John Mayer at Home

"After I finally figured out how to behave, and how to dress, I wanted to get the next thing-my apartment-right," says John Mayer, the 31-year-old pop wunderkind turned guitar hero. "It's the last piece of the style puzzle."

Call it a quarter-life crisis, but Mayer wanted to put down roots. "A year ago, it never would have been right for me. But I've changed. I'm confident I've earned the happiness a real home base brings," says the 15-time Grammy nominee, who picked up the first of seven statuettes at age 25, while wearing a Giorgio Armani suit. It was no coincidence. The Italian fashion designer and the American rock star share a mutual admiration. "If my apartment could make me feel the way I do in Mr. Armani's suits, life would be really wonderful," Mayer recalls thinking when he bought a 2,500-square-foot spread in New York City's SoHo. Armani agreed to help. "I wanted to create a sophisticated environment for John," the fashion icon says, "one that will bring as much pleasure to him as his music brings to us."

The apartment is strong yet not intimidating, like the self-effacing Mayer himself. "You should have a picture of yourself as a kid in your home," he says, "so that you remember where you came from." His childhood snapshot sits on a chest of drawers in his bedroom. The faded photo is upstaged by a beloved collection of art depicting musical idols such as Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix, whose rendering in graphite greets Mayer the moment he walks in the door. "Most people think he just lit things on fire, but the beauty of his music got lost in the rock-god folklore," says Mayer, who knows a little bit about being misunderstood himself. "It's intentional that there's not a lot of music gear here. I can be a person, not a musician, in this apartment."