John Mayer Ends a Five-Year Wait With ‘Tom and Jerry’ — and Launches His Own Label

The five-year gap is the story

Mayer has not been invisible since 2021 — he has toured, played with Dead & Company, and run his SiriusXM channel — but as a solo recording artist he went quiet after Sob Rock. That album, his eighth, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and closed out his time with Columbia Records, the label that had released every one of his studio albums since his 2001 debut Room for Squares. He left Columbia in 2022.

“Tom and Jerry” ends that silence. The single premiered on October 22 on his SiriusXM channel, Life with John Mayer, ahead of its worldwide release on October 23, and a live vocal video followed the same day.

A voice memo that kept its name

The title came before the song did. “‘Tom and Jerry’ was the name I used when saving my first voice memo with this song idea,” Mayer said. “And if you ever come through, which I doubt you’ll do, I’ll run away with you. From that moment on, the adventure began in bringing that feeling to life.”

Mayer co-wrote and co-produced the track with Blake Slatkin, played guitar and keyboards on it, and recorded it at Chaplin Studios in Hollywood. The band behind him is heavyweight: Pino Palladino on bass, Aaron Sterling on drums, Lenny Castro on percussion, and Larry Goldings on piano. Serban Ghenea mixed the record.

His name on the door

The bigger business move is the label. “Tom and Jerry” is the first release on Sob Rock Records — named after the 2021 album — Mayer’s own imprint, distributed in partnership with Mercury Records.

“Working with Tyler Arnold and the talented team at Mercury Records has already proven to be a great partnership,” Mayer said in the announcement. “The path from creative vision to execution has never been easier or more rewarding. I feel very inspired, and I’m excited for what’s to come.”

Mayer has also said he is working on a new album, telling The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year that he was investing his time in the studio so that when he came back out, he would have something real to present. “Tom and Jerry” is the first piece of that return to reach the public.

Vegas gets the victory lap

The comeback has a Las Vegas headline attached to it. Mayer returns to Sphere in 2027 for a 21-show solo residency running April 8 through June 12 — his first headlining run at the venue under his own name, after playing 48 shows there with Dead & Company.

Every night is built in three parts: Mayer solo, Mayer with his full band, and the John Mayer Trio — Mayer with drummer Steve Jordan and bassist Pino Palladino, reuniting in concert for the first time since 2017. The run started as six announced dates in September and kept growing on demand, adding twelve more, then a final three in June.

For a singer who spent five years away from solo records, the shape of the return is deliberate: a single that started as a phone voice memo, a label with his own name on it, and the biggest room in Las Vegas booked three ways at once.