Like the rest of America, John Mayer wept when Miley Cyrus decided to leave the Twitter-verse last week. Unlike the rest of America — or, say, the 99.8 percent that isn’t famous — he could sort of understand why she did it.

“I think she’s smart enough to realize there is some interference of the brain that she doesn’t want to deal with. Artists have enough to deal with,” Mayer told MTV News. “She’s a child, she’s a fantastic artist — I think there’s enough mental real estate being taken up by dealing with all of that stuff. … For whatever reason, I am old enough and smart enough to tell someone to go f— themselves if they tell me to go f— myself. I think if you’re in Miley’s situation, it might take a little too much time to play goalie for your own heart and mind. So I totally get it.”

Mayer, a Twitter titan in his own right, said that he shared Cyrus’s frustrations with the site and the nascent negativity it breeds. But, as he’s quick to point out, that’s just the nature of the era in which we live — an era he skewers in “Who Says,” the first single from his upcoming Battle Studies album (due November 17) and one he’s dubbed “The Hate-rix.”

“I call it that because it’s not really happening. It’s just this fake world of people criticizing other people,” he laughed. “It’s a shame, but look, that’s what it comes down to in America. Miley is somebody who’s made a bunch of money doing something she loves. Most people do things they hate, for less money. If somebody can repurpose something that somebody loves doing for a lot of money, in order to make a little bit of that money, they’re gonna do it.

“So nobody hates Miley Cyrus; they’re just picking up on her brand, repurposing it, to try to make a little bit of Miley cash,” he continued. “It’s damaging people’s minds. Imagine Shannon Doherty with a Twitter account, back in the ’90210′ days. That would’ve just flat-out killed her.”

So, in the interest of self-preservation, does Mayer see himself following in Miley’s footsteps and jettisoning his Twitter account? In one word: no.

“I would rather tell the world to eat my a–hole before I would delete my Twitter account,” he laughed.

One Response to “John Mayer on Why Miley Left Twitter”