John Mayer was once lambasted for his honest interviews before. He was seen a misogynistic douchebag and also as a "love-rat."

After a disease that almost forced him to lose his voice, he went into forced reclusion. He is now in a happy relationship with Katy Perry and has a new album, "Paradise Valley."

From The Independent: (John Mayer was) "diagnosed with granuloma, the singer underwent two throat operations, followed by Botox injections designed to paralyse his vocal cords so they could heal. The preternaturally verbose star became literally, mandatorily silent.

At the Bowl, Mayer dedicates a song, "Speak For Me", to the man who saved his voice and thus his career, throat surgeon Dr Gerald Berke."

John Mayer, in an interview with The Independent shares his experiences, recovery and how it has changed him.  

"There's all these struggles and stressors and conflicts every day [in the city] that you don't even notice," he goes on. "But waking up happy and going to bed happy, with contiguous happiness throughout the day, is very rare. You think: 'I'm sure they're saying my name somewhere. Somewhere, some hideously underpaid blogger is typing my name, and they're either saying I'm great or I suck, but I don't hear it and I don't see it.' It's the most remarkable feeling I've ever had in my life - to be truly content, and to have that contentment not up for grabs by other people."

On Katy Perry and her participation in the album: "I think it came out in a really loving way. It was really interesting to produce an artist I respect so much, and also to know that it could bleed over into home. It's not for the faint of heart, but it was great."

On the price of fame: "I'm not the only person to say it, but in some ways you're forever the age you were when you first got famous. And there was really only one girl I ever went out with before things got complicated by my holding a guitar onstage."

"There are people in public life right now who are trying really hard to recalibrate people's sense of them," he says. "They get called douchebags, and maybe they're behaving like douchebags, [but] these are ambitious people. And I have a lot of sympathy for ambitious people who don't know when to stop."