Taylor Swift wants fans to show "kindness and gentleness" to her former partners.
The 'Look What You Made Me Do' singer - who has been romantically linked to stars including Jake Gyllenhaal, Harry Styles, and Calvin Harris in the past - insisted she "doesn't care" what happened in her younger years so urged her supporters not to turn on the people they think she's written songs about.
Speaking on stage at the US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Saturday (24.06.23), Taylor discussed her upcoming re-recorded version of her 2010 album 'Speak Now', and said: "I get to stand on this stage every single night of this tour and watch the most beautiful things happen...
“So 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. Right?
"So what I’m trying to say is, I’m putting this album out because I want to own my music. That’s why I’m putting out this album.
"I’m 33 years old. I don’t care about anything that happened to me when I was 19, except the songs I wrote and the memories we made together.
“So what I’m trying to tell you is that I’m not putting this album out so that you can go and feel the need to defend me on the internet against someone you think I might have written a song about 14 billion years ago when I was 19. I do not care. We have all grown up. We’re good.”
Taylor then introduced 'Dear John', a track from 'Speak Now' rumoured to be about her brief romance with John Mayer.
She said: “Only because I am proud of it as a song, I am going to play ‘Dear John.’”
'Gravity' hitmaker John previously said he felt "really humiliated" by the song, which includes the line: “Don’t you think nineteen’s too young/ To be played by your dark, twisted games when I loved you so?/ I should’ve known."
He told Rolling Stone magazine in 2012: “It made me feel terrible. Because I didn’t deserve it.
“I’m pretty good at taking accountability now, and I never did anything to deserve that. It was a really lousy thing for her to do.”
