John Mayer, the Grammy-winning singer/songwriter and guitar hero, is launching a solo tour on Saturday, March 11, at the Prudential Center in Newark.

“I began my career on stage with only a guitar and a microphone,” Mayer wrote on Instagram on Thursday morning. “A lot has changed since then, but I knew one day I’d feel it in my heart to do an entire run of shows on my own again, just like those early days. It took a couple of decades, but I feel it now."

Tickets go on sale to the general public 9 a.m. Friday, Feb. 3. Pre-sale tickets will be available 9 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 1, through 10 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 2. Fans can learn more at Johnmayer.com .

VIP packages will also be available, and two pairs of front row tickets for each show will be auctioned through charityauctionstoday.com to support the Back to You Fund, which has supported many charities, including Mayer’s Heart & Armor Foundation, as well as programs supporting at-risk youth and the homeless.

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

More: What song should open the new tour for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band?

“I’ll be playing old songs. Newer songs. Songs you haven’t heard that I’ll be road testing — all on acoustic, electric and piano,” Mayer said.

His most recent solo effort is 2021's heartfelt yacht rock-inspired "Sob Rock."

Following the Newark debut, the tour plays Madison Square Garden in New York City on Wednesday, March 15. The 19-date tour ends Friday, April 14, at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles.

In addition to the upcoming solo tour, he reunites his blues-rock John Mayer Trio for Love Rocks NYC, a March 9 concert at the Beacon Theatre in New York City supporting God's Love We Deliver, an organization fighting hunger and malnutrition among children and adults living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other serious illnesses.

Pre-sale tickets for Love Rocks NYC show will be available starting at 10 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 26, and will be on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Friday, Jan. 27, via Ticketmaster. To learn more about the concert and the work of God's Love We Deliver, visit glwd.org .

More: Bruce Springsteen and E Street Band 'loud' rehearsal rocks Cure Arena in Trenton

Following his solo tour, Mayer will be back on the road with Grateful Dead legacy act Dead and Company for the band's final tour, which starts with a Saturday, May 6, visit to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival before the standalone dates begin Saturday, May 19, at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles.

Locally, Dead and Company plays Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on Thursday, June 15, and Citi Field in New York City on Wednesday, June 21, and Thursday, June 22. For information and tickets, visit deadandcompany.com .

John Mayer Announces New Album ‘Sob Rock’

By Claire Shaffer

Claire Shaffer

John Mayer announced on Tuesday that he’ll be releasing his eighth studio album, titled  Sob Rock , on July 16th. The singer and guitarist released the news on Twitter, along with the album’s cover art.  Rolling Stone has reached out to representatives for Mayer for further details.

Sob Rock. July 16. pic.twitter.com/Hhn2sO9KRY — John Mayer (@JohnMayer) June 1, 2021

Sob Rock will mark Mayer’s first studio album since 2017’s  The Search for Everything . Since 2015, he has been performing as part of the Grateful Dead supergroup Dead & Company, who recently announced a set of 2021 tour dates kicking off in August. (The band had originally planned to tour in 2020, but postponed the live dates due to the pandemic.) Dead & Co. will also be resuming their annual Playing in the Sand residency in January 2022, performing for three nights at the Riviera Cancun in Mexico.

As a solo artist, Mayer joined Maren Morris onstage at this year’s Grammy Awards to play guitar for her song “The Bones.”

Priscilla Presley Elder Abuse War: Florida Lawyer 'Vehemently Denies' Conspiring With Auctioneer

• By Nancy Dillon

Darius Rucker Pleads No Contest to Misdemeanor Drug-Related Charges

• Legal Update
• By Larisha Paul

Dave Grohl Announces He Fathered Child 'Outside of My Marriage'

• Personal News
• By Jon Blistein

Travis Scott’s ‘Days Before Rodeo’ Success Shows the Power of Streaming Services

• Streaming Wars
• By Andre Gee

Casey Affleck Tries to Track Down His Wayward Brother (Not Ben) in New Zach Bryan Music Video

Most popular, james earl jones, distinguished actor and voice of darth vader, dies at 93, james earl jones, authoritative actor and voice of darth vader, dies at 93, prince harry & meghan markle made this announcement mere hours after kate middleton’s cancer update video, jay-z explains why kendrick lamar was chosen to perform at super bowl halftime show, you might also like, kamala harris did what she needed to do. she displayed the force of a president — and goaded trump into revealing his inner frothing crackpot, kamala harris’ trump debate outfit comes with a delicate lavallière blouse, pantsuit and signature pearls, the best yoga mats for any practice, according to instructors, 2024 — 2025 awards calendar highlights a slightly shorter oscars season, u.s. soccer officially hires pochettino as men’s head coach.

Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.

Join our newsletter!

John Mayer Unveils Unabashedly Un-Cool New Album ‘Sob Rock’, Chats With Zane Lowe, Plots 2022 Tour [Watch/Listen]

John Mayer  has released  Sob Rock —his eighth studio album and first since 2017’s The Search For Everything —and announced a lengthy string of 2022 tour dates in support of the new release.

Sob Rock , available on streaming platforms today via  Columbia Records , was co-produced by Mayer and Don Was  and recorded at  Henson Studios  in Los Angeles.

Not one to do anything halfway, however, Mayer went above and beyond in crafting a stylistic and thematic aesthetic on the new record, from the sound and feel of the material to the gleefully self-effacing, actively outdated marketing campaign he’s been waging for months in the run-up to the release—both in real life and on TikTok .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by John Mayer 💎 (@johnmayer)

The LP features ten tracks including “New Light” the standalone single that became a chart-topper for Mayer back in 2018. Other previously released songs appearing on Sob Rock include “ I Guess I Just Feel Like ” and “ Carry Me Away “.

Along with the album’s release on Friday, Mayer released a new music video for “Shot in the Dark” and performed a pair of songs for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon . Watch the new video and stream Sob Rock in its entirety below.

John Mayer –  Sob Rock – Full Album

John Mayer – “Shot in the Dark” (Official Video)

[Video: John Mayer ]

To accompany the album’s release, John Mayer has also announced the  Sob Rock Tour  for 2022, set to make 20+ arena stops across North America next February, March, and April. See below for a full list of  Sob Rock Tour dates.A signup to access pre-sale tickets for the tour via  seated   is now available here . Fans can register until Tuesday, July 20th, at 9:45 a.m. local time. Seated pre-sales start Tuesday, July 20th at 10 a.m. local time and run through Wednesday, July 21st, at 10 p.m. local time.

A limited number of VIP packages will be available starting Tuesday, July 20th, at 10 a.m. local offering premium seats, pre-show ‘Sob Rock Lounge’ access, exclusive merchandise, and more.

Two pairs of front-row tickets will be auctioned off for each show on the tour through  Charity Auctions Today . All proceeds from the ticket auctions will go to the Back To You Fund , which has supported many charities, including John’s Heart & Armor Foundation , in addition to programs supporting at-risk youth and the homeless.

Tickets for the John Mayer  Sob Rock tour will go on sale to the general public starting Friday, July 23rd at 11 a.m. local time here .

John Mayer  Sob Rock Tour 2022 Dates

Thu Feb 17 – Albany, NY – Times Union Center Fri Feb 18 – Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Center Sun Feb 20 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden Wed Feb 23 – Washington, DC – Capital One Arena Fri Feb 25 – Pittsburgh, PA – PPG Paints Arena Sun Feb 27 – Toronto, ON – Scotiabank Arena Tue Mar 01 – Belmont Park, NY – UBS Arena Fri Mar 04 – Boston, MA – TD Garden Fri Mar 11 – Las Vegas, NV – Grand Garden Arena Sun Mar 13 – Los Angeles, CA – Forum Tue Mar 15 – Los Angeles, CA – Forum Fri Mar 18 – San Francisco, CA – Chase Center Tue Mar 22 – Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena Fri Mar 25 – Salt Lake City, UT – Vivint Arena Sun Mar 27 – Denver, CO – Ball Arena Sat Apr 02 – Sunrise, FL – BB&T Center Tue Apr 05 – Tampa, FL – Amalie Arena Fri Apr 08 – Atlanta, GA – State Farm Arena Mon Apr 11 – Charlotte, NC – Spectrum Center Wed Apr 13 – Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena Wed Apr 20 – Austin, TX – Moody Center Sat Apr 23 – Houston, TX – Toyota Center Sun Apr 24 – Dallas, TX – American Airlines Center Thu Apr 28 – Chicago, IL – United Center

Earlier this week, John Mayer sat down with Apple Music ‘s  Zane Lowe to discuss the many layers of creative concepts and exercises that resulted in this classic ’80s album with a ridiculous name that somehow only just came out in 2021.

“I don’t really make records unless I’ve caught a new mission statement for what the music should be, what the message should be,” Mayer explained. “The reason my records are all different, sort of, thematically, is I just have to wait until I catch a new script idea. I’m beginning to look at what I do more like a film director, not to be artsy fartsy.”

He went on to explain how  Quentin Tarantino ‘s  Once Upon A Time In Hollywood influenced his direction on Sob Rock “in terms of it being an artistic achievement.” He hoped to similarly channel the milieu of a bygone era with his new record. Likening his station in the music world to a director with some tenure (or, as the kids would say, “clout”), he hoped listeners would be interested enough in the fact that he was taking on a unique kind of project—a reverent throwback to the soft rock stylings and of the ’80s through the lens of intentionally vulnerable songs of love and loss.

“The idea of  Sob Rock is that it might have been something that already happened, but when you go looking, it’s not. The idea of  Sob Rock is to implant false memories into your brain. That’s what it did for me. … It’s out of my brain and it’s out of everyone’s shared Mandela effect. Can you have memories that never happened to you? Can you go back and synthesize a piece of work that’s so true to the era that when you hear it your brain goes ‘no, no, no, this exists.'”

That directive, he explained, was something he had picked up through his work with  Dead & Company . Rather than striving to be the shiny object, he now aims to be a part of transporting listeners to something different, something bigger. He likened being in Dead & Company to being an actor in a new  Star Wars film: nobody is the “star” of the new Star Wars film. All of those actors get to be in a Star Wars film. “I no longer want to be the thing,” he mused. “I just want to have access to the thing.” That mentality helped guide his commitment to the artistic framework of Sob Rock .

Mayer went into the studio with a set crop of ten songs for the record (“That’s the script,” he added, continuing the film director metaphor), but several—like brutal yet childlike “Why You No Love Me”—went through numerous version and revisions. He set various rules for the tracks: “When I was making the record, the idea was that I was getting somewhere if I laughed. Not because it’s hilarious and it’s insincere and it’s joke-y. It’s not expected. … Get sweet, but never sappy. … Do I believe this or am I full of shit? … This record is demonstratively sweet and luscious and melodic and colorful, but it’s never to the point—and I like to teeter on that line—where it gets cloying and syrupy. And, by the way, [that’s] easy to do when you’re doing quote-unquote ’80s’ music.”

Script in hand, he hired some familiar character actors like Toto veterans Lenny Castro  (percussion) and  Greg Phillinganes  (keys), who both appear on “ Last Train Home “. Thinking like Scorsese casting De Niro in his next mafia flick, Mayer surmised, why get somebody to sound like Greg Phillinganes when you can get the actual Greg Phillinganes?

“What I would love other people to understand is that there is no more reason to have to adhere to any given idea of ‘cool,’ especially post-pandemic,” he continued. “For me, I went, ‘Well, I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do and in fact, I can make a record that’s in some way provocative, if not antagonizing. And then I did what I thought was going to be antagonizing—and this, I think, is the most important part of the conversation creatively: you may just need to dress up your intentions to make something different and call it by a name that nobody else is gonna call it after it’s made.”

Mayer continued on the album’s puzzling yet prescient name, “For me it was like, ‘I wanna get in trouble. I want someone to tell me this is sh*t.’ And I made a record that to me, at the time, was shitpost a record. It’s called Sob Rock because it’s a shitpost. But more importantly, it’s what I thought was a shitpost. This gets down to where artists sit in front of you and play you what they think is their garbage, and you go, ‘That’s the best thing I’ve ever heard you play’ … It makes a mockery of their interpretation of the experience, which is just enough to break out of the mold and make something unique.”

In the end, however, the veil of mischief in mind for Mayer allowed him to connect with  Sob Rock as a listener once he had finished. “What if you don’t know it’s real while you’re doing it,” he pondered, “and then you listen back and realize it’s real. It happened on this record. I thought I was joking. I thought I was kidding.” Watch the full interview below.

John Mayer Talks  Sob Rock , Implanting False Memories, & More w/ Zane Lowe

[Video: Apple Music ]