Headlines are popping up online this week claiming that John Mayer revealed who his breakthrough hit "Your Body Is A Wonderland" is about.
“John Mayer reveals his hit song Your Body Is a Wonderland was about a high school girlfriend,” declared the Daily Mail. A Billboard headline reads: “John Mayer Reveals Who ‘Your Body Is a Wonderland’ Is About…”
A headline at Hollywood Life reads: “John Mayer Finally Reveals Whether ‘Your Body Is A Wonderland’ Is About Ex Jennifer Love-Hewitt.” (He didn't date Love-Hewitt until a year after the song's release.)
The stories come from Mayer's appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast, where he explained that the song is about his first girlfriend.
“That was about the feeling, which I think was already sort of nostalgic,” he said. “I was 21 when I wrote that song and I was nostalgic for being 16.”
Of course, it wasn't a big reveal.
On an episode of VH1 Storytellers in 2009, Mayer said the song “was really about my first girlfriend I had when I was 14 years old.”
In 2010, Rolling Stone reported that "at the age of 14, he fell in love with the girl who would inspire 'Your Body Is a Wonderland' and without whom he would not be where he is today." Mayer told the publication: "This woman is precious. She can vouch for me not as a celebrity. She carries with her information of this 14-year-old boy she knew. She knows the truth."
“Your Body Is A Wonderland” was part of Mayer’s 2001 debut album Room for Squares and released as a single the following year. It won him a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
For years, speculation swirled that the song was about one of his famous girlfriends – something he again denied. “No, no, no,” Mayer said on the podcast. “I had never met a celebrity when I wrote that song.”