John Mayer may be known for being a joker, but there’s nothing funny about his admiration for Taylor Swift.

“There’s something about Taylor that she would have been a star in any decade,” John told Access Hollywood’s Maria Menounos of the 19-year-old country-pop crossover sensation. “Taylor’s like this fresh voice.”

The two collaborated on “Half of My Heart,” off his new album, “Battle Studies,” and although he shared credit with the teen, he couldn’t be more pleased.

“I don’t normally make records to share tracks with people. I’ve never had somebody’s name underneath the title of my song and I couldn’t be happier that she’s on there,” John told Maria. “I consider her a friend. I think she’s a really remarkable person and it’ll be nice to have her name on the record for the rest of my life.”

John smiled when speaking about the teen singer, who recently cleaned up at the CMA Awards, netting four honors including the highly coveted Entertainer of the Year award.

“Taylor Swift is the last person to know she’s Taylor Swift, which I think is totally sweet,” John told Maria of the young woman’s wonderment with life and the accolades that have come her way because of her big talent. “It’s almost like Taylor Swift is like a character in a movie about a small town girl who has her dreams come true and what any small time girl would do when their dreams come true is to freak out.

“I still like it that she freaks out, but pretty soon she’s gonna have to stop because it’s sort of like, ‘You’re that good. You’re that good. You might have to go to therapy and have someone else tell you you’re that good,’” John smiled. “So it’s great to have someone who’s hugely talented and still is able to receive the pleasure in all moments.”

Another track off John Mayer’s Battle Studies has leaked before its November 17th release date: “Half of My Heart,” a duet with Taylor Swift. The pair team up for a nice piece of Fleetwood Mac-inspired pop in which Mayer sings, “Half of my heart is a shotgun wedding to a bride with a paper ring, but half of the heart is the part of a man who hasn’t truly loved anything.” Hit up Perez Hilton to listen to a stream.

“Half of My Heart,” track three on Battle Studies, appears on the brighter side of Mayer’s new LP, as the guitarist recently told Rolling Stone, “The record starts out sort of like the sun is out, then it gets darker. And then the sun comes back out at the end.” “Half” also seems to avoid all the combat metaphors featured on Studies. “I was loving the war theme, the battle theme. The militaristic, vulgar, violent side of a relationship on the down slope,” Mayer told RS.