The Badger Herald: Shouldn’t there be an umlaut above the “a” in your name?
John Mayer: Third record man, third record.
BH: With all of this traveling, you have to have some funny stories.
JM: I don’t want to break any longstanding beliefs about being on the road, but there is actually very little that is funny or memorable. We are all sober people who get on the bus and get into our pajamas after a show. If this was all over today, one memory I would keep would be playing Linkin Park in Halo. They kicked my ass. I mean, they are on the road for 16 months straight, so they really play their games. If Bush is looking for more people to throw into Afghanistan, think about sending Linkin Park over.
Mark: How did you come up with the record title?
JM: The album title is kind of a play on words from this jazz record that was out in the ’60s called No Room for Square, which to me kind of represents being really trendy and elite. Sometimes I get so bold and so confident about what I am doing that I try to be kind of a dork, just because it really is a liberating feeling to experience what it is like to not care.
Room for Squares is kind of derived from the instances when I am playing with other rock bands at these festival shows where bands are trying to be too cool. So I would play with these bands and enter on stage with a full palm wave that, if you were keeping score, really makes you look like a fool. But when you are not keeping track in that sense, it is really, really liberating . I mean, if you look at me on the cover, I am a damn jackass. I love that. It was the intention.
MR: You thought about that album title for way too long.
JM: Well, I’ve talked about it [for] way too long.
MR: While spending time in the dirty South, did you find yourself sympathizing more with the Cash Money Millionaires or No Limit Soldiers?
JM: It seems like the No Limit people are a bit tight-assed. So I like the Cash Money millionaires because they know how to let their hair down.
MR: So you’re down with B.G.?
JM: Who?