Oh, that, it was just a phase

WHEN John Mayer says he’s done all there is to do in pop music, the 27-year-old singer-songwriter is not boasting. A winner of multiple Grammy Awards, including 2004 song of the year “Daughters,” Mayer is one of the artists responsible for revitalizing broad commercial interest in adult contemporary music.

But the man who climbed the pop charts based on such hits as “Your Body Is a Wonderland” wore out even his own welcome.

“This palate that I think I had a lot to do with creating became sickening to me, like the sound of the acoustic guitar doing that thing with that drum became this kind of sonic brown,” he says. “I officially called myself done.”

Sitting in the restaurant at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons, dressed in a black button-down shirt and faded jeans, his hair having grown out, Mayer -- now the leader of a trio featuring veterans Steve Jordan on drums and Pino Palladino on bass -- says, “I may have been forced to evolve a bit. Not to say I was the first person to do [the acoustic guitar sound], because there was Dave Matthews and David Gray.... I don’t know what would have happened if I was the only person playing acoustic guitar and singing what I was singing about. I might have made two more records like that. But the reality is there was so much other music like that, I just said, ‘I quit.’ ”

So, having departed his perch atop the pop world, where does Mayer go? Does he follow in the footsteps of MTV contemporaries such as Britney Spears and get his own TV show (something he tried once for VH1 and now says, “It made me miserable. I became airport-famous.”)? Does he appear in films as Usher and Alicia Keys are planning?

No, Mayer is turning his attention to the music he loves. “What I was always meant to do, what I wanted to do, was play blues,” he says. “Now that I have the pop sensibility, I’m going to combine it with the blues sensibility I’ve always had and go on to phase two, which is instead of taking singer-songwriter stuff and making it my own, take the blues and pop and make it my own.”

Onstage at the Viper Room in December, Mayer proved he had the chops, channeling the spirit of guitar heroes Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix as he ripped through a ferocious display of guitar prowess that prompted ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons to spontaneously leap on stage in approval.

No less an authority than B.B. King -- whose new album Mayer guests on -- gives the young gun his seal of approval. “This is his time, his day,” King says. “It’s time to make his mark in the world. It’s fun for me to watch him as he goes about it. He’s a good musician.”

To conquer phase two of his career, Mayer has recruited Jordan and Palladino. “The John Mayer Trio is not me with a bass player and a drummer; it’s me with Steve and Pino,” says Mayer, who comes to town next week for three sold-out shows at the local Houses of Blues, of the trio’s first tour.

Having headlined Madison Square Garden and the Staples Center, Mayer has no problem coming back down to intimate venues with his new endeavor. “I love the idea that we’re playing 1,200-seat places,” he says. “It’s almost not like using any of daddy’s money to get a kick-start. It’s kind of like, ‘We’ll start ourselves at a thousand people, just for good measure.’ ”

In fact, Mayer, who is hands-on in every aspect of the John Mayer Trio, from designing the artwork of a live album (due in November) to the website, is ecstatic to be treating the trio as if he were a newcomer. “The blues sensibility is what’s at the center of this, blues and jazz, the freedom of that is what I’ve always been drawn to. And I’ve never felt better. I feel like I’m going into my first record,” he says in between sips of bottled water.

And what of critics who are likely to look askance at a pop star-turned-bluesman. “My big fear in all this is that it doesn’t sound contrived,” he says. “It doesn’t sound like a guy who wrote girl ballads wants to get out of it, ‘cause I do have to accept my fate a little bit.”

And he has shown by repeatedly playing with Buddy Guy, among others, that he is willing to pay his dues. “So if I happen to have taken the pop elevator to get to the top of the blues ladder, then I’m going to go climb down the ladder to get back up,” he says.

Not that Mayer is aiming to duplicate his fame in a new genre.

“I’m not out to win anybody over this year,” he says. “I’m not trying to get the ‘demographic’ that I didn’t get on the other records. I’m playing against the house in a percentage game. I’m not trying to win this hand, but I’m trying to beat the house over the entire period of the night.”

And, like some of his inspirations -- including Eric Clapton and King -- Mayer is trying to outdo only himself each time out.

“My heroes were daunted by music, even five, six, seven, eight records in. They stepped up a new level and were challenged by it,” he says. “It’s pretty shallow to believe you’ve done all there is to do in the world of music.”

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Steve Baltin can be reached at weekend@latimes.com.

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John Mayer

Who: John Mayer Trio, with Ray Lamontagne

Where: House of Blues Anaheim, 1530 S. Disneyland Drive, Anaheim

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday

Price: $38.50 (sold out)

Info: (714) 778-2583

Also

Where: House of Blues, 8430 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday and next Thursday

Price: $38.50 (sold out)

Info: (323) 848-5100