John Mayer – TV Star

John Mayer — the Grammy-winning, triply talented, hugely popular jazzy pop-rock singer, songwriter and guitarist — has a new TV show coming to VH1 called John Mayer Has A TV Show. A peculiar hybrid, it’s one part documentary, one part travelogue and one part sketch comedy, shot guerrilla-stylee on the road during Mayer’s most recent summer tour.

John Mayer Has A TV Show, which premieres Thursday, December 9 at 11pm ET, offers a glimpse into how John spends his days when he’s not singing to sold-out crowds of shrieking women tearing at their clothes and clutching at themselves. He takes rapper Trick Daddy on a tour of downtown Nashville, he disguises himself in a bear costume to get a fresh perspective on audience pre-concert prep in the venue parking lot, and four female fans tweak their favorite musician’s image when he brings them in for a focus group.

While the show sounds jolly, don’t let Mayer’s gentle romanticism, clean-cut “perfect boyfriend” façade, and deeply expressive facial contortions fool you America – he has COME FOR YOUR WOMEN, and his scheme has wildly succeeded in sending the heart of many a young woman aflutter.

I know Mayer’s type: avoiding the full frontal alpha male confrontation of testosterone and estrogen, Mayer and those of his ilk lull and beguile you. They don’t ram through the front door guns blazing, they slip in through a side entrance using understanding, self-deprecating humor, intelligence, and sensitivity: “your body is a wonderland” indeed!

I reluctantly admit, however, that Mayer, 27, has much to offer besides pouty lips and bedroom eyes scanning his sold-out shows for dewy female bounty. After growing up in Connecticut and briefly attending the prestigious Berklee College of Music, Mayer and his guitar settled in Atlanta in the late ’90s, where he steadily played the clubs, wrote songs and developed an enthusiastic following for his cool Dave Matthews-meets-Michael Franks voice, elegant, propulsive guitar accompaniment, and sophisticated melodies, all very well demonstrated in his self-released ’99 EP Inside Wants Out.

Mayer appeared triumphantly at the South by Southwest Music Festival in early 2000 and was signed to Columbia, which released Room For Squares in ’01. On the strength of enduring singles “No Such Thing,” the dangerously appealing “Your Body Is a Wonderland,” and almost nonstop touring, Mayer tapped into both the adult alternative market that made Norah Jones a superstar, and enraptured girls of all ages.

Mayer further solidified his grip with the double-platinum Heavier Things, a Billboard number one album released in September ’03, blessed with three more winning singles, “Clarity,” “Bigger Than My Body” and “Daughters.”