John Mayer is doing some damage control for a word choice in his Playboy interview, telling his Twitter followers (@johncmayer):

Re: using the ‘N word’ in an interview: I am sorry that I used the word. And it’s such a shame that I did because the point I was trying to make was in the exact opposite spirit of the word itself. It was arrogant of me to think I could intellectualize using it, because I realize that there’s no intellectualizing a word that is so emotionally charged.

It started as an attempt to not let the waves of criticism get to me, but it’s gotten out of hand and I’ve created somewhat of a monster.

I wanted to be a blues guitar player. And a singer. And a songwriter. Not a shock jock. I don’t have the stomach for it.

Again, because I don’t want anyone to think I’m equivocating: I should have never said the word and I will never say it again.

I just wanted to play the guitar for people. Everything else just sort of popped up and I improvised, and kept doubling down on it…

The remarks that got Mayer in hot water:

Someone asked me the other day, “What does it feel like now to have a hood pass?” And by the way, it’s sort of a contradiction in terms, because if you really had a hood pass, you could call it a n****r pass. Why are you pulling a punch and calling it a hood pass if you really have a hood pass? But I said, “I can’t really have a hood pass. I’ve never walked into a restaurant, asked for a table and been told, ‘We’re full.’

…I don’t think I open myself to [dating black women]. My dick is sort of like a white supremacist. I’ve got a Benetton heart and a fu**in’ David Duke co**. I’m going to start dating separately from my di**.

Among his other controversial statements were comments on ex-girlfriends Jessica Simpson and Jennifer Aniston. “Sexually it was crazy,” he said of Simpson. “That’s all I’ll say. It was like napalm, sexual napalm.” As for the ‘Friends’ star, the singer songwriter told the men’s mag: “There was a rumor that I’d been dumped because I was tweeting too much. That wasn’t it, but that was a big difference. The brunt of her success came before TMZ and Twitter. I think she’s still hoping it goes back to 1998. She saw my involvement in technology as courting distraction. And I always said, ‘These are the new rules.’”

A shirtless John Mayer graces the cover of Rolling Stone’s new issue, where the 32-year-old discusses how his life has been helped by masturbating.

I have masturbated myself out of serious problems in my life. The phone doesn’t pick up because I’m masturbating. And I have excused myself at the oddest times so as to not make mistakes. If Tiger Woods only knew when to jerk off. It has a true market value, like gold bullion. First of all, I don’t jerk off because I’m horny. I’m sort of half-chick. It’s like District 9. I can fire alien weapons. I can insert a tampon. No, I do it because I want to take a brain bath. It’s like a hot whirlpool for my brain, in a brain space that is 100 percent agreeable with itself.

A preview and watch behind the scenes footage from the photo shoot at rollingstone.com has since been removed/relocated.

John Mayer shared his thoughts on the decade as it prepares to come to a close to his Twitter followers (@johncmayer) earlier today, unimpressed with the past 10 years. The singer songwriter tells readers:

Let me be the first to say it: the 2000s was the dumbest decade in recorded history.

You may not appreciate it now, but in the next 2-4 years the true dumbness of the decade will age like a fine, insipid wine.

Dumb: “It’s like a car crash, you can’t look away,” a crude attempt at justifying having terrible tastes in entertainment.

Dumb: “Epic fail,” a phrase used to make fun of someone’s failed attempts, written by people living in their parents’ basements.

I’ll buy that for a dollar! RT @shyunatown agrrreed ; 2000′s was an era where people didn’t know what do with themselves

Dumb: “Just Saying.” A phrase meant to divorce one’s self from responsibility for having a cheap laugh at someone’s expense.

“Hot mess,” “train wreck,” cutesy combined celebrity couple names, “TMI,” Feigned shock, Sentences that begin with “bitch.”

Dumb: “I’ll give you that,” used to reluctantly agree with someone by making it sound as if it’s at the user’s great expense.

2010s: being safe and happy, learning, showing grace to others while tending to our own betterment, and enjoying life. FIN. XO.

John Mayer is offering moviegoing advice for his Twitter followers (@johncmayer) after attending a screening of the new big budget 3D film ‘Avatar’. The singer songwriter tells readers:

Most compelling part of Avatar? The man next to me at the urinal who pulled his pants and boxers down to his knees. Alien indeed.

You heard it here, folks: it’s possible to be both an intelligent, culturally literate member of society AND walk out on Avatar.

What I meant to say about Avatar is don’t go see it if you’re buzzed on margaritas the size of a goldfish bowl.

I will take a crack at Avatar again, this time with good old fashioned peyote.