Even notorious lady killer John Mayer can get “a little bitchy” after a breakup.
The “Your Body Is a Wonderland” crooner, 45, sang his 2013 single “Paper Doll” at a concert at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California, on April 8, where he looked back on the song he allegedly penned about ex-girlfriend Taylor Swift.
According to a video that has been making the rounds on social media, Mayer said as he played the guitar: “I wonder if people don’t like it because it sounds a little pissed off.”
“I don’t really like ‘pissed off’ as a song,” he continued, adding that “there’s something about it that’s a little bitchy.”
He further went on to describe how he makes an effort “not to give bitchiness” in his songs.
However, the Connecticut native confessed that it does happen “sometimes,” deeming “Paper Doll” as having some “sarcastic bitch” feelings. “I guess it is sort of a little bit blah,” he said onstage.
Rumors have swirled for about a decade, saying that the tune is a response to Swift’s 2010 hit “Dear John.”
The “Look What You Made Me Do” songstress and Mayer dated in 2009 and it has been alleged that “Dear John” was inspired by him.
There have been some comparisons between the lyrics of both songs. In “Paper Doll,” the words go: ” ‘Cause you’re like 22 girls in one / And none of them know what they’re runnin’ from.”
On Swift’s track, she sang: “And you’ll add my name to your long list of traitors who don’t understand / And I’ll look back and regret how I ignored when they said, ‘Run as fast as you can.’ “
Even though Mayer and the pop star parted ways years ago, the former has shown support for his ex over time.
He told MSNBC in a 2015 interview that he felt he and the “Vigilante S - - t” singer are “bigger than one song or one record.”
“[‘Paper Doll’] never got listened to as a song. It became a news story because of the lyrics. I’m not in the business of telling people what the song’s about,” Mayer explained.
“Now I can just go, ‘Look, I can say the name Taylor Swift.’ She’s an artist. I’m an artist. Everybody stop, nobody’s got cancer. We’re rich people who get to live out our dreams. Let’s just stop it,’ ” he said.
He looked back on the track once again in 2019, claiming on his Instagram Live that the single “didn’t get the love it deserved” because of the gossip surrounding the inspiration behind it.
“One of the tenets of being a singer-songwriter is: We don’t talk about who the songs are either inspired by or reference,” Mayer sighed at the time. “And when ‘Paper Doll’ came out, 100% of the people believed it was about somebody and the person that they thought it was about brought a certain amount of a superficial pop culture back and forth.”
He added, “The song didn’t get the credit it deserves. I had to let it go.”