Taylor Swift requested that her fans in Minneapolis exercise “kindness and gentleness” in the lead-up to the release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).
The singer said that she wasn’t re-recording her albums to be defended “on the Internet against someone you think I might have written a song about.” This came before she performed the song “Dear John” live for the first time in over a decade.
The track was released in 2010 as part of the album Speak Now. Fans have theorized that the song was written about her relationship with singer John Mayer, but Swift has never addressed it. The particular lyrics under scrutiny read: “Don’t you think nineteen is too young / To be played by your dark twisted games when I loved you so?” The pair dated for a short time in 2009 when she was 19 and he was 32.
The pop singer said, “I’m putting this album out because I want to own my music.” She continued, telling the audience that she doesn’t care about what happened to her when she was 19 except for the songs she wrote.
Swift announced while on stage in Nashville last month that Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) would come out on July 7, in addition to six previously unreleased songs.
The music artist’s ex, Taylor Lautner, who dated Swift around 2009 and might be the inspiration for the song “Back to December”, said he was praying for Mayer.
@taysqueezeslemons
#prayforjohn
♬ Dear John – Taylor Swift
Lautner later explained, “I don’t know if it was the wisest thing to say,” while on The Happy Hour on Today Show Radio. “I was definitely joking, but clearly it’s taken off.”
In a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone, Mayer said that the lyrics to the song made him “feel terrible.” He later added that he didn’t deserve the reaction the song received. “I mean, how would you feel if, at the lowest, you’ve ever been, someone kicked you even lower?”
