John Mayer asks people to ‘please be kind’ amid Taylor Swift’s ‘Speak Now’ re-release

John Mayer is speaking out amid the re-release of Taylor Swift’s “Speak Now,” on which two songs are believed to be about their short-lived relationship between 2009 and 2010.

The “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” singer, 45, appealed to fans at both his recent Colorado show and on Instagram, with a snap from the concert that showed drones spelling out “Please Be Kind.”

The request echoes that of ex Swift, who made a similar appeal during her Eras Tour before performing a rendition of “Dear John” — a track off the original 2010 album which is widely believed to be about Mayer.

“As we lead up to this album [”Speak Now”], I would love for that kindness and that gentleness to extend onto our internet activities,” Swift reportedly said at her June 24 concert in Minneapolis. “I’m 33 years old, I don’t care about anything that happened to me when I was 19 except the songs I wrote. ... I am not putting this album out so you should feel the need to defend me on the internet against someone you think I wrote a song about 14 million years ago.”

While Swift has never confirmed the song’s inspiration, John Mayer more or less did. In 2012, he slammed the song as a “lousy thing” for Swift to do, saying it “humiliated” him.

“It made me feel terrible because I didn’t deserve it,” he told Rolling Stone at the time. “I’m pretty good at taking accountability now, and I never did anything to deserve that. It was a really lousy thing for her to do.”

Also believed but never confirmed to be about Mayer is the album’s fellow breakup track “The Story of Us.”

Swift and Mayer’s calls for kindness come after the 2021 re-release of “Red” spawned a much-anticipated, longer version of “All Too Well” — and with it, a flurry of internet hate against its presumed inspiration, Jake Gyllenhaal. In addition to a similar age gap she had with Mayer, the Grammy winner shared a brief romance with the “Nightcrawler” actor, now 42.

Early last year, Gyllenhaal, who turned off Instagram comments following the album drop, finally opened up about that experience.

“It has nothing to do with me,” he said at the time. “Artists tap into personal experiences for inspiration, and I don’t begrudge anyone that. ... I think it’s important when supporters get unruly that we feel a responsibility to have them be civil and not allow for cyberbullying in one’s name.”