John Mayer Had Some Lovely Things To Say About Frank Ocean
John Mayer chatted with Rolling Stone for an interview that ran the gamut, and while it clearly wasn’t an interview with that controversial John Mayer of yore who was subservient to his id, it was still a fascinating read. Mayer talked about everything from his throat surgery to his unpredictable relationship with Katy Perry to his diminishing sales. But the best part, for us, was how he absolutely gushed about his pal Frank Ocean.
“Frank is such an interesting, deep, touched, wonderful guy. They don’t make a lot of other Frank Oceans, and the guy is looking for another,” Mayer said. “And the way that his mind works is craving the same frequency that he’s able to communicate on, and I think he’s just searching for that kind of depth that he has inside of himself in someone else. He’s fascinating to me. He’s so great.” But the lovefest didn’t stop there. Check out more highlights from the interview below.
On Frank’s openness: “I think it has more to do with just being that expressive about anything in this day and age, and the depth of his writing. I think it’s as much about taking a stand against being fucking boring as it is about sexuality. It’s about standing up and going, ‘I know what you’re going to say about this, and I don’t care.’ And I think that was the heroic part. I know there were parts that were heroic for other people. For me, it’s just the heroic self-expression.”
On Frank’s bravery: “I’m nowhere near as brave as I was saying Frank is.”
On his relationship with Katy Perry: “It’s been . . . I mean, I’m quite happy. I’m happy in all aspects of my life. I’m very happy in all aspects of my life.”
On stepping away from music for a couple years: “I actually became a part of a social circle for the first time in my adult life, not just the circle of people on my tour…I have friends – some are the closest friends of my life – who have never come to a show of mine because there has never been a show in the length of our friendship.”
On how his voice has changed: “Everything changed about my voice. I don’t have the projection. My laugh changed…I’ve found new ways around everything – new ways to talk, new ways to laugh. Now I wonder if I can go right back to the shape of my voice that I had when I was singing once I can do what I want to do with it.”
On aging: “The music that was on the radio when I first came up in 2001 would never make it today. It was Norah Jones and Jack Johnson and Coldplay and me. It’s just different now. The kind of stuff I like is not very popular anymore.”
Read the full interview over at Rolling Stone.
