John Mayer "Heartbreak Warfare"

I've always made it a point to try to separate the artist from the art.

I don't want to like a song, just because the person singing it seems nice (or IS nice, if I happen to know that because I've had first person contact).

And I don't want to hate a song, just because the person singing seems like a jerk (or IS a jerk, if I happen to know that because I've had first person contact).

But that's just so hard to achieve, when the singer in question seems to either a) have lost control of how he appears in public, or b) gets caught up in his own ego.

I want to like John Mayer. I think he's a very talented, hardworking entertainer. The one, very, very brief interaction I had with him (we shook hands and said a Hi Howya Doing? in the mvyradio lobby in 2001) was very pleasant.

But in my stack of new songs to consider added to mvyradio rotation, is "Heartbreak Warfare." And I keep hesitating to listen to it, because every time I do, I see this Rolling Stone magazine cover in my head, and hear his words about how lonely he is. And it makes me barf just a little in the back of my throat.

I am trying to separate the artist from the art, John, but you're not helping.