John Mayer said he’s a ‘recovered ego addict,’ but isn’t a womanizer

Feel free to say John Mayer has a big ego, just don’t call him a womanizer. Speaking with MSNBC’s Ronan Farrow, John said he does “absolutely not” think the reputation is warranted.

“I went, ‘All right, dude, you did a couple interviews where you were out of touch and you were being a ham — and you were basically break dancing into a nitroglycerin plant, right?'” John said in the interview, which aired on Today. “But when you’re crafty and you’re clever and you go, ‘Well, I’m just going to be as strange as they think I am,’ then you lose [yourself]. No. 1: You’re not playing music anymore. No. 2: You’re not feeling anything honestly. And No. 3: You’re not saying anything honestly.”

After realizing he’d lost his way, John quit Twitter in 2010. (He’s since rejoined, but said he doesn’t get as wrapped up in it.)

“I’m a recovered ego addict, and the only way that I can be sure that I don’t relapse is to admit that I constantly have this ego addiction—every day,” he said, adding he gets “high” on the approval of others. “You’ve already looked through Twitter. Everybody goes, ‘It’s great!’ And then you’re low again because you can’t stop looking. So I’m a recovered ego addict.”

These days, John is dating Katy Perry again and spending most of his time at his home in Montana. He said being away from Los Angeles gives him invaluable “outside perspective.” Although that’s enabled him to see the err of his ways, he really doesn’t think things could have gone differently.

“There was never a shot of doing this perfectly,” he said. “It was never in the cards.”