Dr. Mehmet Oz and Wife Lisa Recall Meeting Taylor Swift When She Was a Kid — Before Superstardom

Taylor Swift has always had fans in Dr. Mehmet Oz and his wife, Lisa Oz.

“Taylor grew up in Pennsylvania near Philly, and the interesting thing is when she was a younger woman, a girl, actually, her parents would call up Lisa’s parents and say, ‘Come on over! Watch our daughter perform,’” Mehmet, 63, exclusively recalled to Us Weekly at Shaq’s Fun House in Las Vegas on Friday, February 9. “Any rational person would try to get out of that deal, but in her case, she was a superstar and it worked.”

Lisa, 60, chimed in that Swift, now 34, was around 12 years old at the time, singing for “all the kids in the neighborhood down in Stone Harbor.” (Mehmet and Lisa, like Swift and her family, are from Pennsylvania.)

Swift got her big break in 2005 when she signed a 13-year record deal with Big Machine Records. While she’s since parted ways with Big Machine, Swift has released 10 studio albums and won 14 Grammys. Her 11th record, The Tortured Poets Department, drops in April. She has also been steadily rereleasing her first six albums after Big Machine allegedly wouldn’t sell her the masters in 2019.

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After Swift made a splash in the music scene, she ran into the TV doctor “years later” at a Time 100 party.

“She confirmed the story [at the party], so I know it’s true,” Mehmet quipped to Us. “Imagine being dragged over to your friend’s house [or] can you imagine not going and [saying], ‘I don’t want to want to watch your daughter perform! Come on!’”

Mehmet and Lisa have continued to support Swift’s career through the years, even taking their “whole family” to her 2023 Eras Tour concert in Philadelphia.

“[We] packed the place, but we packed it with our family,” Mehmet joked. “We all came. We had to pay to come this time.”

Mehmet further noted that he is able to bond with his grandchildren over Swift’s music.

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“The 10-year-old granddaughter was telling me about ‘Blank Space.’ I was taking her to school, and she started playing it the other day, and she remembered when we saw it in concert,” he mused. “That’s a great line, you know? ‘Nightmare dressed like a daydream.’”

Mehmet and Lisa stepped out at Shaquille O’Neal’s pre-Super Bowl party before the big game on Sunday, February 11. Since Swift is likely to attend the NFL championship game in support of boyfriend Travis Kelce, Mehmet and Lisa revealed their thoughts on the couple.

“I’m supportive of it,” Mehmet gushed despite being a proud Philadelphia Eagles fan.

Kelce, 34, is a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, who are playing in Super Bowl LVIII against the San Francisco 49ers. The football star started dating Swift in summer 2023, several months before she went to her NFL game.

If Kelce and Swift go the distance, they could learn a thing or two from Mehmet and Lisa, who have been married for nearly 40 years.

“Her dad gave me some really precious advice when we first got married. He said, ‘You’re gonna have a lot of decisions. When you have small decisions, give in to your wife so when the big decisions come up, you know what it feels like, ‘cause you’re not making those either,’” Mehmet told Us.

With reporting by Hannah Kahn