In 2015, John Mayer described himself as a “recovered ego addict,” and said that’s why he used to do stupid things like talk about his famous girlfriends to the press. But now that he’s older, John says he doesn’t have that desire to feed his ego any longer.
During a Q&A on his Instagram Stories on Tuesday, John was asked if he still felt like a “recovering ego addict.” He responded, “No, and I’ll tell you why. Your 20s and 30s are like the hours between 8pm and 11 pm on a weekend night. You’re kind of frantically hoping for the most validating plans to come through.”
John, who’s 43, continued, “Your 40s are like 11:30 pm where you’re like ‘Hey, I would have been home anyway even if I had gone out.’ The pressure is off.”
During the Q&A, John also revealed that the one song he wished he’d written is “Gentle on My Mind,” his “favorite rock star haircut of the past” is David Lee Roth‘s flowing blonde locks during his heyday with Van Halen, and “the one piece of clothing he would kill to get his hands on” is the t-shirt that Guns ‘n Roses frontman Axl Rose was wearing when he got arrested at an airport in 1989.
John was also asked if he ever felt like quitting music. He responded, “Yes. One time I handed in an album and was told it ‘had no hits on it.’ I cried. Told myself I was gonna quit and go to design school. That album was Continuum.”
Continuum, of course, included now-classics like “Gravity” and “Waiting on the World to Change.” It won John two Grammys and sold more than five million copies.
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