We now know who John Mayer was referring to in his Grammy-winning smash song “Your Body Is A Wonderland,” and it’s not who we assumed it was. It turns out that the woman whose body is celebrated in song for her porcelain complexion, candy lips, and bubblegum tongue was his high school love.
Mayer released the song as part of his debut studio album, Room For Squares, in 2001. He dated actress Jennifer Love Hewitt for a few months a year later. Despite the fact that the arithmetic did not make sense, some thought that the ballad was about the Ghost Whisperer star. Mayer addressed the claims on the Call Her Daddy podcast on December 21. “No, that’s one of those situations where folks just kind of came up with the notion.” It becomes reinforced over time. “No, I had never met a celebrity when I composed that song,” the 45-year-old clarified.
He then explained what the song was about. “That was about my first relationship,” he recalled, adding, “That was about the sensation, which I believe was already sort of nostalgic.” “I was 21 years old when I composed the song, and I was missing being 16.”
“Did your high school sweetheart know you wrote that about her?” presenter Alex Cooper inquired. “Perhaps she didn’t,” Mayer answered. Maybe she didn’t realize it until now. He then addressed his ex-girlfriend directly, saying, “So, if you were my one and only high school girlfriend, it was genuinely about you.”
Mayer also claimed that he had a “rule” when composing to keep the “sanctity” of his songs intact. “I never compose songs about individuals,” he explained. “So I don’t enjoy telling people that a song is about someone because most of the time it isn’t, and it draws people’s attention away from themselves because they’re simply picturing who I’m singing about.”
Despite this “rule” about not exposing the inspiration for his songs, he did say years ago that he was inspired by another ex-girlfriend, Katy Perry. He stated in a 2017 New York Times interview that his tune “Still Feel Like Your Man” was about the “Fireworks” vocalist. “Who else would I be thinking about?” he said of his ex.
Fans believe Perry repaid the gesture with her 2017 album Witness, referring to at least three tracks with lyrics about her as a musician, such as “Witness,” “Miss You More,” and “Save As Draft.” Prior to her post-breakup songs, Perry released “Unconditionally” and “Roar” about Mayer when the two were still together in 2013. After three years together, the couple called it quits in 2015.
One of Mayer’s ex-girlfriends, pop diva Taylor Swift, has some of the most contentious songs about him. Swift released “Dear John” in 2010, and fans quickly associated the song with the “Gravity” singer. To begin, his name appears in the title. “Don’t you think 19 is too young to be played by your dark, twisted games, when I loved you so?” she asks. Swift began dating Mayer, who is 13 years her senior, when she was 19 years old. In a 2012 Rolling Stone interview, Mayer stated the song “truly embarrassed” him and made him “feel horrible.”
Swift’s tenth studio album, Midnights, will be published in October 2022, and savvy Swifties believe it will include another Mayer-themed single. Regarding Mayer. In “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve,” Swift again references the period she dated Mayer. “I would’ve stayed on my knees, and I would’ve never danced with the devil at 19,” the lyrics say. Mayer has yet to comment on the song.