These days, John Mayer has no problem looking at his own music and pointing out which people inspired which parts. After nearly 30 years in the business and eight studio albums to his name, Mayer has both developed his own sound over time and borrowed bits and pieces from his heroes.
“Every single time: ‘I got this from that person, I got this from him. I got this from her,'” he said to Guitar World in 2021, speaking about the songwriting on his most recent album, Sob Rock, which drew heavily from an ’80s sort of sonic landscape. “So I’m at an age where I’m looking back and I’m really joyously reminiscing about times in my life as a listener, and as a music lover.”
Mayer’s influences run far and wide from blues legends to folk heroes to jazz giants, and he’s had a multitude of opportunities over the years to collaborate with musicians he admires. Of course, the most obvious of these situations has been with Dead & Company, the Grateful Dead offshoot that launched in 2015.
But in the below list, we’re taking a look at 10 other classic rock collaborations Mayer’s been a part of outside his work with Dead & Co.
1. “Magnolia” With Eric Clapton
It should surprise no one that one of Mayer’s first and truest guitar heroes is Eric Clapton, whom he’s worked with on several occasions. In 2014 Clapton put out an album called The Breeze: An Appreciation of JJ Cale, a release that featured Mayer on a handful of songs, including “Magnolia” below. “I’m really so thankful that my heroes haven’t snubbed me, because it would have broken my heart. I didn’t want to meet Clapton for a long time because I didn’t want him to not like me,” Mayer told Rolling Stone in 2005. “But we get along great. Not to exploit a relationship, because we don’t talk all the time, we keep in touch. But I need it. I need it in the sense that there’s not a huge community, and I don’t have a lot of people to relate to in what I’m doing. Eric was the first person that I’d ever met who loved blues and had a bunch of money. I’d never met anybody who loved blues and had a bunch of money!”
2. “I’ve Got Dreams to Remember” With Buddy Guy
“Any time he’s in town and wants to play, I’ll be there,” Mayer said of Buddy Guy to The Guardian in 2010. “I learn from him all the time and I’ve never taken it for granted. Every time I’m on stage with him I travel back in my mind to the 16-year-old kid who wrote a letter saying, ‘Can I please be on your guest list some night, because I’m too young to get into a bar but I really need to hear you play?’ I did that! So the wow factor never leaves.” Here’s Mayer on a song from Guy’s 2005 album Bring ‘Em In.
3. “Hummingbird” With B.B. King
Maybe you don’t think of Buddy Guy or B.B. King as “classic rock” per se, but there really isn’t any denying these guitarists’ influence on rock as a genre. “He was a pioneer in the inception of electric blues music and he was its grand ambassador generations later,” Mayer said of King in a social media post following King’s passing in 2015. “He will forever inspire guitar players to argue (successfully) that less is more, that heart will always win over mind.” Mayer made a guest appearance on the 2005 album B. B. King & Friends: 80, playing guitar on “Hummingbird.”
4. “This Is the Time” Live With Billy Joel
Back in 2008, Billy Joel put on two concerts at Shea Stadium in New York city – the last concerts ever performed there before the space was demolished and replaced with Citi Field. At those shows, Joel brought out a variety of guests, including Mayer, who joined in for a rendition of “This Is the Time.” It appeared on Joel’s subsequent live album, Live at Shea Stadium: The Concert.
5. “Roll Over Beethoven” With Jerry Lee Lewis, Ringo Starr, Jim Keltner and More
For some reason in 2024, Billy Joel noted that if he were tasked with putting a supergroup together, he’d invite Mayer, Sting, Don Henley and Ringo Starr. Below is possibly the closest we’ll ever get to that lineup, featuring Jerry Lee Lewis, Mayer, Starr, Jim Keltner, James “Hutch” Hutchinson and Jon Brion, performing the classic “Roll Over Beethoven.”
6. “Piece of My Heart” Live With Sammy Hagar, James Hetfield, Melissa Etheridge, Pat Monahan (Train), Tommy Lee, Kris Kristofferson and Joe Satriani
Speaking of supergroups of sorts, here’s Mayer joining forces with Sammy Hagar, James Hetfield, Melissa Etheridge, Pat Monahan (Train), Tommy Lee, Kris Kristofferson and Joe Satriani for “Piece of My Heart” live at the Fillmore Theatre in San Francisco in 2021. Mayer and Hagar actually became good friends around the time Mayer joined Dead & Company since Hagar’s studio was down the street from Bob Weir‘s. “Sammy understood my nervousness about joining an already established legendary rock band, and he was incredibly supportive of me,” Mayer recalled in 2024 when Hagar was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. “It’s not easy stepping into a position that the audience isn’t quite ready to accept, and Sammy knew that and he gave me great comfort in his instant friendship, his kindness — and by letting me drive his Lotus Esprit around the neighborhood alone without even thinking twice about it.”
7. “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” With Steve Jordan and Pino Palladino
Drummer Steve Jordan and bassist Pino Palladino also might not be “classic rock” material, except when you take a look at their combined resumes which include just about every famous name in rock. The two of them are also longtime collaborators of Mayer’s – Jordan has played on four of his albums while Palladino has played on five. The three of them actually formed their own little group called the John Mayer Trio, and here they are playing a cover of “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” that appeared in the movie Cars.
8. “Short and Sweet” With Spinal Tap Featuring Steve Vai and Phil Collen
When This Is Spinal Tap came out in 1984, Mayer was six years old. But by 2009, he was very much an adult and very much a talented enough guitar player to be invited to participate in Spinal Tap’s Back From the Dead album. More specifically, Mayer appears on a song called “Short and Sweet” along with Phil Collen of Def Leppard and Steve Vai.
9. “A Song for You” With Leon Russell
In 2011, Mayer performed “A Song for You” with Leon Russell at his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Five years later, Russell passed away at the age of 74. Mayer posted the following on social media in response, along with a photo of them from that performance: “Thinking of Leon Russell today. He wrote so many great songs, but his ‘A Song for You’ is one of the purest expressions of love ever written. He now lives in a place where there is ‘no space and time.’ Everywhere and forever.”
10. “Pride and Joy” With Jimmie Vaughan, Doyle Bramhall and Gary Clark Jr.
Another of Mayer’s heroes, Stevie Ray Vaughan, died before they had a chance to cross paths, but Mayer did perform with SRV’s older brother Jimmie Vaughan at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2015. Mayer was the one to induct SRV that year. “I’m a Stevie Ray Vaughan wannabe,” he said then, “because I wanted to be Stevie and I still want to be Stevie. And if you ever pick up a guitar, is there anybody better to want to be than Stevie Ray Vaughan?”
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