Taylor Swift has a message for her followers: Don’t cyber-bully the individuals I write songs about.
The star gave a speech on stage to her followers whereas on stage for The Eras Tour within the US, earlier than launching right into a efficiency of her 2010 observe, Dear John. The track was on the Speak Now album, which Swift is re-releasing on July seventh.
“I was hoping to ask you that as we lead up to this album coming out, I would love for that kindness and that gentleness to extend onto our internet activities,” Swift stated.
“I’m 33 years old, I don’t care about anything that happened to me when I was 19 except the songs I wrote,” she continued, including her listeners shouldn’t “feel the need to defend me on the internet against someone you think I might have written a song about 14 billion years ago.”
READ MORE: Taylor Swift’s Australian Eras Tour 2024: Everything it’s worthwhile to know
She then launched into the seven-minute breakup track Dear John, that Swifties have lengthy believed is about her ex-boyfriend John Mayer.
This plea from Swift comes on the again of the 2021 releases of Red (Taylor’s Version) and Fearless (Taylor’s Version), which contained songs about her breakups with exes Jake Gyllenhaal and Joe Jonas.
READ MORE: Aussie Taylor Swift followers pulling from housing deposit accounts to fund tickets
Both of them had been the topic of social media scrutiny as every album was launched, as savage Swifties despatched them hate messages on-line for weeks on finish.
It appears that Swift is making an attempt to nip this behaviour within the bud, encouraging her followers to maintain their cool this time round.
Though she by no means talked about him by identify, Swift followers have assumed that this on-stage request is in reference to John Mayer. So what happened between the pair and why do individuals think Dear John is about him?
What happened between Taylor Swift and John Mayer?
Taylor Swift and John Mayer dated briefly in 2009, when she was 19 and he was 32. He first reached out to her on Twitter, after Swift stated that her two favorite musical artists had been him and Kanye West.
He tweeted that he had a track titled Half of My Heart that he wished Swift to collaborate on. “She would make a killer Stevie Nicks in contrast to my Tom Petty of a song,” he wrote.
Having simply launched her second album, Swift jumped on the alternative “I freaked out when I heard, because I’ve been such a big fan of John for such a long time,” she informed Elle in an interview. “I’m really excited about just the idea that he would even mention me in his Twitter!”
READ MORE: How Taylor Swift and Matty Healy’s ‘romance’ spurred the most important controversy she’s had in years
Just a few months later, Mayer joined her on stage on the Fearless tour in Los Angeles to sing two songs collectively. In June 2009, their duet Half of my Heart was launched as a single.
Though there have been by no means any official reviews that the couple had been romantically concerned, here is the place followers have dissected lyrics to determine the timeline.
Is Dear John about John Mayer?
When Swift launched her album Speak Now in 2010, followers had been fast to imagine that the observe Dear John was about Mayer. His identify is proper there, after all of it.
Typically, a ‘pricey John’ letter is a notice from a girl to a person, ending their relationship.
Lyrics of Dear John embody:
“Dear John, I see it all now it was wrong / Don’t you think nineteen is too young / To be played by your dark twisted games, when I loved you so? / I should’ve known“
The pop star has by no means confirmed nor denied who the track is about, but it surely looks as if Mayer assumed he was the topic. Two years after the track was launched, he stated that he “didn’t deserve” to be known as out.
“It made me feel terrible. It was a really lousy thing to do,” Mayer informed Rolling Stone “I never got an email. I never got a phone call. I was really caught off guard.”
“[‘Dear John’ is] cheap song writing,” he added. “It’s abusing your talent to rub your hands together and go, ‘Wait til he gets a load of this!’ That’s bulls–t.”
It additionally looks as if one other of Swift’s ex-boyfriends thinks that Dear John is about Mayer. Taylor Lautner, who dated Swift in 2008, joked that he was “praying for John” when Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) was introduced in May.
READ MORE: Taylor Swift named second-richest self-made lady in music
How lengthy did Taylor Swift and John Mayer date?
They first carried out their track Half Of My Heart on stage collectively throughout Mayer’s set on the Jingle Bell Ball in 2009. The pair had been “confirmed” to be an merchandise right now by shut sources.
Neither Mayer nor Swift ever spoke publicly about their relationship, but it surely’s broadly assumed they dated for just a few months, and had cut up by June 2010.
They had been each on the CMT Awards in June however did not work together, a second which probably impressed one other track, Story of Us. She revealed in an interview that it was impressed by her encounter with an ex-boyfriend at an awards present.
“We’re sitting six seats away from each other and just fighting this silent war of ‘I don’t care that you’re here.’ I don’t care that you’re here.’ It’s so terribly, heartbreakingly awkward.”
Swift additionally reveals this was the final observe she wrote for the Speak Now album, which is sensible – it was launched only a few months after the CMT awards.
What songs did John Mayer write about Taylor Swift?
In 2013, Mayer launched a observe titled Paper Doll, about a woman who was too fragile to deal with a relationship. One explicit lyric Swift followers fixated on was “someone’s gonna paint you another sky”, which parallels the Dear John lyric “paint me a blue sky, and go back and turn it to rain”.
The refrain additionally incorporates the road, “you’re like twenty-two girls in one,” which could possibly be in reference to Swift’s track 22.
Another puzzle piece (possibly) fell into place in April 2023. On the identical day that information broke of Swift’s cut up from her ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn, Mayer selected to carry out Paper Doll at his live performance, although it wasn’t on his common set listing.
Perhaps it was a coincidence, maybe not.
What has Taylor stated about John Mayer?
Since 2010, Swift hasn’t spoken in any respect about John Mayer.
The star has by no means confirmed who her songs are about, both. Fans consider there are three songs written about the small print of her relationship with Mayer: Dear John and Story of Us on Speak Now and Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve on the Midnights (3AM version).
The latter particulars a relationship the singer was in on the age of 19 with an older man. Lyrics embody:
“I damn sure never would’ve danced with the devil… At nineteen,” and: “Living for the thrill of hitting you where it hurts. Give me back my girlhood, it was mine first.”
Who did John Mayer date after Taylor Swift?
Following his alleged relationship with 19-year-old Swift, Mayer then dated singer Katy Perry from 2012 to 2014.
READ MORE: Taylor Swift’s courting historical past
In 2022, he was noticed leaving a restaurant with 23-year-old Sabrina actress Kiernan Shipka, although no relationship was confirmed.
During an interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast in December 2022, Mayer stated he was finished with courting.
“Dating is no longer a codified activity for me, it doesn’t exist in a kind of… It’s not patterned anymore,” the Waiting On the World to Change singer stated, explaining that sobriety performed a giant half in his determination.
All the celebrities noticed at Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour
Discussion about this post