[2] He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but he left for Atlanta in 1997 with fellow guitarist Clay Cook, with whom he formed the short-lived rock duo Lo-Fi Masters.

His first two studio albums—Room for Squares (2001) and Heavier Things (2003)—were both met with critical and commercial success; the former spawned the single "Your Body Is a Wonderland", which won Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards, while the latter peaked atop the Billboard 200.

After having several controversial incidents with the media, Mayer withdrew from public life in 2010 and drew inspiration from the 1970s pop music of Laurel Canyon for the sound of his fifth studio album, Born and Raised (2012).

Mayer recovered in January 2013 and released his sixth studio album, Paradise Valley in August of that year, which peaked at number two on the chart and incorporated country, folk, and Americana influences.

[19] In addition to performing solo, he was a member of a band called Villanova Junction (named for a Jimi Hendrix song) with Tim Procaccini, Joe Beleznay, and Rich Wolf.

[27] At the urging of his college friend Clay Cook, they left Berklee after two semesters and moved to Atlanta; there, they formed a two-man band called LoFi Masters, and began performing in local coffee houses and club venues such as Eddie's Attic.

[39] In February 2003, Mayer released a live CD and DVD of a concert in Birmingham, Alabama titled Any Given Thursday, which included songs previously not recorded, such as "Man on the Side", "Something's Missing", and "Covered in Rain".

[53] He also performed on commercial releases, namely, with Eric Clapton (Back Home, Crossroads Guitar Festival), Buddy Guy (Bring 'Em In), John Scofield (That's What I Say), and B.B.

[27] Despite his excitement, in a Rolling Stone interview, Mayer recalled that after former Columbia Records head Don Ienner panned Continuum he briefly considered quitting music and studying design full-time.

On September 21, 2006, Mayer appeared on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in the episode "Built to Kill, Part 1", playing "Waiting on the World to Change" and "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room".

[74] That September, otolaryngologist Dr. Gerald Berke paralyzed Mayer's vocal cords with a series of high-dose Botox injections, hoping that they would allow the granuloma to heal.

[100] A show at the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater in Alabama on April 25, 2013, followed by a set at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival the next day, marked his first full-length concerts since his health troubles.

That August, Mayer, Weir, Kreutzmann, and Hart formed the group Dead & Company, along with Jeff Chimenti and Oteil Burbridge, and began a fall tour in the United States.

][160] He has made appearances throughout the Los Angeles, Atlanta, and New York areas, including shows at the Laugh Factory,[161] Eddie's Attic,[162] and the Village Underground.

[179][26] Although his posts often dealt with career-related matters, they also included jokes, videos, photos, and eventually what he called the "maintenance of vapor"—or misguided, personal responses to the media.

His collection—which he values in the "tens of millions" of dollars[6]—includes a Patek Philippe with a Sky Moon Tourbillion, a Rolex GMT Master 116710 BLNR, and an IWC Big Pilot Ref 5002, his signature watch.

[6][183] He has also served as a juror at the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève, a competition rewarding timepieces that champion the values of Swiss-made watches[6] and writes a column for the horology website Hodinkee.

[184] In his column for January 16, 2015, he wrote an open letter to the watch brand IWC, encouraging it to "embrace [its] heritage, scale the product line down in terms of model variants, and simplify the design language".

[187][non-primary source needed] In addition to the new role, Mayer and AP also announced a new limited-edition collaborative Perpetual Calendar Royal Oak model (Ref.

[193] Mayer's latest season of Current Mood began on Sunday November 18, 2019, with guest Shawn Mendes and surprise feature with Camila Cabello on his first episode.

[216] This was a limited release from PRS's Private Stock line of instruments and each guitar features ultra-grade woods, abalone inlay, JCF Audio preamps, and a hand-signed sticker by glass-artist David Smith.

[227] Mayer owns multiple Dumble amplifiers, a highly exclusive brand of amps that only a handful of guitarists—including Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Robben Ford, and Carlos Santana—are known to play on a regular basis.

While unpopular during its brief production run in the early 1990s, the attention generated by Mayer's use of the Bluesbreaker led to Marshall reissuing the entire line of effects pedals it was part of.

Richards went on to say that his talent as a guitarist did not make him exempt from criticism of "his pillow-soft songcraft, the dull sentimentality of his lyrics, or that cuckoo-racist interview he gave to Playboy back in 2010".

[246][247] Mayer participated at the East Rutherford, New Jersey, location of the Live Earth project, a musical rally to support awareness for climate change held July 7, 2007.

[255] In January 2013, Mayer participated with Zac Brown in a benefit concert in Bozeman, Montana where they raised more than $100,000 for firefighters who battled a wildfire in the summer of 2012 in Paradise Valley that destroyed 12,000 acres.

[15][23][261] Early in his career, he had expressed his resolve to completely avoid drugs, alcohol, clubbing, "red-carpet" events, dating celebrities, and anything that he felt would detract the focus from his music.

[25] He began making appearances at clubs in Los Angeles and New York City, and Simpson became the first in a string of famous girlfriends, including Jennifer Aniston and Minka Kelly.

[84] Reflecting on that time in a May 2012 episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, he said: "I lost my head for a little while and I did a couple of dumb interviews and it kind of woke me up...It was a violent crash into being an adult.

[38] ^ a: Generally, it was believed that Mayer's father, a Bridgeport High School principal, had given him a tape player (confiscated from a student) that happened to contain Stevie Ray Vaughan album.