Award-winning singer John Mayer is seemingly addressing the current political turmoil in the United States while defending his hit 2006 song “Waiting on the World to Change.”
“If your car broke down, or let’s say you got locked out of your car, and somebody walked up to you and said, ‘Why can’t you get in your car? What are you doing right now?’ And [you reply], ‘I’m waiting for AAA,” Mayer, 48, said while performing at HISTORYTalks in Philadelphia on April 17, according to a Saturday, April 25, report from People.
“Sometimes there are some people who say, ‘Why don’t you just smash through the window and just unlock it inside of the car?’ Some people go, ‘Just wait for your roadside assistance,’” Mayer reportedly continued. “Theoretically, now, I wrote that song 20 years ago. AAA hasn’t shown up.”
The singer concluded, “John Mayer makes an incisive remark at the 250th anniversary [of the United States].”
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After a member of the audience requested that Mayer play his 2006 hit, the singer admitted that he received criticism over the “passive” song.
“It is a good idea. Sound and responsible,” Mayer said of the idea of simply waiting for the world to change. “A lot of people thought it was passive. It was too passive.”
John Mayer Getty Images
The song, part of Mayer’s third studio album, Continuum, was met with mixed reviews after its August 1, 2006, release. The New York Times described the tune as a “lovely and anger-free ode to a vaguely dissatisfied generation.”
“Preaching the gospel of non-action and civic apathy, the song has the gravitas of an infomercial but only a fraction of the soul,” Pitchfork wrote.
While notably apt to avoid making public political statements, Mayer — who campaigned for former President Barack Obama — once claimed that current President Donald Trump would have a “lovely speaking voice” if he wasn’t saying things that are controversial, divisive and in some instances dangerous.
“If Donald Trump weren’t saying the things he was saying, and he was saying things that are benign, he’d have a lovely speaking voice,” Mayer told former late night talk show host Conan O’Brien on a January 2024 episode of his “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast.
“I like when he reads from the teleprompter, then reacts to the teleprompter as he’s speaking,” Mayer continued. “He’s sort of reading for the first time. And you can always feel the binary when he goes, ‘Oh yeah they should be.’”