John Mayer and Shawn Mendes hung out together on Nov. 17, and it resulted in an Instagram Live to be remembered! The pair broadcasted live to fans from their meet-up, and during the discussion, they talked about Shawn’s recent collaboration with John’s ex, Taylor Swift, on a remix of her song “Lover.” John admitted that he “loves the song,” but did poke some fun at some of the lyrics in the first verse. “I get a little chuckle because she says, ‘We can keep the Christmas lights up until January,’ and I go…you’re insane. Everyone keeps their Christmas lights up until January!”
However, he reiterated afterward that he “loves the song” and “loves [Shawn]’s work on it,” as well. At the end of the video, he also made up some of his own lyrics to the track about Christmas lights. “We can keep the Christmas lights up until January,” he sings, to the tune of “Lover.” “And then about January 5, we’ll take the lights down, and we’ll put ’em in a box and we’ll label that box Christmas lights, and we’ll put ’em in the attic until next December! Boy, that’s a crazy love, I’ll tell ya!”
John and Taylor have a bit of a complicated history. They dated for a few months in 2009, when Taylor was just 19 years old (John is 12 years her senior). After the split, Taylor penned one of her most raw and emotional songs ever, “Dear John,” about the breakup (the song was released on Taylor’s 2010 album, Speak Now). On the track, she sings, “Don’t you think 19’s too young to be messed with, the girl in the dress cried the whole way home,” among other heartbreaking lyrics.
📹 | @JohnMayer discusses the Christmas light lyric in #Lover on his recent Instagram live with @ShawnMendes (via @inallmydreams13)
“Love the song, I really like the song (…) I go, you’re insane! Everybody keeps their Christmas lights up til January.” pic.twitter.com/YbwXOgqhCF
— Taylor Swift News (@TSwiftNZ) November 18, 2019
Two years after “Dear John’s release, John opened up about the lyrics in an interview with Rolling Stone. “I will say, as a song, I think it’s kind of cheap songwriting,” he admitted. “I know she’s the biggest thing in the world and I’m not trying to sink anybody’s ship, but I think it’s abusing your talent to rub your hands together and go, ‘Wait till he gets a load of this!’ It’s bulls***.” He also said that the song made him feel “terrible” because “I never did anything to deserve that. It was a really lousy thing for her to do.”
In 2013, John released the song “Paper Doll,” which many fans suspect is about Taylor. With lyrics like “You’re like 22 girls in one” (Taylor has a song called “22”) and “Someone’s gonna paint you another sky” (Taylor sings, “You paint me a blue sky, then go back and turn it to rain” in “Dear John”), there definitely do seem to be references to the relationship. However, all of this appears to be ancient history now, as John made it clear that he’s a fan of Taylor’s music in his new Live with Shawn.