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John Mayer claims he is a 'recovering ego addict' in modest interview about self-imposed Twitter ban

Mayer describes the perils of constant adulation 

Heather Saul
Saturday 07 March 2015 08:27 EST
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Fender-bender: John Mayer on stage
Fender-bender: John Mayer on stage (Getty Images)

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John Mayer has ‘opened-up’ about his long-term addiction – to his own ego.

“I'm a recovered ego addict”, the seven-time Grammy winner admitted on Friday.

He discussed this difficult battle in a meandering, and at times bizarre, interview with MSNBC’s Today programme highlighting the common celebrity malaise.

Speaking to host Ronan Farrow, he described past interviews where he revealed intimate information about his relationships as himself “basically break dancing into a nitroglycerin plant”.

Mayer then explained that he had to pull himself off social media because of his ego addiction, saying: "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. So I do the Grammys and I go home because if I stay, I get high again."

When asked if he was getting “high” on the approval from the wider-world, he replied: “Well yeah!”

“You’ve already looked through Twitter and everybody goes ‘it’s great’, and then your low again because you can’t stop looking."

Luckily for Mayer, he has found an alternative to social media, telling his host: “I check the mirror, the original Twitter.”

His continued in this modest vein when he was asked what he would say to his younger self: “I’d say, that guy is really, really talented but I don’t want to be anywhere near him when that thing goes off.”

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