LIFESTYLE
"The people that shaped who I am as an artist and as a writer, that all happened in Nashville"
Taylor Swift has discussed her growing connection to her “country roots” during a recent interview. Read more below.
During a conversation covering her full career with Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. for the organization’s Icon Sessions series, Swift revisited the early years she spent building her musical identity in Nashville.
“I love my country roots more and more the further along this path I get and I want to honour them more and more,” Swift said. “I feel more tied to them, more loyal to them … The people that shaped who I am as an artist and as a writer, that all happened in Nashville,” she added.
Swift also identified some of the performers who inspired her when she was beginning her career. “I had heard that Faith Hill got discovered at the Bluebird Cafe. I started learning about the Bluebird Cafe, made it a personal life goal to get to perform there.”
The musician then revisited her first album, ‘Taylor Swift’, and its opening single ‘Tim McGraw’. She said: “If I look back at the song ‘Tim McGraw,’ there are actually sort of hints at everything that was gonna happen in the next 20 years.”
This year also represents two decades since Swift released her debut record. In recent months, she has returned to country music with ‘I Knew It, I Knew You’, which was created specifically for the soundtrack to the latest Toy Story movie.
Listeners have recently wondered whether more material could be approaching after Swift was photographed leaving Electric Lady Studios in New York following an overnight recording session lasting nine hours. Haim members Alana and Danielle Haim were with her.
Her most recent record was 2025’s ‘The Life Of A Showgirl’, which drew inspiration from her time performing on the record setting ‘Eras’ tour. It later became the highest selling album of 2025 in the UK. The achievement made Swift the first musician since ABBA in 1977 to secure the year’s leading album across consecutive years with two different releases.
Following the album’s arrival, Swift became the youngest woman inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame. She also featured Graham Norton, Lewis Capaldi and Cillian Murphy in the video for ‘Opalite’ and submitted applications to trademark her image and voice amid increasing concerns surrounding AI.
