John Mayer is a huge fan of his ex-girlfriend Taylor Swift’s latest single, “Lover,” but he thinks the lyrics could have been written just a tad differently.
“Love the song. I really like the song,” the “Gravity” singer, 42, said on his Instagram Live series, Current Mood, on Sunday, November 17, with special guest Shawn Mendes. “I get a little chuckle because she says, ‘We can keep the Christmas lights up ‘til January.’ And I go, ‘You’re insane!’ Everyone keeps their Christmas lights up ‘til January.”
After joking that he “normally” takes down his Christmas lights on December 29, Mayer felt inspired to do an impromptu remix of the romantic ballad.
“We can keep the Christmas lights up ‘til January / And then about January 5, we’ll take the lights down,” he sang into the camera. “And we’ll put ‘em in a box and we’ll label that box ‘Christmas lights’ / Yeah, we’ll put ‘em in the attic ‘til next December.”
Swift, 29, released “Lover” in August as the third single from her album of the same name. She surprised fans on Wednesday, November 13, with a remix of the song featuring Mendes, 21, who provided a new verse that he recorded in Australia while on tour.
“I love your work on it,” Mayer told the “In My Blood” crooner on Sunday’s episode of Current Mood.
The Dead & Company member has not shied away from praising Swift’s music in recent years. In October 2018, he called her album Reputation “a fine piece of work” during a performance in Los Angeles.
Mayer and the “You Need to Calm Down” singer dated from December 2009 to February 2010. Her 2010 song “Dear John” is widely believed to be about their relationship, as is his 2013 single “Paper Doll.”
Swift has said that she “never disclose[s] who my songs are about,” and she called the guitarist “presumptuous” after he said in a 2012 interview that he “didn’t deserve” to be her muse.
“It made me feel terrible,” he told Rolling Stone at the time. “It was a really lousy thing to do. I never got an email. I never got a phone call. I was really caught off guard.”
The Cats actress is now dating Joe Alwyn, while Mayer was last linked to Katy Perry. The American Idol judge, 35, got engaged to Orlando Bloom in February.
