John Mayer Called Jessica Simpson "Sexual Napalm," but What Does That Mean?

Few people have had a more confusing, alarming, and controversial love life than John Mayer. The guitar player and singer has dated many of the most famous women on the planet, and at times, he's been remarkably open about his feelings about each of those relationships.

Among the relationships that John discussed the most was his time spent with Jessica Simpson. In fact, he once described her as "sexual napalm," a phrase that is disturbing and confusing in equal measure. Here's what he meant by it.

In an interview with Playboy from 2010, John discussed his relationship with Jessica, whom he dated from 2006-2007. He was asked about how it felt to bring the paparazzi into his life during the relationship and explained in response that he was addicted to the singer sexually.

"It wasn't as direct as me saying, 'I now make the choice to bring the paparazzi into my life.' I really said, 'I now make the choice to sleep with Jessica Simpson,'" he explained.

"That was stronger than my desire to stay out of the paparazzi's eye," he continued. "That girl, for me, is a drug. And drugs aren't good for you if you do lots of them. Yeah, that girl is like crack cocaine to me. ... Sexually it was crazy. That's all I'll say. It was like napalm, sexual napalm."

Evocative, John, thank you.

What's weird about this quote, though, is that it seems like John doesn't know exactly what napalm is.

Napalm is not an addictive substance but is instead a flammable jelly used in explosives. Most people associate it with a kind of burning sensation. It's possible that John was suggesting that, even though he was addicted to sleeping with Jessica Simpson, the relationship was causing him more pain than it was worth. It's also possible that he thought napalm was a drug or just misspoke.

John's fairly detailed comments about his relationship with Jessica made headlines, so much so that Jessica responded during an interview with Oprah, saying, "I tried to read the article and I was so ... I was so disappointed in him. ... It made me so sad. And it was really discouraging because that's not the John that I knew."

In discussing the incident in her memoir, Jessica explained how stunned she was.

“He thought that was what I wanted to be called. I was floored and embarrassed that my grandmother was actually gonna read that. ... A woman and how they are in bed is not something that is ever talked about. It was shocking. ... He was the most loyal person on the planet and when I read that he wasn’t, that was it for me. I erased his number. He made it easy for me to walk away," she wrote.

For his part, Mayer has said that he never read Jessica's book, in part because he lived through it. More than 15 years have now passed since the two of them dated.