John Mayer Appears On ‘Eric Krasno Plus One’ Podcast

Dead & Company guitarist John Mayer serves as the guest on the latest episode of Osiris‘ Eric Krasno Plus One podcast. Mayer spoke with host Eric Krasno backstage at the 2018 LOCKN’ Festival for the discussion featured on Episode 6 of the show.

Mayer starts by comparing the current state of the music industry to two friends struck by a virus finding an antidote but both die because they split the antidote. “I feel like that’s the music industry right now, everybody just split the pie so thin so that nobody actually eats, but then nobody doesn’t eat but then no one eats — it’s a very strange division,” John Mayer explains. The pair then speak about finding new music. Mayer says he likes to listen to new music to get an understanding of it so he doesn’t get “phased out.” Kraz adds, “It’s really important to me to always hear what people are getting into.”

Eric and John then discuss fandom and how some fans are almost too “screwed into an artist.” The conversation turns to the Grateful Dead and Mayer compares seeing Dead shows to collecting baseball cards. John goes on to detail his four rules for songwriting. The pair also note how their vocal range plays a big part in what they compose. “If I had Susan’s (Tedeschi) voice, the number of songs I could write would be like a whole other artist,” claims Mayer, who adds songwriting has become hard as he’s gotten older.

Both musicians were deep into the Grateful Dead at the time and explain how they can’t write songs like the Dead did. “It’s just not honest,” Mayer notes. John and Eric then discuss how great the Dead community is and especially the crowd at the LOCKN’ Festival. Mayer claims if someone lost a wallet at the festival, they’d get it back. The guitarists go on to talk about other musicians who inspired them including Stevie Ray Vaughan and The Allman Brothers Band.

John Mayer and Eric Krasno hit upon a number of other topics over the course of the hour-long conversation. They talk about being a solo artists versus participating in a band, how they challenge themselves, producing music, the difficulty of writing a hit and working in the moment live. Listen to John Mayer’s appearance on Eric Krasno Plus One below: