John Mayer just released a new single and video, and it'll be interesting to see how it goes over in the heartland, because the lyrics are "420-friendly," as they say in the roommate-wanted classifieds. If you're not familiar with that term, let's just quote the main hook of the song: "Who says I can't get stoned..."

It's fun to imagine the dialogue Mayer and his label might have had over this.

Label: "John, we're very excited about the new album you have coming out on Nov. 17, Battle Studies, which is the great hope of our fourth quarter. And we're particularly excited about the 11 other songs on it besides ‘Who Says'."

Mayer: "That's the single."

Label: "You've written an album full of heartbroken love songs that we think will captivate a vast cross-demographic audience that is interested in your personal feelings as well as your musicianship. You've described it as more of a flat-out pop album than what you've done recently, and we all know that ‘pop' is short for ‘popular'! We have a brilliant marketing campaign laid out, with prominent placement in Target and Best Buy circulars, and maximum exposure at Wal-Mart and on MTV. But speaking of MTV, as okay as they are with sexuality, they tend to censor, if not ban, songs that directly reference altered states of consciousness."

Mayer: "That's the single."

Label: "Have we mentioned that this is our fourth quarter? We need a song that entire families can sing along to on the radio in the SUV on the way to the mall. And every other song on your album is a beautiful, unforgettable, evocative, provocative, sensitive, catchy, non-reefer-referencing potential smash that could save all our jobs."

Mayer: "That's the single."

This conversation is purely fictional, of course, because any fool knows that a chat like this would go on between the label and Mayer's manager, who would say "John says that's the single."

Hard to tell just yet if that critical lyric will indeed limit the airplay of "Who Says." But it's kind of a nifty little ballad of loneliness, from a narrator who can't be trusted to be quite as forgetful about his ex-lover as he claims ("I don't remember you looking any better/Butthen again I don't remember you"). Mayer has said that Battle Studies is a very deliberate sort of concept album that's "melodically bright, but the themes are all aboutheartbreak." As such, this is a nice teaser... even if the video doth protest too much about Mayer not being lonesome, as we follow the star through the streets of New York, into a swimming pool, into and out of the arms of a myriad of lovely lasses, and even into a comedy club where he indulges his standup-comic moonlighting.

Speaking of comedy...

An interview Mayer did with New York magazine is the talk of the town today, even more than the new single. It's the funniest Q&A with a rock star I've read in a long time, though his seeming combativeness—whether real or in jest—will turn off some readers. Having interviewed Mayer a few times myself in the past and, more importantly, being a follower and fan of his Twitter account, I know his wicked sense of humor pretty well... and know it well enough to know that he's not always kidding, either. The candor here is astonishing and either alarming or delightful—you choose. (Kudos to the young red-carpet interviewer inquestion for rolling with his punches, too.) Read it here:

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/10/john_mayer_threatens_to_sodomi.html

Sample exchanges:

Mayer: "Have you ever heard me play guitar? I'm really [expletive] good. You know what I'm bad at? Answering questions about public health care. This is not in my wheelhouse. Do you have any questions about music? I almost got a mad need to lighten up. You need to lighten up, because the questions you asked me were all troublemaking questions..."

Just one question after reading that interview: Isn't indulging in the smoky stuff supposed to, you know, mellow you out?