Taylor Swift rarely goes on record as to who her songs are about, and even if the subjects of those songs know they’re about them, they keep quiet about it as well. But finally, there’s an artist who’s willing to confirm that yes, she’s the person Taylor’s talking about in the title track of The Tortured Poets Department.
In the song, Taylor sings, “Sometimes, I wonder if you’re gonna screw this up with me/ But you told Lucy you’d kill yourself if I ever leave/ And I had said that to Jack about you, so I felt seen.”
Lucy Dacus, of the Grammy-winning alt-rock trio boygenius, tells People, “I think it’s fair game to say ‘yes,’ [it’s me]. She actually texted me and asked for my approval.” And most agree that “Jack” is Taylor’s producer Jack Antonoff, but nobody’s confirmed that. As for the “you,” that’s up for debate, too — many believe it’s The 1975 singer Matty Healy.
Lucy said of the experience of hearing her name in the song, “I pushed play on the album just like, ‘Oh, this is so crazy.’ This is the first Taylor record to come out since meeting her, and listening to a friend’s record feels so much different than a stranger’s record.”
She continued: “So I was like, ‘This is really weird. This voice that I’ve heard basically what feels like my whole waking life saying my name.'”
Lucy’s bandmates in boygenius are Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers; Phoebe was one of Taylor’s opening acts for the Eras Tour. At the Grammy Awards in 2024, Taylor crashed the group’s backstage photo shoot.
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