As Grammy-Award-winning artist John Mayer played and explained the guitar riffs on his song “Slow Dancing In A Burning Room” during a masterclass and conversation Monday, USC student Jaden Lehman got a call he wasn’t expecting.

One of his Thornton School of Music professors, Greg Phillinganes, who was Mayer’s co-host at the event, asked Lehman to come on stage and perform with them. So, he hurried up.

Over the next few minutes, Mayer taught Lehman, a senior majoring in popular music performance, how to play the backing instrumentals to the track and gave him the opportunity to perform a short guitar solo, which was met with thunderous applause from the jam-packed crowd.

“What [Mayer’s] done for popular music in the last couple decades has really been just very revolutionary and defined so much of what popular music means,” said Lehman in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “To share a moment with somebody like that is really meaningful.”

Long lines wrapped around Bovard Auditorium hours before Mayer took the stage for an afternoon of music and conversation organized by Visions & Voices and Thornton. Mayer spoke extensively about his songwriting process and maintaining integrity as an artist in the modern music industry.

“I would love to just personally redefine what it means to be in the world of music. I don’t necessarily relate to it as rough and tumble, rogue, weary, broken down, self-medicated; it’s just not who I am,” Mayer told students. “I want the music part of music, and I don’t want the cultural personality part of music. I’m trying to prove that you can have both.”

Mayer recalled Monday that when trying to release his first record about 25 years ago, he didn’t think he could have a hit song, especially as different record labels said his style of music was not popular at the time. Still, he was compelled to put out music.

“For me, it was like ‘I’ve got to get this out,’” Mayer said. “I have to make a statement. I need people to know where I stand. I need people to know who I am.”

Mayer said monetary success didn’t come for a long time. When he began playing gigs and wanted to buy new music gear, he said he was avoiding calls from credit card companies notifying him that he had overdrafted his accounts.

“I treated myself like I was running a company,” Mayer said. “In a cold way, I knew that I had things to do. … I was just on this tear to be understood. That’s all I care about.”

“Your Body Is a Wonderland,” released in 2001, was one of Mayer’s earliest hits, which he said he realized once people stopped him in public by yelling the song at him. While a songwriter can’t control which songs become hits, Mayer said, they can control which songs are meaningful and can hope to write songs that have longevity. 

Mayer said all music references what other artists are doing, but to make fulfilling music, an artist has to take risks with what they create.

“When you write a song that’s based off of a reference, you already have the emotional security of knowing that it works,” Mayer said. “But I love gambling. Set them up. Let’s play. Let’s go. I might leave here feeling horrible about myself. Chances are, I will. But if I hit it right, my life is different forever.” 

Giani Tamburrino, a guitarist and freshman majoring in political science, said Mayer is a big inspiration and role model for him. He said he and his friends waited in line for three hours for the chance to attend the event.

“It’s just crazy how many cool opportunities USC offers to its students,” Tamburrino said after the event. “I feel like that’s one of the reasons we all came here, just to see such influential people that made it in the big leagues.”

Lehman said, alongside the experience performing with Mayer, USC has opened the door to connect with many amazing mentors like Phillinganes, who have changed the way Lehman approaches songwriting and production.

“So much of what Mayer said tonight was a reaffirmation of lessons that I’ve learned over the last few years here,” Lehman said. “Hearing somebody who is at that level say things that I can resonate with is really inspiring and hopeful.”