Taylor Swift Asks Concert Audience Not To Mess With The Subject Of Her ‘Dear John’ Song

Bruce Haring
·2 min read
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Note to John Mayer: time to lay low.

Taylor Swift surprised her “Eras Tour” audience on Saturday at her Minneapolis’ US Bank Stadium show by performing the song “Dear John” for the first time in 11 years. The lyrics detail her hurt from a relationship, allegedly with singer-songwriter Mayer, when she was 19.

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The song is going to be more prominent in the coming days, as Swift releases her rerecording of the album, “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” which contains the song. Its lyrics have references to a “sick need” and a girl crying all the way home.

Swift tried to calm the waters by acknowledging that the song might provoke some ardent Swifties to take up online torches and pitchforks in her honor. She first alluded to the kindness displayed by fans attending her tour, then made her request.

“I was hoping to ask you that as we lead up to this album coming out, I would love for that kindness and that gentleness to extend onto our internet activities,” Swift said.

“I’m 33 years old, I don’t care about anything that happened to me when I was 19 except the songs I wrote,” she continued. Her fans should not “feel the need to defend me on the internet against someone you think I might have written a song about 14 billion years ago.”

Swift has been releasing new versions of her earlier albums after beng angered by the sale of the original master recordings.

In 2021, Swift released “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” and “Red (Taylor’s Version).” Next up is “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” which will be released on July 7.

Mayer has a song called “Paper Doll” that is allegedly an answer record to “Dear John.” Its lyrics include the chorus, “You’re like twenty-two girls in one/
And none of them know what they’re runnin’ from.”

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