I love John Mayer’s music but he’s been a jerk lately. I’m still a little ambivalent about him but his jam with 11-year-old fan Austin Christy certainly brightened my day. It also happens to blow my mind especially considering my frustration with hugely popular musicians being so removed from “the masses.”

From Yahoo – John Mayer Duets With 11-Year-Old Fan:

Singer John Mayer found himself in hot water earlier this month after he famously dished about private details regarding exes Jennifer Aniston and Jessica Simpson, and even worse, was widely accused of racism for other comments he made in a Playboy interview. Repeated apologies and tearful onstage apologies did little to curtail the damage done to his reputation.

But Mayer may have found redemption in the form of an act of kindness toward a fellow musician: an 11-year-old named Austin Christy. The boy’s dreams came true at a John Mayer concert in Philadelphia on Sunday night, when the celebrity singer-guitarist invited young Christy onstage to play a song in front of over 25,000 fans.

Mayer’s gesture was prompted by his tween fan’s clever attention-grabbing tactic. Austin, who says he’s been practicing Mayer’s songs for over two years, showed up at Sunday’s show carrying a homemade sign that displayed a hand-drawn guitar and the plea “Can I play ‘Belief” with you?” Mayer couldn’t resist.

In a popular YouTube video of the random act of concert kindness, Austin calmly shares the stage with Mayer, acutely focused on his performance of the song:

“I was really excited. I was thinking that it wasn’t real,” the New Jersey sixth-grader gushed to a reporter after the show.

Christy also told the Courier Post Online, “I thought it was pretty cool because a lot of other artists wanted to play with him and he picked an 11-year-old out of a lot better artists.”

Austin says he learned the particular song he played, “Belief,” for his mom JoAnna, who was there with him in the front row when his pleas were answered.

And Mayer didn’t share just his stage with Austin. Afterwards, the multimillion-album-selling artist gave the boy the red Squier guitar and guitar picks that Austin had borrowed from Mayer for the performance.

Mayer signed the guitar’s base: “To Austin, You rock. Keep playing. See you at your show.”

The incident sparked so much goodwill from fans that when Austin and his mom finally headed home from what was surely one of the best nights of their lives, they were escorted by bodyguards to help them through the crowd of smiling fans.

If John Mayer’s Twitter activity is any indication, the singer, who has been uncharacteristically silent since the aftermath of the Playboy scandal, had his own spirits boosted by his act of onstage kindness.

Just hours after his performance with his young-musician fan, he tweeted, “8 out of 8 band members agree, Philly is always an awesome show. XO J”

What do you think? Was it just a play for forgiveness or was it a genuine act of kindness?