Taylor Swift, 35, opened up about her music and her feelings while sitting next to her boyfriend, NFL star Travis Kelce, on his podcast, New Heights, on Wednesday, Aug. 13. She got emotional several times as she talked about the long process of getting back the rights to her old songs.
“I thought about not owning my music every day. It was like an intrusive thought I had all the time,” Swift said about how she felt before announcing in May that she had bought her music back.
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She explained that she went into the deal “heart first” because her music meant so much to her.
“These are my hand-written diary entries from my whole life,” Swift said. “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 done is in this catalog.”
Swift got emotional as she recalled sending her mother, Andrea, and her brother, Austin, to meet with Shamrock Capital, which owned the rights.
“They sat down with Shamrock Capital and told them what this meant to me,” she said, her voice breaking.
She found out her offer had been accepted shortly after the Super Bowl while staying with Travis in Kansas City.
“We were in Kansas City, and I get a call from my mom, and she’s like, ‘We got your music,’” Swift recalled, tearing up again. “I just very dramatically hit the floor, for real.”
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She told Travis, who was playing video games at the time, and he was alarmed by her tears.
“He puts his headset down. He’s like, ‘Guys, I gotta go,’” Swift said. “I was like, ‘I got my music back,’ and then just start absolutely heaving.”
Travis laughed, saying, “Just deadweight. Just deadweight.”
Swift added that getting her music back changed her life. “Every time I think about it, I have to tell the short version to everyone. This will affect the rest of my life. I think about it every day now, but instead of it hurting me, I’m like, ‘I can’t believe this happened. How lucky am I?’”
Travis admitted he got emotional too. “I started crying too, you know I’m a crier,” he said. Swift agreed, “You were weeping.”
Swift also teased her upcoming 12th album, The Life of a Showgirl, during the podcast. She showed a briefcase containing a blurred-out copy of the album, prompting Travis to cheer. This will be her first album since completing the Eras Tour in December 2024 and after regaining control of her song catalog, nearly six years after it was sold to Scooter Braun.
Before the episode aired, the Kelce brothers teased Swift’s appearance on their podcast. Jason, 37, introduced her by saying, “Making her podcasting debut, the most requested guest in the history of shows, Taylor Swiftttt!”
Swift thanked the brothers for having her on what she called her “favorite podcast” and jokingly said, “If there’s one thing male sports fans want to see in their spaces and on their screens, it’s more of me.”
Her joke comes after some football fans complained about her appearing too much on screen during games. The NFL said featuring Swift was normal and had received a lot of positive responses.
