John Mayer: 'Attacking me for Asian cultural appropriation is lame'

Rocker John Mayer has dismissed the backlash he is receiving for his Still Feel Like Your Man music video as a "vain attempt" to generate controversy.

The musician dances with pandas and geishas in the promo for his new single, released last week (end07Apr17), and the Asian iconography led some critics to slam the star for cultural appropriation.

But John, 39, thinks those who are deeply offended by the music video are creating drama out of nothing.

"I see there being a vain attempt to create one (a backlash), but I see people excited about the fact that I've returned to what I consider a fun-loving take on things," he tells USA Today, noting the promo was simply meant to express his newfound lightheartedness. "It took me a really long time to return to having a good time. I've always had a humorous side... There's a really well-functioning mechanism in my brain where the sincerity and the depth and that profoundness of how I'm feeling and what I'm writing has to be offset by me personally with levity."

Katy Perry's ex-boyfriend Mayer insists he did not intend to offend anyone with his Asian-inspired theme for the Still Feel Like Your Man video.

"I wasn't anticipating any backlash," he notes. "If I were anticipating backlash, I wouldn't have made the video. Controversy does not inspire me. I wish I could say it did, but controversy does not inspire me. I would never have made something anticipating backlash, I would've changed it so I didn't anticipate backlash."