Back in 2017, Guitar World featured acoustic guitar virtuoso Mike Dawes' stellar rendition of Slow Dancing in a Burning Room and – spoiler alert – it went mega viral.
“Actually, it went viral partly because you guys at Guitar World natively posted it,” Dawes divulges in a recent video interview with Guitar World, during which he reminisces about this pivotal moment in his career, which even led to a collaboration with Tommy Emmanuel.
“I arranged this amazing John Mayer song, Slow Dancing in a Burning Room for solo guitar back in, like, 2017 so quite a while ago,” he recalls. “This was before it kind of became a guitar meme. Now, you go into Guitar Center, and someone does that.
“I feel ashamed to say this, [but] I wasn't too familiar with John Mayer's music. I grew up listening to Iron Maiden, and it was just a different world. But I just heard that specific song, totally organically on the radio, and I just thought, ‘That's a great song.’
He continues, “When I listen to certain songs and think about, ‘Oh, would it make a good guitar arrangement?’ There are certain characteristics that they have to have, and this had all those characteristics. And I was also looking for a ballad in my set that was a cover that would tick certain boxes, and this just had all of that.”
As for whether he has ever talked to Mayer himself about it, Dawes says he hasn't had “any communication with John Mayer – but I know a lot of his guitar techs and people in his circle have probably shared it around.”
And one thing he'd tell Mayer if he had the chance to meet him? Dawes' response is simple: “Oh gosh, thank you for the incredible song, man.
“Honestly, having learned that song and dissected it in the way that one does when they're doing a solo guitar cover, you really get to know a song,” he explains.
“You know, the ironic thing, and the curse of solo guitar arrangements, is that when you're really going through things so forensically and getting all the little nuances in there, you then don't want to listen to the song anymore, because it kind of ruins the song for you.
“But I will say, out of all the songs I've done, I still listen to Slow Dancing in the Burning Room, because it's just timeless. Every guitar player should really learn that song. I think it's just a masterclass in songwriting.
“And there's so much tasty guitar playing that's also pretty achievable for a lot of people as well. I think it should, should be in everyone's repertoire,” he concludes.
Elsewhere in the interview, Dawes talks about working with Tommy Emmanuel – and that one time he nearly met John Mayer.
