John Mayer back after 'dumb interviews'

Mayer, 34, told DeGeneres that the backlash from those interviews "sort of rocketed me into adulthood. It was a violent crash into being an adult." Mayer took a self-imposed, two-year hiatus during which he moved to Montana and had two surgeries to remove an enlarged nodule over a vocal cord.

He spent the time away, he said, "just figuring it all out and I'm glad I actually stayed out of the spotlight." He explained, "The plan that originally gets you out of your high school and your hometown . . . that plan was over. I had done it. . . . and I just sort of lost my head for a little while."

Mayer's album, "Born and Raised," drops Tuesday.