St. Vincent Calls John Mayer Hit ‘Hideously Sexist,’ Her ‘Worst Song Ever’

St. Vincent has a profound appreciation for music history, something she showcased with her 1970s-inspired 2021 album Daddy’s Home. However, her admiration has its limits, particularly when it comes to one of John Mayer’s early songs.

In a recent interview with Kerrang, St. Vincent was asked to choose “the worst song ever written.” Her pick was Mayer’s “Daughters” from his 2003 album Heavier Things. She elaborated, “It’s just so hideously sexist but it pretends to be a love song. It’s really, really retrograde and really sexist. And I hate it… It’s so deeply misogynistic, which would be fine if you owned that, but it pretends like it’s sweet.”

This isn’t the first time she’s spoken critically about Mayer. In a 2017 Vogue interview, she mentioned that she didn’t mind if fans tried to link her song lyrics with her past relationships, stating, “Songs are Rorschach tests anyway. They say more about you than the person who made them. All my songs are about John Mayer.”

Again, in a 2021 interview with Vinyl Me, Please, St. Vincent shared a humorous yet telling anecdote. “It’s kind of a joke in the music industry that sound people, when they’re walking into a new venue, will put on a Steely Dan record to test the system, because they’re just known for being sonically perfect. One time, a sound guy who I was working with put on John Mayer’s Gravity, and I fired that sound guy.”