Three days. 2,800 fans. One ginormous boat. Sail away with John Mayer as he charters a cruise ship and hits the high seas for a Caribbean rock & roll adventure.
“Attention, everyone! I have a very important announcement!”
John
Mayer is standing at the starboard edge of the Lido Deck pool,
clutching a piña colada in one hand and his Marc Jacobs shades in the
other, and quoting Will Ferrell from
Anchorman.
“Caaannonbaaall!”With
a grin, Mayer tosses the drink and leaps poolward, jackknifing in with
a magnificent chlorinated splash. A few of his buddies lounging in
nearby deck chairs crack up. Mayer eases out of the water, and as he
hikes up his trunks and reaches for a towel, the girls watching from
the Spa Deck erupt in squeals.
“Omigod! WeloveyouJohn!”
Welcome
to the maiden voyage of the Mayercraft Carrier—the world’s foremost
(and only) floating John Mayer rock festival. It’s a paradisiacal
Sunday afternoon in the northern Caribbean. The sun is golden and pure,
the breeze heavenly, the sea a deep and brilliant blue. And for the
past 48 hours we’ve been stowed away with a few thousand Mayer fans,
sucking down Bahama Mamas and listening to enough guitar-oriented pop
rock to last a lifetime.
When you hear the words
cruise ship, here’s what probably comes to mind:
The Love Boat.
Shuffleboard. Kathie Lee. Your Aunt Phyllis in a tankini and cornrows.
Ice sculptures of busty mermaids straddling sea horses. Melanoma. But
in the past few years, cruises have become a reliable moneymaker for
rock stars across the musical spectrum—from the patchouli-scented Jam
Cruise to Kenny Chesney’s Country Cruise Getaway to Vince Neil’s Mötley
Crüise. Most bands treat the trips like corporate gigs: Get in, get out
and cash a big check. (When Dave Matthews played his cruise two years
ago, he was deposited via helicopter onto the private Bahamian island
where the ship was docked and jetted home immediately after his set.)
But Mayer, a crowd-pleasing Boy Next Door who maintains his own blog
and calls his fans his “saviors,” is staying onboard for the long
haul—autograph hounds, amorous teens and all.