Songfacts®:

• High school students who feel stifled by parents, teachers and administrators will relate to this song, where John Mayer challenges the idea that we need to pursue sensible careers to survive in the "real world." He knew a secret: there is no "real world." A successful accountant can feel a lot less fulfilled than a failed musician - it's best to do whatever lights your fire.
• John Mayer graduated from Fairfield Warde High School in 1995. It's in a wealthy enclave of Connecticut that breeds a lot more bankers than artists, so Mayer felt he was pushing against their winds when he didn't go the college route and enter a field like finance.
  
  On a VH1 Storytellers appearance, he explained: "The older I get, the more I realize that I'm a control freak, so I think a lot of the songs are objections to reality, objections to the reality that I have created by what other people think or what other people have to say. Being in a suburban, northeastern town like Fairfield, Connecticut, it's not the most conducive place for being a songwriter, artist or guitar player. So 'No Such Thing' comes out of, 'Why not? Who says I can't?' What's really interesting is, fame didn't satisfy that. Success didn't really satisfy it. In some ways, it just sends me back further into the feeling that I'm being misunderstood."
• "No Such Thing" was John Mayer's first single. He took some time off after high school graduation, then in 1997 enrolled at Berklee College Of Music, where he did two semesters before moving to Atlanta to pursue music. He built a following locally by playing lots of live shows, and he earned fans around the world by posting his songs on music sharing services like Napster and on his website. His digital savvy and willingness to put his music out there for free gave him a leg up and earned him a record deal with Columbia Records.
  
  Mayer was already well seasoned when "No Such Thing" was issued in 2001. The song was a good choice because it tells his story and exemplifies his sound. The song was a hit, rising to #13 in the US and giving Mayer a strong foothold. His next single, "Your Body Is A Wonderland," was also a hit, and his debut album, Room For Squares, went on to sell over 4 million copies in America.
• Mayer wrote this song with Clay Cook, his partner in a duo called Lo-Fi Masters, which formed when they were both students at Berklee. Cook joined the Zac Brown Band in 2009.
• Credit Mayer for practicing what he preaches in this song. About a decade into his recording career he felt like he was stagnating, and got the sense that all new music was just variations on something he had already heard. Then he discovered the Grateful Dead. Enthralled with their sound, he got together with three of their former members and formed the band Dead & Company in 2015. This was an odd pairing but it worked. Mayer's fans generally ignored it, but he won over the Deadheads by showing a reverence for their music and filling the shoes of their late frontman Jerry Garcia as well as could be expected.
• Directed by Sam Erickson, the music video was shot at the Georgia Theatre in Athens, Georgia during one of Mayer's shows. Mayer was just 23 when the song was released so you would think he'd be aimed at the MTV crowd, but the video was better suited to the older-skewing VH1, which put it in rotation.