N-Word Crisis Brings John Mayer to Tears Onstage

Singer breaks down in concert, tells audience he's "done being clever" after catching heat for Playboy interview

Tonight, John Mayer couldn't help but say what he needed to say.

The Grammy winner, whose Twitter page is at this moment largely occupied by a detailed apology for using the N-word during his already graphically informative sit-down for Playboy's March interview, broke down Wednesday during the "Gravity" portion of his show in Nashville.

About halfway through the concert, he stopped playing, apologizing to his bandmates for the interruption.

"I'm done being clever, I just wanna go back to playing my guitar," Mayer tearfully told the audience at the Sommet Center, an eyewitness tells E! News.

Then, after a lengthy pause, he returned to his guitar solo.

His onstage sentiment resembled his last tweet from the day: "I just wanted to play the guitar for people. Everything else just sort of popped up and I improvised, and kept doubling down on it..."

That was right after Twitter user "adilla" reminded him that "they don't make rehab centers for being an a-hole."