Taylor Swift’s 10-Minute Version of All Too Well Almost Wasn’t Recorded (Extended) | Tonight Show

Welcome, welcome, welcome back. It's so great to see you. You know what? It's really great to see you, too. I miss you, bud. I miss you, too. I promise you this time, I did not talk to your mom. I'm not going to give any embarrassing videos of you. Wow. Like I did last time. Yeah, no, this is all... Yeah, we don't let my mom have a phone around me anymore. Because just of that? The last time that I was on this show, my mom sent videos that she had secretly recorded of me to Jimmy Yeah, yeah. It's literally, they became memes. They became GIFs. They went on to live a different life than we never knew. They will be the legacy that lives on after my music has faded. No, please. I want to talk to you about... Goggles were taped to my face. Sorry, it's an important detail. It was so funny. I just want to... I think you're phenomenal. I just want to just say that. Thank you. I think you're phenomenal. No, but you are just unbelievable. I don't even know if you understand how great you are and how cool you are, how phenomenal you are. But I mean... Can I just interrupt and say it's really phenomenal to be in the presence of men and women who have served our country. So thank you. They're amazing. We've never done that. And you're amazing. Very busy two years for you. During the pandemic, well, we did whatever we could, but you put out five albums, a documentary, and you won a Grammy. So, I mean, I think you overshot. And all great stuff. Thank you. Quality stuff. And it's almost midnight. Red, Taylor's version, will be out very soon, like in a matter of minutes. Can you believe? I'm really, really excited about it. I've been going through the process of re-recording all of my older music. And in the process, I've dug up these songs that I wrote along the way that didn't make the album because I thought, I want to save this for the next album. But then the next album would just be a completely different thing. So I'd be like, well, what's going to happen to that? And it turns out this, it's an opportunity for me to go back and re-record all the music that was on the original album. And then what I'm really excited about is these songs that no one's ever heard before that were supposed to be on that album. And I've got artists like Chris Stapleton and Phoebe Bridgers featured on them. So... I mean, I don't know what I can even show of the album because with you, there's so many little Easter eggs and spoilers that I don't want to ruin anything for fam. That's all I'll show. That was something, yeah. They just got, yeah. So you know it's real. That's real. But this is like four albums. It's like four vinyls. I mean, it is. It's four vinyls. It's super heavy. It's actually incredibly hard to lift that. It's hefty, yeah. I'm actually impressed. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I've been working out with a trainer. I'll give you... I was going to talk to you about that later. Yeah, no problem. Yeah. What song are you most excited for the fans to hear? Thank you for asking. I'll tell you. The one that I am the most excited about is a song called All Too Well, in parentheses, the 10-minute version. Yeah, the 10-minute version. So... Basically, when I was writing the Red album, I knew I had a favorite on the album, and it was a song called All Too Well. But oftentimes, my personal favorites don't line up with songs that end up being singles or having videos. I always just have these favorites where I'm like, that one's just my favorite. But what happened on this album was this song became the fans' favorite on its own. My favorite and their favorite song aligned. Yes. And the way that this song was written was I was going through a bit of a sad time. And I was 22, and I was in band rehearsals, and I think I was 21 when I wrote this. And I was in band rehearsals for a tour that I was about to go on called The Speak Now Tour. And I showed up for rehearsals, and I just was really upset and sad, and everybody could tell it was really not fun to be around me that day. And so I started playing guitar and just kind of playing the same four chords over and over again. And I just started kind of, the band sort of joined in, and I started ad-libbing what I was going through and what I was feeling. And it went on, and the song kept building and building and building in intensity. And the song just went on for about 10 to 15 minutes of us doing this, and then we got done with that. And then we moved on to the regularly scheduled rehearsal. And at the end of the day, my mom came up to my sound guy, and she's like, is there any chance that you recorded that? And he was like, yep, and handed her a CD. The 10-minute version of All Too Well is what was originally written for the song before I had to cut it down to a normal length song. Because that's, you know. Yeah, in case it gets played on the radio or whatever. 10 minutes is too long. Because 10 minutes is absurd. That's an absurd length of time for a song to be- It's like American Pie. Who thinks that they can put out a 10-minute song? We want a 10-minute song from you. We want this from you. Well, thanks. And that's what you'll get. And that's the thing I'm the most excited about, because it's the original lyrics. Is that the normal way, is that cathartic for you? Is that the normal way you deal if you're having a rough time? Do you just grab your guitar and just start writing? Yeah, that's usually the process that happens. No, I mean, or is it like a journal? Or do you talk to your friends or your mom? No, I do all of that. At the same time? Literally all of it. You do anything? I do, basically, I journal. I talk to my friends. I write songs. What reactions? I buy cats. Just buy cats. I hang out with the cats. Yeah. You adopt a cat. Yeah, and they- If you're going through a hard time, they're really understanding sometimes. Well, this song is very, very, very, obviously very personal, but it's so beautiful and so well-written. What do you expect from fans to react to when they hear this song? I really do feel like I know them really well. I go online, I look at what they think about things. I really care about their opinions and their theories and their teasing and their mocking and their joking. It's all from a very loving place. Like we have a very, I really like our relationship. So I think I know what they are wanting. I think that the version that we're putting out tonight is going to be for them the new, like standard version of what this song is because it is the original form. And I'm just that proud of it. Wow. I got to see All Too Well, the short film, earlier today. Thank you for showing it to me. Oh, you're so welcome. It is amazing, by the way. You wrote this, you directed this. Yeah. And this will be released on YouTube tomorrow at 7 p.m. Eastern. Sadie Sink, by the way. Oh my God. No, I love her. I was a fan from Stranger Things. I feel like people, like we got to explain what's going on. Like everybody's so busy. And I feel like I should just tell you, like I wrote and directed a short film based on the premise of the song, All Too Well. So I cast Sadie Sink and Dylan O'Brien, who are incredible actors in this short film. And they could not have blown me away more. It was the most unbelievable experience working with people who are that prepared, committed. Just the chemistry between them is really on another planet. You did a great job. The way it's shot, there's one shot that's a continuous shot. Because it's a new thing for me. Thank you for saying that. It's not a thing that I do normally. So I appreciate the compliments. Oh, good. I don't know if you were saying thank you, like you didn't mean I believed it. No, I really loved, I just liked the compliment. No, I really, there's a shot, I was going to say this continuous shot around, I don't know. There's this scene where there is one very tense scene between the two of them. It's so well done. They were so electric and improv-ing a lot of what they were doing that we just couldn't take the camera off them. We couldn't cut, we couldn't edit. So it was a very long one take, one camera shot that lasts for a very long time. And when you're watching it, you don't note that. You don't realize that because they are so magnetic. They really are. It feels real. I was like, oh my God. I'm so glad that you felt that too. That was so good. Yeah, I love it. And there's going to be a film premiere for this? Yes, actually. And I haven't actually told people that yet, but I'm so excited. It's going to be at the... No, it's great. I'm so sorry. It's great. No, it's good. This is a great place to announce things. Okay, perfect. Yeah, sorry. Yes, yes. It's at the AMC 13 theater in Lincoln Square in New York tomorrow afternoon. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about, buddy. How fun would that be? I mean, I hope fun. Yeah, it'll be great. I hope it'll be fun. More with Taylor Swift when we come back, everybody. We're going to talk more.