Taylor Swift Makes Candid Confession About Fame in First Interview Since Her Wedding
Taylor Swift Makes Candid Confession About Fame in First Interview Since Her Wedding
Rachel BurchfieldTue, August 25, 2026 at 12:26 PM UTC
0
Taylor Swift at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards on March 26, 2026.Credit: GettyThe Gist -
Taylor Swift took part in her first post-wedding performance earlier this month, with the acoustic mashup shared on August 24.
Along with the performance, she also sat down for a revealing interview, where she spoke about feeling “washed up” and how she copes with the pitfalls of fame.
The newlywed also wore a dress that many fans thought was an Easter egg that hinted at a forthcoming project.
Summer is beginning to come to a close—and what a season it has been for Taylor Swift.
Swift, of course, has spent most of the summer in newlywed bliss after marrying Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on July 3. On August 24, fans were treated to Swift’s first public performance post-wedding, when the “Opalite” singer performed an acoustic mashup of “I Knew It, I Knew You,” “August,” and “All Too Well.”
Taylor Swift in New York City on May 14, 2026.Credit: Getty
The singer-songwriter also sat down for an interview, “The Icon Sessions With Taylor Swift: A 20-Year Retrospective,” ahead of the 20-year anniversary of her self-titled debut album this October. The intimate event was hosted by the Recording Academy’s Songwriters & Composers wing on August 18, but only was released on Monday.
Speaking with Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr., the Grammy winner wore a seafoam green dress by Dôen with cascading ruffles and three rosettes pinned at her shoulder. The gown reminded many of the aesthetic from Swift’s debut album era two decades ago, leading to speculation that the re-recorded version of Taylor Swift could be coming soon. After all, Swift previously said in a May 2025 letter announcing she’d acquired her master recordings that “I’ve already re-recorded my entire debut album. And I really love how it sounds now.”
Taylor Swift at the ‘Toy Story 5’ premiere in Los Angeles on June 9, 2026.Credit: Getty
The “Tim McGraw” singer accessorized her look with $35,000 3-carat Retrouvaí diamond earrings, a $12,596 Effy Jewelry tennis bracelet, her engagement ring from Kelce, and her brand new diamond wedding band. She wore her hair in a low updo, completing her look with winged eyeliner and her signature red lip.
In the vulnerable conversation with Mason, Swift said of her celebrity, “Everything that comes with this ultimately is worth it as long as I get to still make music.”
“I go through several processes and coping mechanisms that I’ve gone through over the years,” she added. “And one of them is saying, ‘You chose this. You chose this every day. You could have opted out of this any day before it got unmanageably big.’ And I decided not to because I love it that much.”
Advertisement
She continued, “I realized that I’m making music because I’m playing for the fans. I’m putting this out for people who care about it and who look to music as a way to cope with their life in the way that I did.”
“I think that if you can actually go through all those checkpoints and realize that putting out music you’ve made that you love so much is not the path to universal validation, if you’re still doing it, then you love it for the right reasons,” the newlywed said.
Swift added that around the time she wrote the song “Nothing New”—which she wrote during her Red era in 2012 but that didn’t end up on a record until 2021’s Red (Taylor’s Version)—she felt that she was “washed up.”
“When I would go back, I had these songs that were songs that I’d left on the cutting room floor for one reason or another, and sometimes those songs resonated more with me when I re-recorded them,” she said. “Nothing New,” she explained, “is about feeling like you’re aging out of the music industry.”
“I wrote it when I was 22, and I was like, ‘I’m washed up and boring and everyone’s over me,’” she added. “It’s sad, and so I kind of get why I didn’t put it on Red…that’s kind of a passing thought when you’re 22. Like, that’s a sad night with a bottle of wine. But when I was, like, 30 and I was re-recording it, I was like, ‘Oh no, this hits. This hits.’”
Taylor Swift in New York City on June 15, 2026.Credit: Getty
The conversation went all the way back to Swift’s career beginnings, where she spoke of her first single, 2006’s “Tim McGraw,” and how “there are actually sort of hints at everything that was going to happen in the next 20 years,” the songwriter said. Taylor Swift was when the singer was in her country music era, and Swift said in the interview, “I love my country roots more and more the further along this path I get. I want to honor them more and more, and I feel more and more tied and more loyal to them, the people that shaped who I am as an artist and as a writer. That all happened in Nashville.”
Swift closed with advice to young songwriters, telling them, “I hope that you will show up to work even when the idea fairy doesn’t. I hope that you will not be the person who shoots down everyone’s ideas in the room, but has not brought any of your own. I hope that you will remember the ‘yes, and’ of the improv session that is your recording sessions and that is life as well. And I hope you remember that in the music industry, as wild and ever-changing as it is, enthusiasm can protect you from anything. I would know.”
on InStyle
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
