Taylor Swift may have a reputation for her overt lyrics about past lovers, but the megastar hasn't spoken much about her current relationship with Joe Alwyn. While we know the two are in a committed relationship, the details of their love life are private and paparazzi photos of the couple are slim. But in a recent interview for Rolling Stone, Swift opened up about her boyfriend, how he keeps her grounded, and, yes, inspires her music.
In conversation with the legendary Paul McCartney for the publication's “Musicians on Musicians” issue, Swift discussed the inspiration for her latest album, Folklore. “‘Peace’ [from Folklore] is actually more rooted in my personal life,” she told McCartney. “I know you have done a really excellent job of this in your personal life: carving out a human life within a public life, and how scary that can be when you do fall in love and you meet someone, especially if you’ve met someone who has a very grounded, normal way of living.”
She continued: “I, oftentimes, in my anxieties, can control how I am as a person and how normal I act and rationalize things, but I cannot control if there are 20 photographers outside in the bushes and what they do and if they follow our car and if they interrupt our lives. I can’t control if there’s going to be a fake weird headline about us in the news tomorrow.”
McCartney responded, asking Swift if her partner can “sympathize with that and understand?” She replied, “Oh, absolutely.”
Swift went on to explain how Alwyn has helped her “find bits of normalcy” in her very public life. “I think that in knowing him and being in the relationship I am in now, I have definitely made decisions that have made my life feel more like a real life and less like just a storyline to be commented on in tabloids,” she said. “Whether that’s deciding where to live, who to hang out with, when to not take a picture — the idea of privacy feels so strange to try to explain, but it’s really just trying to find bits of normalcy.”
As with all of Swift’s albums, when she released Folklore, fans immediately began digging for clues into her relationship, and there are many theories about which songs were inspired by Alwyn. Her music, Swift said, has always been “microscope personal” before MaCartney pointed out that’s because she has written so many breakup songs. “I was, before my luck changed,” she responded. And on that note, it’s safe to say that Swift and Alwyn are in a very good place.
Nobody knows for sure when the pair first met, though it is rumored to have been at the 2016 Met Gala in New York City. That puts their relationship at around three and a half years long.
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