John Mayer and Taylor Swift were briefly romantically involved in late 2009 and early 2010, and although their relationship was short, it produced a few songs and a feud.

Almost 5 years after their fling, John Mayer addressed his feelings towards his much younger ex in an MSNBC interview.

“We have to be able to talk about Taylor Swift professionally. Artists need the person with the loudest voice to speak for them,” Mayer said, referring to Swift.

“You can go to the Met Ball. That’s great. A great way to use your voice is to go ‘I’m wearing Valentino.’ Or you can use your voice to give things.”

John Mayer also commented on his ex’s star status, concluding he will never be as popular as she is.

“Nothing bothers me anymore. There are going to be times when I make music as popular or empirically valuable as [Swift’s] in terms of making pop music that won’t sell as many copies and I’m fine with that. Look, if I save a baby from a burning building and Kanye [West] saves a baby from a burning building, Kanye’s going to get more Google News hits. And I’m fine with it.”

His advice for his younger self? “There was never a shot of doing this perfectly.”