Justin Bieber says John Mayer has provided a “wicked guitar solo” for his next record
“He is on another level. It’s insane.”
Images: Press, Paras Griffin / Getty
Pop star Justin Bieber has revealed that he’s recruited pop-blues guitar virtuoso John Mayer for his next record, and praised his otherworldly guitar skills.
Speaking to Apple Music’s Ebro Darden, Bieber was discussing his as-yet-untitled upcoming album, the follow up to last year’s Justice. He revealed: “John Mayer is on the project which is pretty sick. Wicked guitar solo so that was really cool for me. He’s someone who I’ve looked up to for a long time.
“So we were at Henson the studio and I was working on this song and he came in and he’s like, ‘Can I go in the booth?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, bro, go in.’ And so he went in the booth and then he came out and he laid a guitar solo and it was just like, it was mind blowing to see him actually operate in his gift like that – being able to, like, see it firsthand because, like, he is on another level.”
“It’s insane,” Bieber concluded of Mayer’s playing.
There’s no date just yet as to when we’ll get to hear Mayer’s contribution to Bieber’s album, as the record is still officially unannounced. Mayer, meanwhile, has recently been reflecting on the technique behind his 1999 hit Neon after it went viral on TikTok.
“Suddenly, this song now feels like a TikTok trick shot video challenge song and I feel kind of bad about it, because I wrote this song when I was playing alone in bookstores and cafés and stuff and wanted to get people’s attention,” he explained. “It’s a little cynical in the sense that it’s like, a little bit of circus trick.”
The trick in question is rooted in the technique he demonstrated in the now-viral video, where he used his index finger and thumb. The technique has proven difficult to impossible for some viewers, as Mayer himself admits onstage, “I feel bad because I have thumbs like a mile long. You know, like, the kid in school who could turn his eyelids inside out? That’s sort of what this is. It’s this one freak thing that I can do.”