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John Mayer’s “Your Body is a Wonderland” has survived the test of time. After 21 years, people still know every word and imagine the song is about them. There have been theories in the past about who inspired the warm and lyrical bop, but Mayer says it all goes back to his first love.
Mayer released the song in 2001 and started dating Jennifer Love Hewitt shortly after, which made people believe the song was about her. But he wrote the song before he ever met any celebrities. He told Alex Cooper on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast it was about his first girlfriend.
He wrote the song when he was 21 and used the nostalgic feeling of being a 16-year-old in love as inspiration. “That was about the feeling, which I think was already sort of nostalgic,” he said.
The “Gravity” singer said people formed the idea that it was about one of his celebrity romances. “It gets reinforced over the years,” he said, adding, “I had never met a celebrity when I wrote that song.”
His recent interview echoes the sames story he shared on a 2009 episode of VH1 Storytellers in 2009, but a different age. It “was really about my first girlfriend I had when I was 14 years old,” he said, per Iheartradio.
Since the song’s release, Mayer has had major success and is considered one of the best guitarists of the modern era, per GuitarWorld. His songwriting ability is undeniable, and he has had plenty of inspiration when it comes to relationships. With famous exes like Jessica Simpson, Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Aniston, and Taylor Swift, there’s plenty of content.
However, the singer revealed that he doesn’t write songs “for or about people.” “I might use a relationship that inspires me to write something,” he said. But “even if I was writing a song because of someone … that goes away, and I’m left with the song,” Mayer said.
While Mayer had a decorated list of exes, things have changed. “I look at it like this: Dating is no longer a codified activity for me,” he said. “It’s not patterned anymore.”