John Mayer performs "Last Train Home" on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Courtesy PhotoDuring his concert for SiriusXM and Pandora’s Small Stage Series at the Hollywood Palladium on Wednesday night (Feb. 9), John Mayer stopped the show to help a fan with an apparent medical issue in the crowd.
When Mayer noticed that a fan had possibly fainted in the audience, he stopped singing and immediately called for medics to help. As his band quietly vamped in the background, Mayer then asked to stop the music altogether.
“Is she conscious? Give me a thumbs-up if she’s alert,” Mayer asked the people around her, who responded with a round of thumbs-ups. “I’m gonna step off the stage for a second,” Mayer added before leading his band offstage.
When he returned, Mayer reassured the crowd that the woman was going to be fine. “Anyone in the crowd who’s worried, I’m told she waved goodbye, so she’s OK,” he said, adding, “The system works.”
The ordeal went down as Mayer was in the final stretches of the 2006 Continuum ballad “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room,” and when he came back, he launched into the much more upbeat Grammy-winning single “Waiting on the World to Change” from the same album.
Mayer’s abundance of caution comes a few days after Billie Eilish briefly stopped her show on Saturday night to help a fan in the crowd who needed an inhaler, according to concert footage captured by fans.
Wednesday’s hour-plus concert — hosted by Andy Cohen, who introduced his friend as “The King of Sob Rock” — aired live on SiriusXM’s The Spectrum (channel 28) and on the SXM app and will be rebroadcast throughout the week. On Friday, Cohen’s sit-down interview with Mayer will air on Radio Andy (channel 102) at 7 p.m. ET, and his concert will re-air on Andy Cohen’s Kiki Lounge (channel 312) at 8 p.m. ET. The concert will also air in its entirety on Saturday as part of the Pandora LIVE series at 9 p.m. (RSVP here).
Next up: Mayer kicks off his Sob Rock Tour on Feb. 17 in Albany, N.Y. The Palladium set definitely served as a preview of the trek, with Mayer performing six songs from the July 2021 album, including “New Light,” “Last Train Home” and “Wild Blue,” which just became the rocker’s eighth No. 1 hit on Billboard‘s Adult Alternative Airplay chart.
Faith No More appear to be hinting at a return to the stage in 2027.
The influential alt-metal band have remained mostly quiet over the past decade following the release of their reunion album ‘Sol Invictus’ in 2015. After its arrival, they played what would become their most recent live performances in 2016 and later called off several touring plans in the years that followed.
Now, however, they seem to be preparing fans for something new. The group recently shared an image of a concert crowd on social media with nothing more than the text “2027” placed across it.
No additional information accompanied the post, but it quickly sparked speculation among fans, many of whom believe a full scale tour announcement could be coming next year.
After wrapping up their 2016 run of shows, the band intended to return to the road in 2020. Those plans were ultimately abandoned because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Further touring plans surfaced in 2021 as venues began reopening, but those dates were also cancelled before they could begin. Frontman Mike Patton later explained that mental health struggles were behind the decision and revealed he had been diagnosed with agoraphobia during the pandemic.
Until recently, a reunion seemed unlikely. Patton spoke about Faith No More’s lengthy break and said that he did not “see it as a sad thing”.
Speaking on the Kyle Meredith With… podcast and reflecting on whether he felt a “sense of closure” after the 2016 tour, the vocalist said: “I didn’t really think so at the time, but, yeah, maybe. I think that we all kind of felt it, but it was unspoken.”
“It’s funny: when you’ve been in a band or a musical situation for a period of time, you always, in the back of your head, you’re kind of thinking, ‘Well, maybe this is it.’ And I don’t mind that feeling,” he added. “I don’t see it as a sad thing. I see it as being present and being able to really appreciate it while it’s happening.”
Faith No More have never formally announced a breakup following the cancellation of their 2021 tour, although other members have suggested in recent years that the chances of touring again were uncertain.
Last year, guitarist Roddy Bottum discussed the band's future and admitted they were in a “really weird spot”. “I can’t really tell you what’s going on. I don’t know myself. I get different information from people… and I’m in the band,” he said.
Drummer Mike Bordin echoed similar thoughts last spring, saying that he and some of the other members were willing to perform again, but claimed Patton was “unwilling to do shows with us”.
In addition to leading Faith No More since 1989 after replacing original singer Chuck Mosley, Patton has also been involved with projects including Mr Bungle, Fantômas, and Tomahawk.
Tomahawk recently unveiled plans for their first tour in 13 years, with a series of US dates scheduled for this summer. The run begins in Nashville next month and will also see Patton and his bandmates reunite with longtime labelmates Melvins for the first time since 2003.
Patton has also recently launched his tour with Avett Brothers and teamed up with Jehnny Beth on the new single ‘Look At Me’.
