Backlash at John Mayer for weighing in on Free Britney: ‘Apologise to Jessica Simpson and Taylor Swift’

Sign up to Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Get our Now Hear This email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. After the interview, fans on social media were quick to call out the way Mayer used to speak to the press about famous exes, specifically Jessica Simpson and Taylor Swift. “I was so afraid of disappointing him that I couldn't even text him without having someone check my grammar and spelling.” The on-again, off-again relationship eventually ended in 2010, and Mayer famously referred to Simpson as “sexual napalm” in an interview with Playboy, which Simpson wrote “floored and embarrassed” her. In the song, Swift references a vast age difference : “Dear John, I see it all now, it was wrong / Don't you think 19's too young / To be played by your dark, twisted games / When I loved you so?” Enjoy unlimited access to 100 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Sign up now for a 4 month free trial Sign up Enjoy unlimited access to 100 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Sign up now for a 4 month free trial Sign up In an interview with Rolling Stone, Mayer said he'd felt “humiliated” by the song, which fans have pointed out fed into a “crazy ex” narrative around Swift. “Something that doesn’t get discussed enough is that the ‘careful she’ll write a song about you’ jokes and the ‘Taylor Swift is crazy and boy-obsessed’ narrative was principally fueled by John Mayer after she wrote a song detailing his emotional abuse,” a user wrote on Twitter.