John Mayer’s current single “New Light” might be a hit — reaching No. 7 on Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs chart — but according to insiders, he’s still a big miss among single A-listers.
“I would tell women in Hollywood to steer clear of him,” said one celebrity publicist. “He’s manipulative. He has a reputation . . . and it’s better to exercise caution dealing with anybody who kisses and tells.”
No doubt Jessica Simpson and Jennifer Aniston would agree. Both women dated the crooner, now 40, only to be publicly burned when he then told the media about their relationships.
“I don’t think that’s a very honorable thing to do and I think that it’s hurtful,” said the publicist. “I’m sure women are very cautious after seeing what he’s done.”
Despite all that happening a few years ago, Mayer’s been on a sheepish apology tour of late, whining on his new single that he’s “pushing 40 in the friend zone,” and lamenting to pal Andy Cohen on a recent episode of Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live” that he’s persona non grata among the Hollywood elite.
“You have a lot of friends who, without you, would want nothing to do with me,” Mayer said to Cohen. “You’re friends with Jennifer Lawrence, who just doesn’t want anything to do with me. Look, I don’t have the world’s greatest track record when it comes to celebrity relationships . . .
Dating John Mayer at this point is conceptually just sort of a no-no,” Mayer continued, in the third person.
The singer has only himself to thank for his less-than-glowing reputation.
In a March 2010 interview with Playboy, he dished that Simpson, whom he dated from 2006 to 2007 was “like crack cocaine to me.”
“Sexually it was crazy,” he told the mag of Simpson (via Billboard). “It was like napalm, sexual napalm. Did you ever say, ‘I want to quit my life and just f–kin’ snort you? If you charged me $10,000 to f–k you, I would start selling all my s–t just to keep f–king you.’”
In the same interview, he opened up about his breakup with “Friends” star, Aniston. They dated on and off from 2008 to 2009.
She saw my involvement in technology as courting distraction,” Mayer told Playboy. “And I always said, ‘These are the new rules.’ ”
Two years later, Mayer still hadn’t learned his lesson, telling Rolling Stone in June 2012 that Taylor Swift’s single “Dear John” was “cheap songwriting.”
“It’s abusing your talent to rub your hands together and go, ‘Wait till he gets a load of this!’ ” said Mayer, who dated Swift briefly in 2009 and 2010. “That’s bulls – – t.”
The next year, he wrote “Paper Doll,” ostensibly about Swift.
No doubt, Mayer’s good looks and sweet voice made it possible for many ladies to overlook his big mouth.
“He used to bring his girlfriends to GoldBar — including Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz, Katy Perry and Jessica Simpson. On the off nights that he came in solo, he never left solo,” publicist for the New York hotspot, Steve Kasuba, told The Post.
But after his back-to-back Playboy and Rolling Stone interview faux pas, Mayer tried to run away from the spotlight — going so far as to move to Montana. He’s also been touring with Dead & Company, the newest version of the Grateful Dead. But the glare has followed him, according to music insiders.
“I know a well-known artist that was talking about his own career and shouted out: ‘I don’t want to turn into John Mayer! Look what happened to him. He had to go join the Grateful Dead because he talked too much about all his famous girlfriends,’ ” recalled one music bigwig.
“They stopped talking about his music and started talking about his reputation and girlfriends and personal life. That’s a crime if you’re a musician.”
