Singer John Mayer (Connecticut, 48 years old) lives away from the media spotlight, but he does not stop working. He is in the process of creating what will be his next album, a comeback after five years of musical silence with which he seeks to have something to tell his more than 14 million monthly Spotify listeners. Not releasing music does not mean that he has spent this five-year period taking a long vacation, because Mayer has continued with a philanthropic work until now almost unknown. After years of doing it quietly, on July 22 he received the Philanthropists of the Year award granted by The Hollywood Reporter, at a gala where he was accompanied by actor Michael J. Fox.
In 2019, Mayer formally founded Heart and Armor, a nonprofit organization for war veterans. Before that, he spent years funding research on post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health issues suffered by those who have been on the front lines. As revealed by the media specialized in Hollywood culture, the artist has invested approximately five million dollars in scientific studies and programs for veterans.
It all began in the late 2000s, when Mayer visited Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville (North Carolina). His self-defense instructor invited him to the place, where he got to know up close a barracks of wounded war veterans. “I was deeply moved to talk to someone who had suffered a traumatic brain injury and understand what it feels like to hear him speak. I was moved to see people who spoke beyond their injury,” the singer says in an interview with the mentioned publication, of which he is the cover star for the month of August.
Mayer began commissioning and funding studies in 2012 and contacted Gerard Choucroun, a social worker who had spent years researching post-traumatic stress disorder and veterans’ health — currently, Choucroun is the executive director of the artist’s organization. There began a dedication that, without being secret, the singer has tried to manage as privately as possible. At the time Heart and Armor was officially created, this project “had already generated nearly a dozen studies on topics such as exercise and diagnostic symptoms, military service and women’s eating habits, as well as the psychological effects of military sexual trauma,” reports The Hollywood Reporter.
“It is very rare for someone to arrive without a camera and stay for 15 years,” Choucroun assures in the report. For her part, Katie Miller, Navy veteran and community events director of Heart and Armor, appreciates Mayer’s support and emphasizes the singer’s interest in any topic, including a debate on accelerated uterine aging in female veterans. “Normally it would be an uncomfortable conversation, but John listened attentively to the scientists as they explained more details, interested in the science, why this happens and what we can do to fix it,” she recalls in the article. Additionally, Miller reveals that the organization’s current studies focus on sleep, specifically whether treating insomnia after a traumatic event can prevent the development of a mental health condition.
The artist hopes his work helps destigmatize these problems, especially among veterans who do not find it easy to talk naturally about their issues. “When you hear these stories of people with post-traumatic stress disorder who end up self-medicating, you understand. If the only way to sleep after coming home is with half a bottle of wine, that is not choosing to drink instead of not drinking, it is choosing to sleep instead of not sleeping,” he explains in The Hollywood Reporter. And he continues: “We all have things that are now hard to see because of something we have seen. Simply put, in veterans it is much more intense because the experience accumulates.”
He is clear that he wants to continue helping others, without neglecting music. “I approach things thinking: ‘If I weren’t famous, I would still be doing this.’ I want to see myself as a person who does this, which for me is broader than being ‘John Mayer, the singer,’ and it ensures I am responsible at all times,” he states in the publication. Then he explains why he has preferred this project to go unnoticed: “I like that everything in my life works without my name and that it stands on its own. Does this work both with and without the celebrity label? If so, then I feel everything I do is worthwhile.”
