John Mayer

John Mayer has had several musical lives rolled into one: a pop star, a renowned guitarist, a heartthrob, a serious student of the blues, and a gritty comeback artist who returned from a two-year hiatus because of vocal cord problems to develop a passion for the music of the Grateful Dead.

Mayer was born in 1977 and grew up in Fairfield, Connecticut, where his parents were both educators. When he was 13, his father rented a guitar for him, and a neighbor’s Stevie Ray Vaughan cassette engendered his love for the blues. He enrolled in Berklee in 1997 and completed two semesters before moving to Atlanta, Georgia. He soon became a solo act, finding fans in the early internet music market.