Who Says

This gentle acoustic ballad is the first single from American singer songwriter John Mayer's fourth studio album, Battle Studies. He says the song is about standing up to your inner bully - that voice that tells you that you can't do something.

Mayer, who isn't shy about sharing intimate details, explained the origin of the song on his Storytellers appearance: "Around the time I was making Continuum, I was having a little sex, and I was listening to Miles Davis' In A Silent Way. I was naked and playing the guitar post-coitus. I was fiddling around with the guitar, and I went (singing) 'Who says I can't get stoned...' And it was lovely."

Mayer had the song idea for three years before he finally recorded it. The breakthrough came when he combined it with with another song idea he was working on, which was the part where he sings, "It's been a long night in New York City..." Said Mayer, "I had these two pieces that were very strange and very unlike one another, but when they went to together they made this really mystifying concoction."

John worked out the arrangement when he played it for the first time for his drummer, Steve Jordan. He says the song made sense when he came up with the lyric, "It's been a long time since 22," which refers to his efforts to stay grounded after becoming famous.