John Mayer’s first Esquire column hasn’t hit newsstands yet, and already he’s gotten people riled up.
The singer-songwriter-guitarist is putting his musical ramblings to paper for the men’s magazine. The musings of “The Resident Rock Star” will debut in the June issue, which comes out next week.
In his first column, the Grammy-winner says of the White Stripes: “I like them, but I don’t see how they’re in any way a manifestation of the blues.” Of the Beatles, he says: “I’ve missed too many episodes to follow the plot.”
Mayer says the comment only means that, at 26, he’s too young to have grasped all their music. But he’s already gotten negative feedback about the quip.
“People are saying it’s sacrilege,” Mayer told The Associated Press in a phone interview Wednesday. “It is not saying that the Beatles are terrible, and it’s amazing to me now that people are ready to go for your throat — or give you a high five.”
Not that Mayer’s too upset about it. One of the reasons he says he decided to write the column is to show there are many different ways to look at music — and nothing is ever as black and white as some people make it out to be.
“There’s a reason that people choose the words they use, but it gets just grazed over,” he says. “(I’ll be) just bringing up some ideas that might be in between two people’s point of view. Maybe not pro or anti, but pranti.”
Mayer made his major-label debut with the 2001 disc “Room for Squares,” which sold more than 2 million copies. His follow-up, “Heavier Things,” has gone platinum.
Though he’s become a major star, he plans to use his monthly column to highlight albums from musicians who haven’t hit the mainstream yet. In his debut, he lauds quirky singer Nellie McKay.
“Anybody can review records that are coming out next week, but I want to review people that don’t get noticed,” he said.