Patti Smith reacts to Taylor Swift's “Tortured Poets Department” shout-out: 'Thank you, Taylor'

"I was moved to be mentioned in the company of the great Welsh poet Dylan Thomas," said the influential rocker.

Patti Smith is sharing her reaction to Taylor Swift name-dropping her on her new album, The Tortured Poets Department. 

Swift invoked the influential rock poet and artist, as well as fellow poet Dylan Thomas, on the record’s emotional title track. In response to the shout-out, Smith posted a collection of photos of her reading Thomas’ works on her Instagram account on Friday. 

“This is saying I was moved to be mentioned in the company of the great Welsh poet Dylan Thomas,” Smith captioned the post. “Thank you, Taylor.”

On “The Tortured Poets Department,” Swift recalls a whirlwind romance with a person who is prone to self-destruction, but the narrator can’t help falling for them anyway. Many of Swift's fans speculate that the song is about the 1975 frontman Matty Healy, whom the singer briefly dated last year before her current relationship with football star Travis Kelce.

“I laughed in your face and said / ‘You’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith,’” she sings. “‘This ain’t the Chelsea Hotel / We’re modern idiots.’”

In 2019, Smith defended Swift when discussing her fame. "She's a pop star who's under tremendous scrutiny all the time, and one can't imagine what that's like," she told The New York Times. "It's unbelievable to not be able to go anywhere, do anything, have messy hair. And I'm sure that she's trying to do something good. She's not trying to do something bad. And if it influences some of her avid fans to open up their thoughts, what does it matter?"

"The Tortured Poets Department" also features a shout-out to musician Charlie Puth, who the couple in it declare “should be a bigger artist.” Another line seems to reference both solo artist and Boygenius member Lucy Dacus and Swift’s close collaborator and Bleachers frontman Jack Antonoff. 

“Sometimes, I wonder if you're gonna screw this up with me / But you told Lucy you'd kill yourself if I ever leave / And I had said that to Jack about you, so I felt seen,” Swift sings. “Everyone we know understands why it's meant to be / ‘Cause we're crazy.”

The Tortured Poets Department is out now.

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