How John Mayer Became So Hated In Hollywood

May 2024 · 2 minute read

After splitting from Aniston for good in 2009, he had a brief but intense relationship with Taylor Swift from late 2009 to very early 2010 after collaborating on his song "Half Of My Heart," and there's still, er, bad blood between them to this day. After Mayer allegedly broke her heart, Swift lashed out in her not-so-subtle song "Dear John" off of Speak Now in 2010, including lyrics like, "Don't you think I was too young to be messed with / The girl in the dress cried the whole way home" and "You'll add my name to your long list of traitors who don't understand / And I'll look back in regret I ignored what they said / 'Run as fast as you can.'"

The song became one of the most popular ever among Swift's country-pop fanbase, much to Mayer's chagrin — because at the time, Swift was America's untouchable sweetheart. He told Rolling Stone in summer 2012, "It made me 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 added, "I never got an e-mail. 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?"

His ire didn't end there, and he attacked her artistically, too. "As a songwriter I think it's kind of cheap songwriting. I know she's the biggest thing in the world, and I'm not trying to sink anybody's ship, but I think it's abusing your talent to rub your hands together and go, 'Wait till he gets a load of this!' That's bulls**t." C'mon, man — don't give her the satisfaction of acknowledgment! He could have easily denied being the subject of the track if he didn't get defensive.

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