Now we know the best way to get Taylor Swift to open up — let her ask all the questions!
For the cover story for the August 2018 issue of Harper’s Bazaar, the Shake It Off singer sat down for a candid convo in which she was the interviewer and Pattie Boyd was the subject.
Famously, the model was a musical muse who inspired songs by Eric Clapton and George Harrison.
Video: Taylor Is The Other Woman In Sugarland’s Babe Music Video!
Taylor has obviously had a few muses herself, so their talk about that process led to an interesting admission:
TS: I wondered who and what situation “Wonderful Tonight” was written about, and now I know it’s about you getting ready for a party, changing clothes, and saying, “I don’t like this, I don’t like that.”
PB: I came downstairs with trepidation thinking [Eric] was going to be so angry that I’d taken far too long, and instead he said, “Listen, I’ve just written this song.”
TS: That is so incredible to me.
PB: But you must do that too. You must be inspired by a few moments or something, the way your boyfriend turns or says something to you or a little bit of a smile or “Is he thinking this or that?,” and that would inspire you. Can you write it the moment it’s happening?
TS: There are definitely moments when it’s like this cloud of an idea comes and just lands in front of your face, and you reach up and grab it. A lot of songwriting is things you learn, structure, and cultivating that skill, and knowing how to craft a song. But there are mystical, magical moments, inexplicable moments when an idea that is fully formed just pops into your head. And that’s the purest part of my job. It can get complicated on every other level, but the songwriting is still the same uncomplicated process it was when I was 12 years old writing songs in my room.
PB: Right, right…
TS: I don’t know what it is that makes some people really creatively inspiring. There have been people I’ve spent a lot of time with who I just couldn’t write about.
Hmm. Which Taylor ex do we think is never getting a song? Conor Kennedy? Tom Hiddleston?
Taylor also revealed a personal nightmare during a back-and-forth about Pattie’s time dating George Harrison at the height of Beatles popularity:
TS: I read a book about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor recently, and how there was this crazy frenzy surrounding them. In the book, Elizabeth is quoted as saying, “It could be worse, we could be the Beatles.” You are one of the only people who can say they experienced what Beatlemania was like from the inside. How did that feel for you?
PB: In my first experience, I found it absolutely terrifying. I got to see the Beatles play at a theater in London, and George told me that I should leave with my friends before the last number. So before the last song, we got up from our seats and walked toward the nearest exit door, and there were these girls behind me. They followed us out, and they were kicking me and pulling my hair and pushing us all the way down this long passageway.
TS: What were they saying?
PB: “We hate you.”
TS: That is my worst nightmare. You probably felt like, “If you knew me and I knew you, you would not be pulling my hair in an alleyway and saying, ‘I hate you.'”
From a nightmare to something you may not have known Taylor loves — fan cosplay!
PB: One time I was having an exhibition, and these girls turned up dressed like me in A Hard Day’s Night.
TS: It’s so cute when people do that. I love that.
PB: It is adorable.
So if you ever catch yourself face to face with Taylor, dressed in one of her iconic outfits… do not freak out!
Well, go ahead. But know she’s into it!
Ch-ch-check out the rest of the interview HERE!
[Image via Alexi Lubomirski/Harper’s Bazaar.]
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