Taylor Swift Explains Why She's Re-Recording Her Albums

Our first guest tonight is an 11-time Grammy-winning musician and one of the biggest stars in the world. Her album, Red, Taylor's version, is out tomorrow. She's also returning to SNL this week as musical guest along with host Jonathan Majors. Please welcome back to the show the one, the only Taylor Swift, everybody. Welcome back to the show. Thanks for having me back. We love having you in the building, especially when it means we get to see you on SNL this coming Saturday. Your fifth time as a musical guest. Yes. What a dream. And a one-time host, an incredible host back in the day. Thank you. And I'm wondering... Back when I was a teen. It's crazy how young you are. Yeah, it was. Yeah. Because you're young now, and that was a long time ago. Thank you. You're very welcome. I can say it honestly, because I've also aged. What a friend. No, you haven't. Thank you very much. Those are lies. Don't say lies. Having been a one-time and a first-time host, obviously, when you hosted, do you have any advice for Jonathan, your first-time host this week? Well, I met him, and I just want to say he seems like one of the coolest people on Earth. Yeah. I think that everyone needs to watch. And just like, he's amazing. I mean, his work is obviously so incredible, and I'm a big fan. But meeting him, you just get such a good, very real, very abnormally talented, normal personality. Yes. Those people are unicorn special. Yes, it's a very, very nice combination. Special people. You know, what's weird is I didn't get any advice from anyone when I was hosting, which is actually weird, because I was like 19, so I should have been given advice. Yeah. Real ball drop on our end. Right? Yeah. There should have been like a number of people called to give me advice. But no, I think it's just going to be amazing. I'm so happy to get to be there to perform and to sing. I haven't played with my band in years, and we're all like, we all find it hard not to cry that we get to play together. We're all like, did you guys make it through that last pass? We're in rehearsals just like embarrassing ourselves. So it's just a dream. Well, I think it must be emotional just to get back together, but also part of the emotion is you're singing songs from your re-recording. This is your second re-record. Yes. I know that everybody has busy lives, so I do feel the need to explain what I'm doing, because it's not normal. Yeah. Basically, I've always wanted to own my own music since I started making my music. And you probably don't know this, but most of your favorite artists do not own their work. The music industry is, you know, certain corners of it. But I think that there was something that happened years ago where I made it very clear that I wanted to be able to buy my music. That opportunity was not given to me, and it was sold to somebody else. And so I just figured I was the one who made this music. First, I can just make it again. Yeah. So that's what we're doing. So when something says, in parentheses, Taylor's version next to it, that means I own it, which is exciting. It's quite a clever loophole, Taylor. I really tipped my cap. Oh, thank you. You know, it's also interesting to kind of go back and relive this nostalgia with fans who are the reason why I get to do this and why I get to sit here and have this lovely chat with you. Going back and reliving these things with the fans, and this time around, I get to do things that I know they wish I would have done the first time. That's really cool. Because I'm always listening, and I'm always lurking, and I'm always listening to their opinions and their theories. They will let me know which songs should have been singles. They let me know which songs did not get videos and should have gotten videos. And so I just like, you know what? I'm listening, and I'm making the videos, and I'm doing the things. I mean, I have emotional connections to songs I listened to for the first time 10 years ago. I can only imagine what it's like for you, having written them. Like, is it cathartic to go back and re-record them? Or does it, when they're about painful things, do you feel it all over again? I mean, I think one thing that I noticed about this, just this week in general, is that I think back to the release week of Red, which is the album that is, you know, just in case anybody missed it. So this originally came out like, yeah, it came out originally about a decade ago. And I was 22, and that release week was so stressful because nobody's heard any of the music. There are like 14 different genres on this album. It's a real patchwork quilt of genre. I was really experimenting. A lot of 22-year-olds are going to bounce around on genres. Hopefully, yeah. You know, that's what we want for them. Absolutely. But I think that I was so focused on like, is anyone going to like it? And then I was also like, at the time, like, honestly, really sad because I'd actually gone through, you know, the stuff that I had sung about. But this time, I'm just like, I got like, I've like got sunglasses on and like a mojito. And just like, it's chill this time. It's really nice to be able to put this album out and like, and not be sad, not be like, taking breaks in between interviews to cry. It's very, I'm telling you, it's much better this way. Yeah. Much better. I think we're all happy. Yeah. With that said. You get some time passing, you know. You're reliving your experience from your 20s when you're in your 30s. It's really the way to do it. Yeah. I wonder if there are people who might think that they were the one you were singing about if it's easier or far, far worse for them 10 years later. I haven't thought about their experience, to be honest. I think that's the, that's the biggest burn. I think there's nothing they'd rather hear less. Hey, I have so many more questions for you. We'll be right back with more from Taylor Swift.