We don’t normally think of New Heights as one of those Oprah-style interview shows that bring the waterworks. But when you’re asking Taylor Swift how it felt to get her masters back, you gotta expect tears!
The Blank Space singer finally joined boyfriend Travis Kelce‘s podcast on Wednesday evening, and that was one of the first questions. Not only did Tay break it all down for viewers, she broke down herself! She began:
“I signed a record deal when I was 15. I always refer to it as I got my music back. But I never owned my music at all. Traditionally a lot of record deals are set up in a way that artists don’t own what’s called their master recordings. Owning your master recordings means you have complete control over distribution, licensing, and essentially the way your legacy is shaped. It’s always been a huge thing for me. Ever since I was a teenager I’ve been saving up money to buy my music back, and to ever own it in the first place… I’ve always wanted this to happen.”
Sadly, as her fans know all too well, it had never worked out before this year! Recounting the times she’d failed, she explained how she finally came up with the idea of re-recording:
“It’s been sold. My music’s been sold a few times. The first time it was sold it really ripped my heart out of my chest. And I told everybody exactly how that felt for me and what I was going through, and I started basically — defiantly — re-recording my music. Because I wanted to own it, and this was the only way I thought it was ever going to happen.”
Tay said while it was “exciting” to do Taylor’s Versions, there was something missing — and it was like an “intrusive thought”:
“I still thought about not owning my music every day.”
She said even knowing that the current owners, Shamrock Capital, were an “above board” company who had been “nice” to deal with, it was still “a long shot” that they would agree to sell her back the music outright, no partnership or percentage.
As she began to tell the story of getting it back, she began to tear up:
“Sorry… This happens… I don’t ever really talk about it because it’s, um…”
Travis held her tight, encouraging her to go on. She did, explaining her mother and brother sat down with Shamrock in LA:
“They told them what this meant for me. They told them the whole story, of all the times we’ve tried to buy it, all the time it’s fallen through, all the times we had gotten plans together and figured out something we thought was going to work, and it didn’t at the last minute… And so like, my mom calls me up afterwards, she was like, ‘They were wonderful, they heard us out… we have no idea which way they’re going to go.’”
And so she was stuck in that limbo, once again not knowing if this would be another one of those times she was close but no cigar.
“I was like, ‘I get it, I get it. I haven’t gotten my hopes up about this in like, a decade.’”
Then it happened:
“A couple months after the Super Bowl we’re in Kansas City, and I get a call from my mom. She’s like… She’s like… ‘They- We did it- You got your music.’”
She apologized once again as she had trouble keeping it together — but she still cries “every time I talk about it.” Hey, no apology necessary! It’s moving stuff! Continuing her story, she recalled:
“I very dramatically hit the floor. For real. Like, honestly, just bawling my eyes out, just weeping… I was just like ‘Really? Really? What do you mean?’”
Finally she had to share the news with her man!
“I’m like, ‘Get yourself together, get your s**t together, like, ‘Just go tell Travis in a normal way.’ I knock on the door, and he’s playing video games, and I’m trying to say it in a normal way, and I’m like… ‘TRAVIS!!!’”
But in like a guttural roar! LOLz! Travis was, understandably, pretty concerned! She remembers:
“He put his headset down, he was like, ‘Guys gotta go.’ I think you thought something was wrong. And you come up, and I’m just like… ‘I got my music back!’ And then just start absolutely heaving, crying. Dropped. Had no power in my legs to support myself.”
Wow. We knew it was a big deal. But to hear how emotionally wrecked she was… It’s so moving!
“And yeah, this changed my life. I can’t believe it still. Every time I think about it, it’s like, I have to tell the short version to everyone. Because this will affect the rest of my life. I think about this every day now, but instead of it being an intrusive thought that hurts me, it’s… ‘I can’t believe this happened, like how lucky am I, how grateful am I.’”
And guess what? Travis was crying, too! He recalled his side:
“I started crying, too. I was just so happy for you because I’ve seen how you make music, I’ve seen how you make these videos, I’ve seen the effort and the focus and the strategy behind just one album, The Tortured Poets Department and Fortnite. And I was blown away that you had been doing this your entire life, and for your first six albums you weren’t given the rights to all of that. And I know what that looked like, and I know how much that burns you that you didn’t have your creation.”
Then he paid her the biggest compliment we think we’ve ever heard:
“And I think doing it the right way, creating the fanbase that you did the right way, and leading your life in a direction… you were eventually going to get it back somehow, some way, because you were always doing things with the right intentions.”
Awwww! Now we’re crying! For more, watch the full podcast (below)!
[Image via New Heights/YouTube.]
