Taylor Swift and Seth Talk The Life of a Showgirl, Travis Kelce and More

Welcome back, everybody. Our guest tonight is a 14-time Grammy Award-winning, platinum-selling singer and songwriter whose eras tour, which encompassed 149 shows in 21 countries, was the highest-grossing concert tour of all time. As of this weekend, she is the first artist in history to simultaneously debut at number one at the box office, Billboard 200, and Hot 100, her 12th studio album. Officially the top album debut of all time, selling over 3.5 million copies in just five days. Please welcome the one, the only, you guys all know her, Taylor Swift, everybody. -♪♪ I'm so happy you're back. I'm so happy to be back. Thank you for that, by the way. It is, um... It has been almost five years, and, you know, that's a long time, but of course, it's even... I feel like you've done, like, 15 years' worth of things. It definitely feels a little like that. Yeah. So we have a lot to catch up on. We have a lot to catch up on. But thank you for inviting me back. It's a thrill to have you here. Congratulations on the album. I have to ask, though, you know, you put so much work, I think we all know how much work you put into your art, and then it gets released to the world, and it belongs to everybody all of a sudden. How is that moment, like, when you realize it's going to be the reaction to it, as opposed to what you have put into it? I mean, this is my 12th album release. So this... And I think it's absolutely been my favorite one so far. I'm blown away. I got to, like... First of all, like, the music goes out into the world. The fans are just so... Like, they're so funny. They're so adorable. They're so clever, the way that they, like, will dance to these songs or, like, come up with something clever that they'll create on TikTok. And I'm just, like, laughing at what they're doing. And this is just in the first few days that this music is out. But I also... This is my first album release where I've got, like... I've got my mom, my dad, and my brother with me the whole album release. So... So we started out in London, and it's just very, like... You know, your parents are like, Wow, London, this is great. You know, my mom's like... They don't have the Wheel of Fortune on these channels. And, um... But, you know, they're just... My parents, like... I don't know if you guys, like, have gone through this, but, like, you go through your life. You're a teenager, you're like, I've reached the point where, like, my parents are the VIPs of all VIPs. So the fact that they wanted to come to my release week has just completely made it for me. And I work with my mom and my brother. So it's like... It's just been kind of the most joyful album release I've ever had. And you guys have everything to do with that. Your family. And I've been lucky enough to meet them. You know, obviously, briefly over the years, they're so... They're so much better behaved than my family. Like, backstage in the green room, like, impeccable compared to my family, which is... Tell me more about this. My family, like, they're just stuffing the free candy in their pockets. They definitely also think that because my name is in the title of the show, it also equally belongs to them. Yeah, I think that's fair. Yeah, well, then you are not allowed back, ma'am. They put you here. I think we have a very different situation in terms of, like, what we owe our parents. They put you here. I like at the end of the tour... They gave you that name. Oh, my God. Do not back up my parents. I'm never gonna win another argument. I also, you know, it's interesting because I watch you backstage and you sing it's your favorite album. Like, I watched you, you know, talking to, you know, a teenage girl, you know, named Kyla, who basically said it was her favorite album of yours. And I watched you give a very genuine fist pump. Like, you do care. I love this album. Yeah. I absolutely... I'm just so grateful. Like, I'm floored. I'm blown away by this week. I don't know how to say thank you enough for, like, everything that you guys have put into caring about the music and, like, and caring about this week. This is just, like, we're doing this together. And I'm just, I'm so happy about it. And yeah, I absolutely care about everything I make. And I appreciate that the people who I make it for care too. You also like to show people the process as well, right? Like, one of the cool things about the movie was like, hey, like, obviously you can listen to the songs, you can watch the video, but we're gonna show you how we do it. And I think one thing that's so nice about the film was showing everybody how collaborative it is when you put your things together. And I was fascinated to hear, you know, that the dancers in your video, which again, you work with the best in the world, and the choreography is amazing, but they weren't listening to the song when they were dancing in the video because it was so top secret. So how do you teach them dance moves when they don't get to listen to the song? So some of the people in the video who were on the Eros tour were, I played them the song beforehand because if they were on the Eros tour and like, I mean, they know how to keep a secret. Right, right, yeah. Like, we know this. And so they, you know, they were the ones like, especially there's this scene that I love that's me on a pirate ship. Yes, very nice. Yeah. And I kind of wanted to sort of signal back to this moment that I really loved on the Eros tour, which we did this performance of a song called The Man. And in it, the dudes that are my dancers, they put on what I believe is like some of the most incredible comedic acting performances I've ever seen every single night. If you go back and watch it, you'll see that basically in this pirate ship scene, I wanted them to just do more of that, but instead of dudes in suits, you're pirates now. I just want this somewhere in a music video. And then the other dancers who were absolutely fantastic, this is such a testament to how incredible these dancers are. And Mandy Moore, our choreographer, not the amazing pop star, but a different Mandy Moore. A different Mandy Moore. But she, yeah. So she's the reason why they were able to learn these moves and also learn kind of the energy behind it. And she's very funny with the way she's, she's like, and a five and a six, and a zat to do zoo, and a here and a there, and a tit, tit, tit, four, five, six, seven, eight, you know, like, but it's very like, you watch her do her thing. And you realize that like, I'm working alongside people who every single one of you has wanted to do this your entire lives, and you've put in the maximum work that you could possibly put in, and I'm just lucky to be around all of you. I just think you must be so happy. Again, if you, if you like set your sights on being a dancer, and then you're like dressed up like a pirate in one of your videos, you must be like, it's all worked out. Pirate day, pirate day is a great day for all of us. Was pirate, did you do pirates in one day? It felt like, I mean, based on the quote, I would have guessed it would have been pirate days. Nah, so all, this video, what I wanted to do was kind of capture the essence of a live performance. And so every single one of the scenes is one take. Wow. Into, you know, going into another scene where maybe we hide a cut, or we have a transition that goes into the next scene, but each scene in itself is one take. So we had like three weeks of rehearsal, not just rehearsal with the dancers and my band, but also with our Steadicam operator. Like we had camera block rehearsals because the choreography has to work with the camera choreography. So shout out to Colin, my Steadicam operator, and Bogdan, my crane operator. It was all a dance. It was all a dance, everybody was dancing, even off camera. You're baking your own bread, and we're all really happy about it. So I learned, I learned to bake bread from a wonderful woman named Tina. Because you have nothing but free time. And I have now made it everyone's problem. Yeah. It's like I have, when I have a hobby, it becomes an obsession, and then it becomes my entire personality. And so I've made you some bread. You made me some bread, and I want to say I'm very, I do want to say, I feel like this is an intervention on behalf of your friends and family. Yeah, I thought it might be. Like there's, everybody's excited about the bread. The bread puns. Have to stop. Yeah. Like this is great. I mean, again, like I got bread from Taylor Swift, but then it said, are you bready for this? Yeah. Yep. The fate of doh-feel-ya. There's a moment. Some of my best work. And I feel like it's not going to be appreciated until after it's time. I think the, you should definitely do like a Weird Al remake of your album, where it's all just like bread-based puns. Oh, that's not off the table at this point. You're really good. Yeah. It's just, this is like my way of like, it's like stress relief. You know what I mean? Like you're following instructions. You're doing a thing they've done for thousands of years. There's something kind of calming about it. And then I get to collect a lot of stickers. Yeah. To put on the back. Right. So like as an adult, if you're buying stickers and you don't have a sort of bread hustle, it's weird. Well, yeah. Yeah. But I want to ask, there was something in the movie that I have to ask about because you were very excited because they said your bread could be in the video. Let's take a look. Yeah. We might do like a little, little Parisian table or something. With a loaf of bread. And some grapes. And a little garlic. You know, it's just some grapes. Oh, I can bake the bread. One girl, two grapes, and you can do your bread. Can it be my bread? Can my bread be in the music video? Yes. Come on, that would be fun. My bread? Yeah. Were you, did you, was there actually a moment you thought someone would be like, no, we can't use your bread? I'm like, I'm constantly waiting for someone to tell me to stop. Like, and, and, and I guess when you're the director of the music video, when you wrote the whole video and you wrote the song, you could put the bread in the video. I don't know who I was looking to, to make me stop. I will say, I find it very endearing that you're still like, that you are able to find like a joyful, you took that as like, oh my God, I can't believe it. They're going to put my bread in a video. It was, it was a huge moment for me because obviously, obviously like my bread has always been for texture and taste. Right. But this was for camera. Oh. So it was a massive moment of like, this is a huge challenge. Right. For me, for the bread, for my starter. Like, it's like, okay. Like, are you showbiz bread? Yeah. Cause you don't know with a starter, you can't tell yet if they have it. It's exactly. Yeah. It's the X factor that I was wondering about. And I'm just really excited that it seems to have gone really well. I scored it in a way like I did the feather scoring that I did that nobody cares about except for me. I think we all care. Now I have so many more things to ask you, not all bread related, but mostly we will be right back with Taylor. We're back with Taylor Swift, everybody with everything else going on. I haven't, I haven't even had a chance to congratulate you on your engagement. Thank you. I'm feeling there are two things I'm worried about on your behalf. Only two. Okay. I think, cause I think you're, I think you are got everything else under control. Yeah. I'm worried about the invitations. Logistics. Yeah. Just, just the invitations alone because I feel like everybody, you know, has an expectation that you're going to put a lot of thought into it. Yeah. And I feel like I just give you permission to just send an e-vite. Just use one of the many online things available. Yeah. I haven't even thought about this yet. So this is, I'm glad you're bringing this up because it's the first time I've thought about it. I didn't mean to put this burden on you. No, no, it's fine. Have I ruined the excitement you had about your bread being in that video? but this is like, we're towards the tail end of the release week. And it's like, it's about time that I start thinking about it. I do also give you permission and you can say, it's my idea. So nobody says, you know, you were being like cocky or arrogant or anything. I think you can, I think you should send the invitations in a frame. Cause I think people, I think people will do it anyway. That's, that's a very nice thing to say. That's a very nice thing to say. Yeah. No, there's lots of different things you could do, right? We could get some production value or like get really tricksy with it. Where like they read it. And as soon as it senses fingerprints, it three minutes later dissolves into dust. That's really good. Right. It can be no words, just a series of numbers. And people are like, Oh yeah. Yeah. We got to figure this out. I think that's, we, that is, that's what we do. A decoder rig? If you can figure out what any of this is, like you're having to do like trigonometry to figure out like what date it is. Yeah. And then there's just going to be like two of your friends are like in Indianapolis one day being like, I think we got it wrong. I think that. I don't think it's going to be here. They're like, carry the three. They're like, did you carry the three? Come on. Yeah. There's just like a couple being like, you carry the three. No, but I didn't know we had to carry the three. Now we're, Oh God. You have, we talked about your incredible arrows tour. Congratulations. And everybody turned out. I want to show a video clip of Travis and some real like A-listers. And I think one of the great things about being at your show is like, nobody actually thinks about, you know, their own celebrity status. They just get to like have a fun time. And I want to show of this video and ask you about a story that I heard is true. Let's take a look. All right. So we had Ashton Kutcher with Mila Kunis. We had Travis. We had Greta Gerwig, Tom Cruise. We got Tom Cruise. You got Liam Hemsworth. It's a real good group. So you, yeah. All right. This night I remember looking out and I've never had so much FOMO in my life because of just like how hard they were dancing. And I'm like, I'm seeing, I can see it from there. And I'm like, I also, it wasn't just this group, but it was all of Travis's like best friends from Cleveland. So great. So there's like, I can see the shots that everyone is taking. Like I can see that everyone is getting like drunker and wilder and, and bouncier. And also like Travis is six, six, the jumping in the tent. I was like, is it structurally sound? I can see the actual tent is like there's, we're in danger of this. And you know, if that tent goes down, it's Travis's fault. Yeah. A hundred percent, which means it's my fault. I'm good. This is my person. Yeah. So, all right. So, but I'm, I'm on the stage. I'm watching this, whatever. But before the show, I always get a list that's like, Oh, this is who's in this tent. This is who's in this tent. And I, I, the most fun thing about having Travis out on tour is just like he would go to the tents and like give me the tea afterward. Like he'd like, we do the debrief afterward in the car and like, and so I was like, I got to let you know, like your favorite director is in the, is in the tent. He loves Greta Gerwig. Yeah, of course. He loves her movies. I mean, he loves her range. You know what I mean? Like being able to do this many different types of films. It's incredible. It's genre hopping. It's, it's really impressive. And so he was like, Oh my God, I really want to tell her how funny I thought Barbie was. And I'm like, you absolutely should. She's really, she's the sweetest giggliest person to tell that you like their work. You're going to love her. And so the show happens. I'm like, Oh my God, everyone's having the best time. And afterward, you know, he, he gets in the car. He has had as many shots as everyone else has had. And he's like, this was the most fun tent. Like everybody was amazing. Like Tom Cruise is going crazy. Like, like Liam is just as fun as Chris and, and Liam's fiance Gabrielle is so cool. And Ashton was there and Mila and like, and Oh my God, Hugh Grant was there and I got to tell him how much I love his movies. And that was, he was so cool. Everyone was amazing. I'm like, Oh my God, that's awesome. Like you didn't mention Greta. Did you meet Greta? And he's like, yeah, I, I did. I think I like, I think I told an annoying joke that she's heard too many times. Like, and I was like, okay, well, what did you say? He's like, well, I walked up to her and I was like, I love Barbie. I'm just Ken too. And then I pointed to you and I was like, that's such a solid joke. She will love that. And he's like, well, she, she was really polite about it. Like she, she smiled politely, but she didn't say anything. And I was like, that's very out of character, but maybe she has heard that joke too many times. I mean, you know what I mean? Like, and he was like, yeah, but you know, she was talking to Hugh Grant all night. So I think they might be doing a movie together. Like they were really, really close. Like I'm talking about like, they were dancing all night. Like, how do these inside jokes, they kind of seem like they're soulmates. I was like, the tea is crazy tonight, Travis. it's really good. You were right to want, to have been there. What do you mean? I have several follow-up questions. And so he keeps talking about this and he's like, yeah, and I, and meanwhile, I'm kind of scrolling on my phone. And he's like, telling me about the rest of the night. He's like, and there's this family up front that I was dancing with all night. They were so fun. They were like my best friends. I wish I knew who they were. They were so fun. He keeps talking. I'm seeing, all over the internet is just videos of Travis dancing with Greta, all night, like they're best friends. And I'm like, Travis, here's a video of you with Greta. It feels like, it feels like she thought the joke was funny. He goes, Oh, that's, that's not Greta. Do the math, carry the two here. Is there any chance at all, baby that you complimented Hugh Grant's wife, Anna, on her movie, Barbie said, I'm just Ken too. And she politely nodded because she didn't have the heart to tell you she didn't direct it. And, and is there any chance that the people that look like soulmates are Hugh Grant and his soulmate? Right? Well, I think the good news here with the bad news for you is he has face blindness. And the good news is he can recognize true love. So at least he saw soulmates. He saw soulmates and he knew they were soulmates. I have to ask you more with Taylor after this. Back with Taylor Swift, everybody. Your name was brought up on the show recently. Zoe Kravitz was here. She's a friend of yours. And she told a story really about your kindness and about how she, you invited her and her mom, Lisa Bonet to stay at your home after the fires in California. And, and then she also said that her mom had a snake and the snake got loose in your house. So we just want to give you a chance to tell Taylor's version, if you will, this snake in the house story. I just want to preface this with, we've all got that one friend. You know? And I just remember getting a call from my head of security and him trying to explain this story to me. And my first question was what snake? Yeah. I was unaware of the presence of the snake. I guess that's funny. On the premises. If someone calls and says the snake is loose and you didn't even know there was a snake. Did not know there was a snake. But I kind of found myself listening to this and I'm like, okay. Okay. And I hate to first and last name a friend, but it's important in this situation. Okay. So Zoe Kravitz and Lisa Bonet are holding onto it. Burmese Python. It's, it's halfway in the wall. There's a man standing with an ax who has just chopped up a custom vintage antique cupboard. Yeah. There's flint. There's floor. There's there's splinters on the floor. They're looking in my mind, they're looking up over their shoulder. This is an Annie Leibovitz shoe. Yeah, no, it's crazy. This is the chicest thing I've ever heard in my life. Zoe's wearing like head to toe the row. I'm like, this is a YSL ad, not a problem. Yeah. It just sounds incredible. I'm sad I didn't see it. I know. It was incredible that the story was, they always had half the snake. Exactly. Like the only part of the snake that got lost I'm seeing just like the elite cheekbones. Yeah, they really. And the, I'm just like, I, I can't even be mad. If you can take a good picture when you're holding on for dear life to the back half of a snake, you can take a good picture anywhere. Yeah, absolutely. I'm just like, I, I did play the little game in my head because I know her well enough to know she's not going to tell me about this until it's fixed. Yeah. I know her so well. And I'm like, I just kept a little countdown on my phone. Like just counting the days. It was like three weeks. Exactly the amount of time it took to fix the damaged cupboard. She waited, yeah. And she's like, she's like sitting at my house. She's like, hey, so like, I, I'm just going to tell you about something that happened now that it's fixed. And I was like, you had a snake in the house and it got loose and it was in the wall and they had to get an ax and they had, and she's like, I told them not to tell you. You were like, they didn't tell me. You just have that vibe. I've been. That's the vibe you're giving off. I know people. I can read people. Yeah, it just seemed like that was what you were going to say. No, I just, yeah, that was, I was like, dude I've been laughing about this for three weeks. It's so good. You're a very nice friend to have house guests. It was snake or no snake. Thanks. Thanks so much. We, I've talked many times. It's one of my favorite stories about the monologue song you wrote at SNL. But I have not, I haven't talked to you. I just went back and rewatched. We, we wrote a sketch for you called Firelight which was a Twilight, a Twilight parody where Bill Hader was a Frankenstein. Yes. But what we, and the rewatch, we were like you're doing some of the best lip biting acting. Thank you. You really brought a lot to the table. Thank you so much. So I was really trying to bring the smoldering intensity of the moment because this is back in 2009, I believe. I was 19. I was hosting SNL for the first time. And now that I look back, I am so lucky that we got to like do anything around something as iconic and 2009 as Twilight. It's true. Like I look back and I'm just like, yes. Really good. Oh my God. It's so, it was so cool. So our, the vibe of the sketch was that actually it's not a vampire that I'm in love with. It's a Frankenstein. Yeah. And Bill Hader played Frankenstein. Very well. And this was like, I look back on this week of my life. This was like, to me, like the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me in my life at 19. And like, and definitely like hosting SNL. Like that was absolutely the most amount of times I've changed clothes. Like at that point until the heiress tour. Oh, that was, you knew you could do the heiress tour because of SNL. I knew I could do the heiress tour. Like I can, I can get these costume changes. Like this is, this is the most fast paced thing ever. But like SNL was so much fun. And that's when I got to meet you. It's fantastic. We were very lucky. All of us were so lucky to meet you back then. All right. You love numerology, well-established. Yeah. You love numbers. Yeah, yeah. So I just want to do, I just want to throw out something about tonight's show and have you tell me like if it means anything to you. Okay. So this is true. Tonight is our 1,713th show, one, seven, one, three. Do they know already? So on top of the fact that you've got the 13. Yeah. Adds up to 12, right? Are we adding up to 12? Yeah, it does. Which is my 12th album. Unbelievable. So we're doing it. Thanks. Okay. All right. It's like, it's like being with that beautiful mind guy. Like you just have like a chalkboard in your head behind you. All right. We've talked about how you relieve stress with your bread and your bread puns. I know that you literally worked on this album while you were doing the heiress tour, which is mind boggling. I think everybody hears it, that you were doing this like a seminal tour and also like working on this album. Yeah. It's fantastic. Yeah. So like when, my question is, when do you sleep? And is it harder when you know there's a snake in the house? I actually sleep a lot and I sleep often. It's just that I don't do anything other than this when I'm not sleeping. Right. Do you know what I mean? Like that's, it's not, I don't have a lot of other things. Yeah. Does that make sense? Well, it does make sense, but I'm wondering, is it like out of your control? So you have this album done. I think some people when they would finish this, but like, is it just gonna, are new songs just gonna like find their way to you before you even know it? I don't know. I mean, I just, the thing is I'm very lucky to get to do with what I love so much that it just kind of is like, like I have to like do things like bake bread to stop the songs from happening because it's just sort of like, I love it so much. It's like an extension of me like breathing air, right? It's just really fun. And I just, I don't know. I don't do anything else though. So it's like, it seems like it's like a, oh, you work so much. It's like, but that's all I, I don't, it's not work and it's all I do. And I don't, I'm like not good at sports or anything else. Like I'm not, I'm not like out here, like I'm not well-rounded. This is my thing, my one thing. So it's like, that's the one thing I do. I think all of us believe that you're very well-rounded and you're wonderful to be around as well. And just thank you so much for making it back on the show. We are always so, so happy.