All the Taylor Swift Songs That Are About John Mayer 👀

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• It's now officially the Speak Now (Taylor's Version) Era.

• And that means John Mayer is not going to be able to avoid being a trending topic.

• That's because the world will obsessively listen to songs about what kind of boyfriend he was to Taylor Swift when they dated briefly back in 2009-2010.

It's now officially the Speak Now (Taylor's Version) Era (of just, like, existence, at this point). And that means John Mayer is not going to be able to avoid being a trending topic for a little while as the world obsessively listens to songs about what kind of boyfriend he was to Taylor Swift when they dated briefly back in 2009-2010 (answer: not a *great* one, based on the tear-your-heart-out songs he's reportedly inspired).

Maybe you've been worried for John and his emotional well-being amid the SNTV lead-up and release. Maybe you've been cleverly dragging him on Twitter. Maybe you've been taking time to stand on stage in front of tens of thousands of people and ask them to go easy on John Mayer without ever actually saying the name "John Mayer" (in which case, OMG! HI! TAYLOR! ^{P.S. While I have you here, want to be best friends since I'm clearly such a chill and normal person? Take your time. No need to answer right away.}).

Maybe you're posting barely-cryptic IGs about the importance of kindness in case you just have this gut feeling like someone/literally thousands of people might listen to Speak Now (Taylor's Version) and then immediately feel the need to @ you something unkind (in which case, Also hi to you, John. ^{P.S. While I have you here, do you still have Taylor's number and if so would you want to give it to a clearly chill and normal person who would be open to being her best friend? Because I could probably definitely help with that.}).

The point is, everyone has been thinking thoughts about John Mayer, one of the most of common of which is probably: "Okay, so which Taylor Swift songs are about John Mayer anyway?" While Taylor typically makes a point not to *directly* address who specific songs are inspired by, here are the Taylor Swift songs that, to varying degrees of certainty, about John Mayer.

"Dear John"

We'll start with the obvious one, since, in addition to having his name in the title and lyrics that reference very specific, fact-checkable things like the age she was during their relationship, both John and Taylor have done nothing to even hint the song might not be about him in the years since its original release.

John, for his part, has said he was "humiliated" by the song and Taylor basically re-confirmed his sad muse status for the track when she introduced "Dear John" as a surprise song on the Eras Tour and asked fans to stop cyberbullying the *people they think her songs are about* in a way that was very obviously about asking her fans to stop cyberbullying John Mayer.

"Dear John," which was released on Speak Now in 2010, also carries most of the responsibility for Swiftie-on-Mayer hate, since it lays out in heartbreaking detail all the ways he was not a Person You Want Your Friend to Date when he dated Taylor.

Sample Lyrics:

"The Story of Us"

Another classic "Why Dating John Mayer Was a Bad Idea" song, "The Story of Us" also appeared on Speak Now and explained, in a more uptempo sort of way, why John Mayer was not a Person You Want Your Friend to Have Dated after he dated Taylor.

Sample lyrics:

And:

Taylor has gone on the record saying the song was inspired by an awkward run-in with an ex at an award show and fans quickly filled in the blanks in that round of Taylor Swift Songwriting Clue and determined that, in this case, the solution was John Mayer at the 2010 CMT Awards with a round of the silent treat that spoke VOLUMES. (And since Taylor also confirmed that "The Story of Us" and "Dear John" are about the same person, we can count all "Dear John" evidence toward confirming this one too.)

“'The Story of Us' is about running into someone I had been in a relationship with at an awards show, and we were seated a few seats away from each other,” she told USA Today of song while promoting Speak Now in 2010. “I just wanted to say to him, ‘Is this killing you? Because it’s killing me.’ But I didn’t. Because I couldn’t. Because we both had these silent shields up."

"Ours"

Clearly you don't get "Dear John" levels of heartbroken over a relationship with NO good moments, and "Ours" (like most of her John-inspired songs, from the original Speak Now era) is here to explain why Taylor ever went on more than one date with someone she would eventually write the lyrics of "Dear John" about.

The evidence here is mostly in the lyrics, which include physical descriptions of the song's subject that also describe John Mayer, like: “'Cause I love the gap between the teeth" and
"any snide remarks from my father about your your tattoos will be ignored" (side note: we see you out there being a good judge of boyfriend material, Scott Swift, and we love it).

"Superman"

The final original Speak Now era song generally believed to be about John Mayer is "Superman," thanks largely to lyrics that seem to fit him better than other contenders from her dating history at the time. Lyrics describing the song's inspo as "Tall, dark and beautiful" and insisting, "He’s not all bad like his reputation," are among those cited as fitting him particularly well.

"Sad Beautiful Tragic"

John didn't have much of a presence on Red because there was a LOT to say about Why Dating Jake Gyllenhaal Also Wasn't the Best Idea, but the songs fans often point to as potentially being about him are "I Knew You Were Trouble" (which I'm not including on this list because I don't personally think it's about John and Taylor has given some very strong hints that it's actually about Harry Styles in the years since Red was released) and "Sad Beautiful Tragic," which is about a relationship that was, as you'd probably guess, sad AND beautiful AND tragic.

Lyrics like "Distance, timing / Breakdown, fighting / Silence, the train runs off its tracks / Kiss me, try to fix it / Could you just try to listen?" fit nicely with the established narrative of their romance within Taylor's catalogue and then some fans have other deeply involved (and no implausible) theories, like this one arguing the song is about John Mayer and Taylor Lautner.

"Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve"

Taylor came back to the John well on the 3 a.m. edition of Midnights with "Would've, Could've, Should've," which reflects on the longer-term impact of the relationship and Taylor's perspective on it years later. Annnnd, it's pretty brutal.

"And I damn sure would’ve never danced with the devil / At 19, and the God’s honest truth is that the pain was heaven / And now that I’m grown, I’m scared of ghosts."

"Foolish One"

In spite of all the jokes about how John Mayer needed to be worried about a new batch of scathing songs about the breakup potentially appearing on Speak Now (Taylor's Version), only one vault track really seems likely to be about John. "Foolish One" deals with themes that have always been a part of the Taylor and John songs narrative in all of Taylor's eras—things like feeling naive or easily tricked (especially by someone older and more experienced), love that's not reciprocated fully, and what it's like to be shattered by those realizations.

Sample lyrics:

“Foolish one / Stop checkin’ your mailbox for confessions of love / That ain’t never gonna come / You will take the long way, you will take the long way down."

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