None of it matters.
“My musical experience - my musical life has never intersected with this, sort of, public application of media and press and stuff. Almost to my surprise. There were times when I felt so much heat on me from that other, sort of, glare that I went, "Are people gonna wanna come to the show? … People must be sick of pictures of me just walking around and ducking my head or hiding behind backpacks. It’s gotta be over!” And I would go on tour and there would be 25,000 people in Houston and not a single mention of it.
And I’ll also tell you this, in terms of the media: I went through an experience that killed my “super-ego”. Murdered it - dead. Stabbed 47 times. “John Mayer-”, as in John Mayer’s concept of John Mayer, “is dead.” Dead. And I miss it. ‘Cuz it was fun to be like *looks down and checks fingernails*, “I’m pretty much the shit.” But what was that? What was that image? What did I get out of that? Well, I got this sensation of people thinking I was cool. But who’s to say that even this “sensation of people thinking I was cool” was real? That just meant I went to blogs and people said, “Ahh, I like this guy.” and I’d shut it off and I went “Hey, people like me!” Or you go to a blog and they go “This guy’s a douchebag.” And you go, “Ohh.. God, I’m a douchebag.” None of it ever really mattered. And I have this new saying: If it happened on the internet, it didn’t happen. The internet’s just the internet. You don’t go somewhere on the internet. “Hey, go here on the internet!” Well, your ass is in a chair. You’re not going anywhere. So, what’s happened to me in terms of media stuff, which never killed the music, the music has never been at risk. I’ve never felt it, again to my surprise. You go on stage, you walk around. People go “I love your music!” People go “Hey, John-” and I go “Don’t tell me I- I..” and they go “I just want to tell you how much I love your music. I think you’re the best. Bye!” and I go “…Wow!”
So does that mean that what I think people think about me is always wrong? And this answer is “Yes!” What you think people think about you is always wrong. No matter how wrong it is, it’s always either a little bit wrong or all the way wrong. And all you can do, and all I can do now, *gestures to the area he is standing on the stage* is live right here. *Gestures to the audience* And right here. Not what somebody wrote and what comes up in a GoogleNews Alert. I’m not a slave to comments anymore. You know? Too many people have “comments”. And by the way, most of these people that have comments, if I ever went to their house with some sort of tracking device on what their IP number was and I’m like *knock knock knock* the door would open up and I would be expecting to see someone like this. *Head tilts and looks at ground* “Oh! Hey. What’re you nine? ..Ahh, so I heard that you said that I was a doucheba- Oh! You want me to sign that for you? … Yeah, we can get a picture!” It’s not really happening. All that matters is the people you meet, the friends you have, the lovers you have, your fans - the people who exist in your immediate space. You cannot control what happens in the ether. None of it’s real. None of it.“
– John Mayer at Berklee College of Music Songwriting Clinic, October 2008