Highlights
- Taylor Swift idolized Paul McCartney and was influenced by his music throughout her childhood. She met him backstage at one of his concerts and was impressed by his kindness.
- Swift and McCartney have mutual respect for each other, as shown during their interview for Rolling Stone. McCartney had planned on asking Swift to duet with him on one of her biggest hits at the Glastonbury Festival.
- McCartney's song "Who Cares" was inspired by Swift and her relationship with her fans. He admired her sisterly connection with young fans and drew inspiration from her personal life. McCartney also had insider knowledge of Swift's surprise album release.
Taylor Swift is becoming known as the superstar of her generation. She has accumulated a ton of awards, hit songs, blockbuster albums, and sold out shows. Those shows are growing in abundance with her current "Eras Tour."
Whenever an artist reaches the level Swift has, they have a ton of influences. For Swift, The Beatles' Paul McCartney is one of those influences.
Swift once talked about meeting him backstage after one of his concerts. Little did she know that one day McCartney would look to her for inspiration when writing one of his own songs.
Taylor Idolized Paul McCartney Growing Up And First Met Him After One Of His Concerts
Swift has been influenced by a number of artists across all genres of music. Earlier in her career, she would talk about McCartney's influence on her in an interview with Country Music Channel.
"I discovered his music on my own as a child, then bought all of the Beatles and Paul McCartney tapes and CDs I could find," Swift revealed. "Paul writes about his life and the things he’s learned about love in such a brilliantly simple way. I feel as if I’ve been let into his heart and his mind."
Swift would eventually meet her idol backstage after one of his concerts.
"When I met him backstage at his 2010 concert in Nashville," she recalled. "I remember being excited that he was such a kind person. Seeing him sing ‘Blackbird’ live will always be a moment I won’t forget."
Paul McCartney Planned On Asking Taylor To Duet With Him On One Of Her Biggest Hits During Glastonbury
Swift and McCartney's mutual respect for each other was on display again when the two interviewed each other for Rolling Stone in 2020.
The conversation was filled with revelations, including McCartney's surprising plans for the Glastonbury Festival in the UK, which was canceled due to the pandemic.
"It would’ve been great, wouldn’t it? And I was going to be asking you to play with me," McCartney told Swift.
"Were you going to invite me?" Swift asked. "I was hoping that you would. I was going to ask you."
"I would’ve done ‘Shake It Off,’" McCartney revealed. "I know it, it’s in C!"
Among other topics discussed was Swift's time working with Aaron Dessner.
"It turned out he had been writing instrumental tracks to keep from absolutely going crazy during the pandemic as well, so he sends me this file of probably 30 instrumentals, and the first one I opened ended up being a song called ‘Cardigan,’" Swift revealed. "He’d send me a track; he’d make new tracks, add to the folder; I would write the entire top line for a song, and he wouldn’t know what the song would be about, what it was going to be called, where I was going to put the chorus.I had originally thought, ‘Maybe I’ll make an album in the next year, and put it out in January or something,’ but it ended up being done and we put it out in July."
She continued, "And I just thought there are no rules anymore, because I used to put all these parameters on myself, like, ‘How will this song sound in a stadium? How will this song sound on radio?’ If you take away all the parameters, what do you make? And I guess the answer is ‘Folklore.’"
McCartney said that he had a similar attitude while making his album.
"It’s more music for yourself than music that’s got to go do a job," McCartney explained. "My thing was similar to that: After having done this little bit of film music, I had a lot of stuff that I had been working on… and it’d be left half-finished. So I just started saying, ‘Well, what about that? I never finished that.’"
He continued, "And because it didn’t have to amount to anything, I would say, ‘Ah, I really want to do tape loops. I don’t care if they fit on this song, I just want to do some.’ So I go and make some tape loops, and put them in the song, just really trying to do stuff that I fancy. … I had no idea it would end up as an album; I may have been a bit less indulgent."
Paul McCartney Wrote His Song 'Who Cares' About Taylor And Her Relationship With Her Fans
When McCartney released his album "Egypt Station," many of his fans were surprised to learn that one of its tracks was inspired by Swift. The song "Who Cares" is mainly inspired by Swift's personal life and her relationship with her fans.
McCartney spoke about Swift and the song's inspiration in a BBC interview.
"I was actually thinking about Taylor Swift and her relationship to her young fans and how it’s sort of a sisterly thing," McCartney said. "And I was imagining talking to one of these young fans and saying, ‘Have you ever been bullied? Do you get bullied?’"
McCartney would later reveal to Howard Stern that he knew of Swift's second surprise album of 2020 before everyone else.
"I did the Rolling Stone cover with Taylor Swift and she just emailed me recently and she said, ‘I wasn’t telling anyone, but I’ve got another album,’ what’s it called… 'Evermore?’" he spilled.
McCartney even revealed Swift decided to move her album release date, as he was planning on releasing an album the same day.
"‘So I was going to put it out on my birthday’ — which I think was the 10th. And then she said, ‘but I found out that you were going to put it out on the 10th so I moved to the 18th.’ And then she found out we were coming out on the 18th, so she moved back to the 10th. So, you know, people do keep out of each other’s way. It’s a nice thing to do."
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