Matt Roberts/Getty ImagesHis mind is a wonderland — if by that, you mean a wonderland of weird. Tuesday night, John Mayer sat in with house band Cleto and the Cletones on Jimmy Kimmel Live! But you wouldn’t have recognized him — he appeared in disguise as guitarist Hank “The Hawk” Knutley, who looked like a combination of Shooter Jennings and Zakk Wylde. With long dark hair held back with a bandanna, a beard and sunglasses, and a plaid shirt coming open at his gut, Mayer introduced as the supposedly legendary guitarist.
Mayer’s Knutley played and sang with a countrified Southern rock grit while he and Kimmel kept up the ruse throughout the show as Mayer played in and out of commercial between segments.
Later, just as Knutley was about to perform on stage, Kimmel started to introduce him — only to “suddenly” see through Mayer’s disguise. As Kimmel pulled off the beard and wig, the audience cheered as Mayer was revealed.
When Kimmel pressed him on why he would appear in disguise, Mayer replied, “It’s just that Ed Sheeran is killing it right now and I thought that maybe if I played a different person than I could get a chance to make it.”
Mayer — this time as himself — played “Still Feel Like a Man” from his new EP, The Search for Everything — Wave Two. He kicks off his The Search for Everything Tour March 31 in Albany, New York.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! airs week nights at 11:35 p.m. on ABC.
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