I was watching Eric Clapton’s “Crossroads Festival” DVD last night which features guitar legends trading licks for an entire day in Chicago in the summer of 2007. One of the performers was John Mayer and he more than held his own in the company of his heroes. Seeing him on stage earning nods of approval from BB King, Buddy Guy, and Eric Clapton made me think of a conversation I had with him 6 years ago.
It was January of 2002 and Sixthman was assisting Lyrics for Life in collecting auction items for their first event. This charity was formed by Ken Block of Sister Hazel and its mission is to ask artists to handwrite lyrics on anything from a pair of blue jeans to a guitar and to send it to Lyrics for Life to be mounted and auctioned. The proceeds go to benefit cancer research and the enrichment of people’s lives who are surviving cancer. There was an emerging artist whom I had met a couple of times named John Mayer who had just appeared in Rolling Stone as an “Artist to Watch” and who lived in Atlanta. I reached out to him to see if he would help us and, a couple days later, he called to let me know he had picked up a new electric guitar and had written the lyrics of “Back to You” from his debut album on the guitar back in a silver sharpie. He asked if I could meet him in the parking lot of a Home Depot the following Saturday morning so he could give it to me. It was refreshing to see that John had spent his own money and had taken the time to react so quickly to help us. As I pulled into the parking lot that afternoon, I saw John standing in front of a beat-up white van holding a black electric guitar.
I got out of the car and we talked for a few minutes. I congratulated him on his recent success and I asked him how it felt. I will always remember what he said because it was a response unlike anything I had ever heard from an emerging artist. I have asked this same question in the past to bands that had just been signed to labels and were playing in my club back in college. I usually got something like, “It’s about time we got noticed and we are excited about not having to play in shit-holes like this bar anymore.”
John’s response was “I am being given the benefit of the doubt by all these people whom I have never even met and it’s a great opportunity. Now I have to get out there and earn their respect by playing.”
I guess he rose to the occasion.
BOOK OF THE WEEK – The Go Giver….Quick read about a young man who is shown the way of the world of business by a wise man via a series of daily lunches over the course of one week. This book offers great lessons about giving more than you take and not keeping score.