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Exploring Sobriety

Reflections on life without alcohol.

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Why John Mayer Quit Drinking

4 min readAug 17, 2022

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John Mayer with the Rolling Stones. Photo by “SolarScott” via Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under CC BY 2.0.

What does it take to reach 100% of your potential? Singer-songwriter John Mayer has been world famous ever since releasing his debut solo album back in 2001. However, despite his undeniable success, he still felt that something was holding him back: Alcohol.

In 2016, Mayer decided to quit drinking. In an interview with Complex two years later, Mayer explained what led to him taking such a radical step.

His last night ever drinking was at rapper Drake’s 30th birthday party. He got so drunk that he “made quite a fool of [himself]” and ended up with a hangover that lasted the next week.

He said that he was “six days into the hangover” when he began to question his drinking habit. How had he let himself drink so much that he was still feeling the aftereffects six days later? He started to wonder whether drinking was interfering with his potential as an artist.

Mayer asked himself “what percentage of your potential would you like to have?” He thought to himself that it was OK to be honest. If he was fine living up to just some of his potential and drinking the rest of the time, then there was nothing wrong with that. Ultimately, though, he realized that what he wanted was to live up to 100% of his…

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Exploring Sobriety
Exploring Sobriety
Benya Clark
Benya Clark

Written by Benya Clark

I’m a lawyer turned writer from North Carolina. I write about sobriety, mental health, and more. Subscribe to my weekly newsletter at exploringsobriety.com.