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.
The estate of Prince has shared a previously unheard recording of “With This Tear,” a track the late icon originally wrote before passing it on to Celine Dion in the early 1990s.
The newly revealed version, released through NPG Records and Legacy Recordings, presents Prince’s own recording of the piano driven ballad, fully written, produced and performed by him. It was initially recorded at Paisley Park in November 1991 and had stayed in the vault until now.
Dion’s interpretation of “With This Tear” was included on her 1992 self titled album, highlighting one of many moments where Prince created songs for other artists while holding back his own versions. His original recording feels more minimal, putting the focus on his vocals and piano arrangement.
The newly issued version has been given an updated mix by Grammy nominated producer Chris James, who has worked on several Prince related releases before. This drop is part of the Prince Estate’s ongoing effort to open up more of his deep archive of unreleased music.
The release arrives at a meaningful moment, just ahead of the 10th anniversary of Prince’s passing. Since 2016, a consistent flow of archival material including deluxe reissues, vault recordings and rare collaborations has kept his legacy active in today’s music landscape while offering a closer look at how much he created.
“With This Tear” also highlights Prince’s long established role as a songwriter for others. Across his career, he wrote and produced tracks for a wide range of artists, often shaping songs that evolved into entirely new identities outside his own discography.
The release comes amid growing attention around Prince’s archive in recent years. In 2024, a demo of “Baby Doll,” an unreleased collaboration between Prince and Kylie Minogue, surfaced online and showed just how much material still remains unheard.
While there has been no official confirmation of a larger vault project, reports continue to suggest that more archival releases could be on the way.
