John Mayer becomes emotional, apologizes again during concert for Playboy remarks
Despite his long (by Twitter standards) apology last night for crass and racially iffy remarks he made during an interview with Playboy, John Mayer busted into a surprise rendition of “I’m sorry I offended my black friends” during a show in Nashville the same evening.
Mayer, 32, was playing his song “Gravity” at Nashville’s Sommet Center when he abruptly paused and, as Us Magazine reports, became emotional while apologizing, partially directed at his black band mates. Mayer said:
“In the quest to be clever,” he began, “I completely forgot about the people that I love and that love me.”
He then said that he had entered a world of “selfishness and greediness and arrogance.” He said that he thought if he could just be “speedy and witty and pull together as many fast words and phrases as I could, that I would be clever enough to buy myself another day without anybody pinning me down and saying, ‘You’re a creep.’
“I should have just given that up and played the guitar,” he went on. “I didn’t. So I decided I would try to be as clever as possible all the time, and I did that at the expense of people that I love and that feels absolutely terrible. I think it’s important that you know that everybody on this stage is here playing with me not because they condone what I say in any interview… they’re on this stage because they support myself as a possible future grown-up…”
At this point, Us says, Mayer became “choked up” and continued on with his lengthiest apology ever:
“And maybe they see something that I don’t. So maybe I need to take a break from trying to be clever and spend a little time looking at what they see — because they’ve done an unbelievable thing by standing on this stage and standing by my side playing tonight.
“It’s just not worth being clever,” he said, adding: “I quit the media game. I’m out. I’m done. I just want to play my guitar.”
Mayer then paused for a time before resuming his set. Sources say the singer was moody and withdrawn backstage, and MTV reports that several rap stars, including Talib Kweli and Noreaga, have publicly criticized the mouthy balladeer for his remarks.
