With his smooth, crooning pop-rock and excellent guitar chops, John Mayer rose from playing coffee houses and small clubs to become one of America's most popular singer-songwriters. Born October 16, 1977 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, he steeped himself in traditionalist blues music before writing songs as a teenager after a health scare. Initially an internet-only release, his debut album, 2001’s Room For Squares sold over 4 million copies after being reissued by Columbia Records. Full of lilting ballads and doe-eyed romances, 2003’s Heavier Things topped the US album charts and scored him a pair of top 20 hits with “No Such Thing” and the Grammy winning “Your Body Is a Wonderland”. The soft blues rock of 2006’s Continuum made it to number 2, and also gave him two of his biggest hit singles, the Grammy winning “Waiting on the World to Change” and “Say”. He dated a string of high-profile celebrity actresses and singers, most notoriously Jessica Simpson, which earned him less than favorable press coverage. But that did not stop 2009’s Battle Studies and 2012’s Born and Raised from returning him to the top of the album chart. After 2013’s Paradise Valley, he struck up a relationship with Bob Weir and became a regular fixture in Dead & Company, a touring group that continued the traditions of The Grateful Dead. After 2017’s The Search for Everything, a concept album about recovering from the end of an affair, was another number 2 album. A few singles came out over the next four years, and they would all appear on 2021’s Sub Rock.