John Mayer.Photo: Steve Jennings/WireImage
A decade after its release,John Mayeris reflecting on the possible reasons why his song “Paper Doll” never quite took off as a fan favorite.
The guitarist, 45, played the track, the lead single off his 2013 albumParadise Valley, at his solo acoustic show on Saturday at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
Afterward, he wondered aloud if perhaps some fans took issue with it due to its tone — even if that wasn’t his intention.
“I wonder if some people don’t like it because it sounds a little pissed off,” he told the crowd, according to a fan video. “I don’t really like pissed off as a song — I think it was more hurt. But I think there’s something about it that’s a little bitchy.”
He continued: “I try not to get bitchiness in the songs, though it happens sometimes. I guess I don’t do it very well, sarcastic bitchy. But I don’t really see it… I guess it is sort of a little bit like [snarls].”
Mayer, however,denied that was the case on an Instagram Live in 2019, during which he named “Paper Doll” as the song of his that he thought didn’t get the love it deserved.
The singer-songwriter did not name Swift, but acknowledged that nearly everyone thought it was about one particular person — and they were wrong.
“When ‘Paper Doll’ came out, 100% of the people believed it was about somebody and the person that they thought it was about brought a certain amount of superficial pop culture back-and-forth about it that I think kind of s— on the song,” he said. “But the song was not about that person.”
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Mayer went on to say that he felt as though he couldn’t deny that it was about “that person” because he firmly believes in never revealing who his songs are or are not about, and quipped that he had to “burn ‘Paper Doll’ to save the integrity of being a singer-songwriter.”
“I think because people thought that it was a shot across the bow in a pop culture sort of Hollywood story, the song didn’t get the credit it deserved,” he said. “But it wasn’t what people thought it was and I had to let it go.”
Swift and Mayer collaborated on his single"Half of My Heart"in 2009, and later sparkedromance rumors, though neither ever confirmed they were an item.
Regardless of whether or not he served as her muse, Mayer took issue with the track anyway, telling Rolling Stone in 2012 that the lyrics made him “feel terrible.”
“Because I didn’t deserve it. I’m pretty good at taking accountability now, and I never did anything to deserve that. It was a really lousy thing for her to do,” he said. “I never got an email. I never got a phone call. I was really caught off-guard, and it really humiliated me at a time when I’d already been dressed down. I mean, how would you feel if, at the lowest you’ve ever been, someone kicked you even lower?”
“That was about my first girlfriend,” he said. “That was about the feeling, which I think was already sort of nostalgic… I was 21 when I wrote that song and I was nostalgic for being 16.”
source: people.com
