John Mayer Gets Candid About Past Romances, Womanizer Reputation & Why He Doesn’t Date

John Mayer is getting candid about his love life and sharing new details about his past for the first time.

The 45-year-old Grammy Award winner recently opened up about how sobriety has changed his approach to dating on the first ever holiday special episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast.

“Dating is no longer a codified activity for me, it doesn’t exist in a kind of… it’s not patterned anymore,” John said to host Alex Cooper.

John has been sober for six years, ever since Drake’s 30th birthday party left the “Gravity” singer nursing a 6-day hangover. John previously reported that he has not had a drink since October 23, 2016.

John opened up on how this decision has affected his love life, “I don’t really date — I don’t think that I have to, to be quite honest. I quit drinking like six years ago, so I don’t have the liquid courage. I just have dry courage.”

Having been linked to multiple women over the years, including Taylor Swift, Jennifer Aniston, Katy Perry, Jessica Simpson, Minka Kelly, and Jennifer Love Hewitt, John has cultivated a kind of “womanizer” reputation over the years, which he also addresses in the podcast.

“I think, look, the elephant in the room is that I’m on a show that caters to women, and I have a couple of name plates on me, like ‘Lothario’ and ‘womanizer,’ and I think that is what that is,” he told Alex.

John tells Alex that a lot of his past behavior stems from being “made to believe” while growing up that if someone expressed romantic interest in him, that it was an “accident” and he therefore needed to “capitalize” on the opportunity.

So when it comes to his many past romantic endeavors, John shares that his intentions were never to womanize.

“I think people would be surprised to know that it was less me going like, you know the meme of the guy behind the tree? It was less this [he rubs his hands together] and more like this [he looks around]: ‘Me?’ Because it was always set forth to me that like, that shouldn’t happen,” he said. “And so I felt very deeply when somebody liked me. Very deeply.”

Despite having been out of the dating game, John shared that he has always believed in long-term love and sought those lasting connections.

“Every relationship I’ve ever been in was devoted to the idea that this could go the distance,” he told Alex.

“My entire life, today included, if you told me that I could have a great two months with someone but it would end on the first day of the third month, I would not be interested,” he continued. “I’ve always sought potential for a long-term relationship.”

John and Alex also spoke about his high school life and early career, with Alex pointing out that when he won his first Grammy in 2002 for “Your Body Is a Wonderland” only a few years after graduating high school.

When Alex shared that she thought that song was about a certain, unnamed celebrity, John was quick to set the record straight.

“No, that’s one of those things where people just sort of formed that idea, it gets reinforced over the years, no, no, no. I had never met a celebrity when I wrote that song,” he said.

So who is the unnamed woman in the song? The answer precedes John’s rise to fame.

“That was about my first girlfriend,” John shared. “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.”

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Hayley Santaflorentina