Why John Mayer Was Worried About Headlining Tour After Dead & Company Gig

John Mayer has opened up about how he got back into the groove of solely performing his songs as a concert tour headliner.

Last month, the 44-year-old crooner kicked off his tour in support of his eighth studio album "Sob Rock," which was released last year.

However, Mayer admitted in a new interview that he'd previously lost some motivation to perform as a headliner after touring with the Dead & Company band, where he plays alongside former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann.

"It was awfully cozy to play in Dead & Company, because I'm not in the center of the stage," he told the Associated Press of the group, which toured again last summer. "I have really grown to love that vantage point to musically make those contributions from that place."

Mayer said he thought he'd lost his performing mojo until he stepped behind a microphone and simply started singing his songs.

"I wasn't sure about whether I was going to find that love for it again, and then [by] song three I was like, 'OK, this is not ever going away,'" he shared.

After not performing on stage for much of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mayer likened the experience of finding a renewed desire to headline concerts to riding a bike.

"It's not a natural thing to stand on stage in front of a bunch of people. You don't think that way when you're at home for two years," he explained.

He continued, "I was at home for two years washing dishes, looking at my hands going, 'Well, these hands from time to time played the guitar in front of 17,000 people a night.' I think the one thing that drains out of a performer is just the sense memory of performing."

After kicking things off in February, Mayer is now on the second leg of his "Sob Rock" tour, which has stops in San Francisco, Atlanta, Denver, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston and Chicago.

Before he began his tour, Mayer performed solo for the first time in two years when he headlined SiriusXM and Pandora's Small Stage Series and entertained a crowd in Los Angeles that included Heidi Klum and Vanessa Hudgens.

In the middle of the show, Mayer stopped his performance after he noticed that a woman in the crowd had lost consciousness. The "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room" singer paused the show and stepped off stage to check the woman's well-being and ensure that the attendee was safely escorted out of the venue before returning to the stage to finish the concert.

Mayer, who received praise on social media for how he handled the situation, admitted he's become more conscious of concertgoers' safety especially after the tragedy at Travis Scott's Astroworld Festival in Houston last year.

Meanwhile, Mayer was forced to reschedule some of the shows on his "Sob Rock" tour after he and some members of his band tested positive for COVID-19.

"I'm so sorry to make you change your plans," he posted to Instagram in February. "This is a bummer for everyone in the band and crew, to say nothing of the question hanging over everyone's head — mine included — as to how I tested positive on PCR twice in two months."

He continued, "We'll give you everything we've got at these upcoming shows, just as soon as we rest up and regroup. With love and appreciation… me."

Mayer's Feb. 25 Pittsburgh show was pushed back to May 5, while the March 1 Belmont Park, New York, show was moved to May 7. Two Boston shows were postponed to May 9 and 10.