New York, November 13, 2008 - John Mayer thinks it’s in poor taste to flaunt his rock star millions while people are losing jobs all over.  “There are certain things I don’t think I would do right now because it’s not a time to celebrate the country in terms of the economy,” Mayer said before his performance at Keep a Child Alive’s Black Ball on November 13.  “I don’t think that I’d be racing up and down the street in a Ferrari right now,” he said. “Even if I had a Ferrari, I don’t think I’d take it out,” he added.

In fact, it apparently is not his fancy cars that have attracted Mayer’s string of high-profile girlfriends.   “I think the best form of recycling is buying used cars, so I haven’t bought a new car in like five years,” he told us.  “I’m into Land Rovers, like old, used Defenders.”  Not only that, Mayer works on them himself!  “I watch my hands, but I’m sort of figuring out how to do all that stuff,” he says.  (Maybe that explains the butch haircut?)

But Mayer is not economizing too much – he has three 1990s-era Defender models.  Alas, he would not tell us how many of the off-road utility vehicles are up on blocks in his front yard.