Taylor Swift says, “This podcast got me a boyfriend,” referring to when Travis Kelce went on the “New Heights” podcast he hosts with his brother, Jason Kelce, and lamented the fact that he didn’t get to give Swift a friendship bracelet with his number on it after attending The Eras Tour in 2023.
Two years later, Kelce and Swift have taken the world by storm as a couple — appearing at NHL games together and taking on the NFL world, and now Swift is the featured guest on a podcast traditionally made for NFL fans.
A staggering 1.3 million people tuned in live to watch the episode of the podcast she appeared on Wednesday, “Taylor Swift on Reclaiming Her Masters, Wrapping The Eras Tour, and The Life of a Showgirl,” which aired on YouTube.
There were so many people watching live that a glitch took place, cutting the interview 15 minutes short.
This is Swift’s first appearance on a podcast ever and her first televised interview in years, and Swift appeared relaxed and comfortable on screen throughout the interview.
A clip leading up to the interview, where Swift announced her 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” reached an astounding 5.3 million likes on Instagram.
Taylor Swift talks learning about football
Swift is new to the football world and admitted that before starting to date Kelce that she didn’t know what a first down or a tight end was.
Growing up, Swift said she just went to sports games in order to sing the national anthem and perform.
“I don’t think I’ve ever caught anything that’s been thrown near me, around me,” she joked.
Kelce said he’s “forever thankful for you diving into the football world wholeheartedly,” and Swift responded saying, “I fell in love with it. I became obsessed with it.”
She said she continues to learn more about the game and that “I’m not ready to be an analyst right now, but give me ... 16 months.”
She says she “became obsessed with sports when it came to him,” referring to Kelce. “I get competitive for him.”
Taylor Swift talks owning her music outright
Jason Kelce led the interview with questions for Swift. One of the first things he asked about was how she feels now that she owns all her own music.
Swift signed a record deal at 15 and hasn’t owned all of her own master recordings until this summer, following years of a fight to gain full ownership over her own work.
“I want it because this is my handwritten diary entries from my whole life, these are the songs I wrote about every phase of my life, this is my photography, my music videos, most of which I funded, my artwork, everything I’ve ever done is in this catalog,” Swift said.
When it came time to buy her music this year from Shamrock Capitol, Swift grew emotional when she shared that rather than send lawyers to negotiate the terms, she sent her mother and brother.
“They told them what this meant for me,” Swift said. “They told them the whole story.”
A while later, she got a call from her mom telling her the good news.
“We’re in Kansas City, and I get a call from my mom, and she’s like, ‘You got your music,’” she said. “And I just very dramatically hit the floor for real balling my eyes out, just weeping.”
Taylor Swift talks rerecording her music
When her music was sold to another buyer in 2019, Swift went to social media to express frustrations at not being given the chance to purchase the rights. Shortly after that, she announced plans to rerecord her first six albums and release them for her fans.
Most of the industry warned her against doing it, but she said she was able to reach out to friends of hers like Maren Morris, Hayley Williams, Chris Stapleton, among other big names, to collaborate on the bonus tracks of the albums.
Jason Kelce praised the diehard Swiftie community for being willing to listen to the same songs over again.
“You told a story with the second time you released the album, and the fans got behind that narrative,” he said.
He asked her what her favorite album was to rerecord, and she said she liked them all but that she has a special place in her heart for “Red (Taylor’s Version).”
On that album, she released a 10-minute version of fan-favorite song “All Too Well.”
“On The Eras Tour, I’m watching people cathartically scream this song to the point where I’m like, ‘Do you need to go to the hospital?’” she said. “It was so passionate, the fan response to this song at The Eras Tour, and I remember thinking, ‘What if this never happened? What if I never had to record this?’”
Taylor Swift talks The Eras Tour
The Eras Tour was the highest grossing tour in history spanning across 149 shows across five continents and 51 cities, and Swift shared how taking a break from that marathon feels.
“I do miss it, but it was perfect for what it was,” she said. “It was a lot of physical therapy and a lot of being in a perpetual state of discomfort — kind of like when you’re in season. I’m not getting hit by huge 300-pounders but the heels for that long!"
She explained that when she was coming up with the concepts for the elaborate show, she tried to draw upon themes from theater, ballet, the opera and other high-level art forms.
“I wanted to show fans and especially younger fans visuals and performance art references that were really important to me as a kid and sort of inspired me to want to do this,” she said.
Kelce credited the show for their relationship, saying, “If I had never gone to that show and just been mesmerized, been captivated. Left with such a desire to meet you, I never would have went on here and told everybody how butthurt I was. I’ve never been so engulfed with the curiosity of who you were.”
Jason Kelce joked, “Look at this. One of the best things about that last statement is you didn’t even know what engulfed meant before you met Taylor. You’ve broadened your horizons so much.”
Taylor Swift talks about her hobbies and obsession with bread
With being off the tour, Swift expressed gratitude for having time to get her hobbies back.
“I’d say all my hobbies could be categorized as hobbies you could have had in the 1700s,” she joked.
She shared how she loves to sew and specializes in making children’s purses and baby blankets. She enjoys painting and cooking and talked more about her “baking obsession.”
Right now, she’s very into sourdough bread.
“Sourdough has taken over my life in a huge way,” she said. “I’m really talking about bread 60% of the time now.”
She even sent bread to Kelce during training camp with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Taylor Swift talks Easter eggs
Swift has been known to drop hints and little Easter eggs into her music videos, interviews and practically everything she does publicly. Fans will speculate wildly about what her holding up the number two means or why she used the number 47 in an interview.
She explained that she loves dropping the Easter eggs and puzzles because she’s always “trying to figure out how to make music more of an event.”
“The Easter eggs thing is getting a little zodiac killer at this point,” she laughed.
After receiving an honorary doctorate from New York University, Swift placed multiple lyrical Easter eggs for her upcoming album into the commencement speech that only eagle-eyed fans would find.
“The fans were like, ‘The whole speech was an Easter egg?’” she said. “And that’s really fun for me because they find it fun. And I also just love numerology and I love math and dates.”
Taylor Swift talks Andy Reid
Jason brought up a recent interview where Chiefs coach Andy Reid revealed he technically set up Swift and Kelce and asked if it was true.
“Whatever Andy Reid says, we’re going to stand by,” Swift said. “He says it, that’s what happened.”
Reid and Swift’s dad, Scott Swift, are friends.
“He knows Andy. Andy’s been going to shows for years. I’ve always had a positive vibe about Andy Reid. I didn’t know what the sports were that he was doing, but I knew that he was my dad’s friend Andy Reid.”
She continued, “I now know that he is literally the most iconic, legendary coach of all-time. And from the way you talk about him, his leadership style, I respect it so much because I feel like it’s done without aggression or raising your voice or losing your composure. It’s all very composed and focused.”
She said he’s “a huge role model” for people.
“He’s funny. He’s cheeky. But it’s like everything has a reason,” she said. “Everything is intentional. He coaches and lives in a very intentional way, which I think is really awesome and I think is a great leadership style.”
Taylor Swift talks new music ‘The Life of a Showgirl’
Swift announced the new album “The Life of a Showgirl” with a shared Instagram reel earlier this week, but she went into more of the background behind the album.
In her limited time off during the European leg of The Eras Tour, Swift wrote and recorded her 12th studio album.
“I was physically exhausted at this point in the tour, but I was so mentally stimulated and so excited to be creating,” Swift said.
She shared how the album is how her life feels like right now energetically.
“This album is about what was going on behind the scenes in my inner life during this tour which was so exuberant and electric and vibrant,” she said.
“The Life of a Showgirl” comes from “the most infectiously joyful, wild, dramatic place I was in in my life, and so that effervescence has come through,” she said.
“This album is going to make you dance,” Kelce said.
“The Life of a Showgirl” comes out Oct. 3.