Self-diagnosing on “The Real World”
“Y'know, it’s hard to talk about songs without talking about relationships. And that’s what people like to talk about. And I sing about relationships, so I have to talk about them - especially if this is called "Storytellers”. So, I hope you’re O.K. with that. I loved a girl a lot and I think I had an experience that a lot of guys have had. Loved a girl a lot, but she couldn’t trust men. And if you trace it back as to “Why?”, the first man in her life she couldn’t trust. And I know this song called “Daughters” sounds a lot like I’m just sittin’ around the house, spitballin’, coming up with some really nice, lofty things to sing about. But, it really is the result of having traced it backwards, trying to figure out how I could possibly love this person. And the answer is you can’t, because someone else didn’t before you. And I know this song, y'know, like - “What does he know? What does this 24-year-old kid know about having kids?” And I don’t, but I would have liked to have in that situation and I couldn’t really get it through. Like, “Im not gonna hurt ya.. I’m gonna do the opposite!” But it’s this culture, y'know? You watch “The Real World” and you see girls getting dragged out of bars, completely drunk, self-diagnosing themselves. Like, I’m diagnosing you as “drunk”. You can’t get pulled out of a bar drunk and talk about how you have “abandonment issues”. You have drinking issues. You have red blood cell issues, right now. Self-diagnosing on “The Real World”. And then Chris Rock had this joke about “keeping your daughter off the pole”. And I think I was in Australia flying to New Zealand and I had heard Chris Rock doing something about “keep you daughter off the pole and keep the clear heels out of her closet.” And I sort of put those two things together and thought about my situation. And I’m really singing to a girl, “Fathers, be good to your daughters” because I can’t love this girl. And I think a lot of guys have had that situation. And if I meet one more beautiful woman, with Daddy issues, I swear to God, I’m just gonna go insane. Beat the crap out of my daughters someday. That’s probably how the vicious cycle started, come to think about it. That’s how it all started. Wow. These songs can actually be very enlightening. And by “enlightening”, I mean ruining your career.“
- John Mayer. VH1 "Storytellers”, November 2009.