Singer John Mayer ignited a media storm on Wednesday with a no-holds barred Playboy magazine interview in which he described former girlfriend Jessica Simpson as "sexual napalm" and confessed an aversion to sleeping with black women.
Mayer, 32, the bluesy writer of hits like "Gravity" and "Your Body is a Wonderland", also spoke of his passion for pornography and abiding love for ex-girlfriend Jennifer Aniston, describing her as "the most communicative, sweetest, kindest person".
But it was the Grammy-winning singer/songwriter's comments about black women, widely perceived as racist, that set the Internet alight and fast became one of the top three most popular topics on Twitter.
Despite being dubbed a womanizer in the media for relationships with Hollywood stars such as Simpson, Aniston and Jennifer Love Hewitt, Mayer told Playboy that he was not open to having sex with black women.
When asked if “black women throw themselves at you,” he replied with, “I don’t think I open myself to it. My d--- is sort of like a white supremacist. I’ve got a Benetton heart and a f-----’ David Duke c---. I’m going to start dating separately from my d---.”
But he also said that black people love him, and tried to sum up what it means to be black: "It's making the most of your life, not taking a single moment for granted. Taking something that's seen as a struggle and making it work for you, or you'll die inside. Not to say that my struggle is like the collective struggle of black America. But maybe my struggle is similar to one black dude's."
He also used the N-word in the revealing interview.
"wow if this stuff is true...John Mayer just lost a whole heap of cool points...and i really likes him too..." commented jnyfer on Twitter.
In the interview for Playboy's March edition, some of which reportedly took place as Mayer downed malt whisky, the singer sought to refute the media image of him as a womanizer and "douchebag."
"I've been trying to prove to people I'm not a douchebag by not dating, by keeping my name out of 'Us Weekly'," he said. The singer also noted that his "biggest dream is to write pornography."
Yet he described his brief 2006 relationship with Simpson as an addiction. "That girl was like crack cocaine to me...Sexually, it was crazy. That's all I'll say. It was like napalm, sexual napalm," he said.
Before becoming paired with the pop star, Mayer never had considered dating Simpson, he admitted. But he now says he became hopelessly hooked.
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Jennifer Aniston on the 'Call Me Crazy' red carpet, Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka carry their twins around NY, Even Rachel Wood shows off her baby bump, and more.
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trueH6falsetrue1"There are people in the world who have the power to change our values," Mayer said in his candid confessional. "Have you ever been with a girl who made you want to quit the rest of your life? Did you ever say, 'I want to quit my life and just ... snort you? If you charged me $10,000 to (sleep with) you, I would start selling all my (stuff).' "
After the interview was published on Playboy's Web site, Mayer took to his Twitter page to backtrack.
"Re: using the ‘N word’ in an interview: I am sorry that I used the word,” Mayer tweeted. “And it’s such a shame that I did because the point I was trying to make was in the exact opposite spirit of the word itself. It was arrogant of me to think I could intellectualize using it, because I realize that there’s no intellectualizing a word that is so emotionally charged.
And while I'm using today for looking at myself under harsh light, I think it's time to stop trying to be so raw in interviews. It started as an attempt to not let the waves of criticism get to me, but it's gotten out of hand and I've created somewhat of a monster," he continued.
Mayer was more discreet about former paramour Aniston. "I love Jen so much that I'm now thinking about how bad I would feel if she read this and was like, 'Why are you putting me in an article where you're talking about someone else? I don't want to be in your lineage of kiss-and-tells'," he said.
Yet he also doled out what appear to be digs at Aniston, including stressing their age difference (she recently turned 41).
"I'll always be sorry that it didn't last. In some ways I wish I could be with her. But I can't change the fact that I need to be 32," he said.
The singer also claimed the actress is a technophobe who wishes she could go back to her successful prime — which he figures was 12 years ago.
"The brunt of her success came before TMZ and Twitter. I think she's still hoping it goes back to 1998. She saw my involvement in technology as courting distraction. And I always said, 'These are the new rules,'" he said.
Mayer — known for his loose tongue — is starting to make a habit out of inflammatory comments. Last month, he gave an interview with Rolling Stone where he talked openly about his love life, including sex with other women — and himself.
The March issue of Playboy hits newsstands on Feb. 12, and the interview can be read now on the magazine's Web site.
The Associated Press, Access Hollywood, People.com, Reuters and TheWrap.com contributed to this report.