Taylor Swift Shouts Out 'Husband' Travis in her first Interview as a Kelce at Grammy Museum

I also just think that I've loved, and I think this can happen as you grow up, I love my country roots more and more the further along this path I get, and I want to honour them more and more, and I feel more tied and more loyal to them. The people that shaped who I am as an artist and as a writer, that all happened in Nashville. Just having to think about how it's going to be interpreted. I don't know, sometimes it fuels it. Sometimes when people are mocking me, it's really fun to mock them back. Sometimes I like to just use words that they have to look up in order to talk ---- about. But I go through several processes and coping mechanisms that I've gone through over the years, and one of them is saying, you chose this, you chose this every day. You could have opted out of this any day before it got unmanageably big. And I decided not to because I love it that much. And that's just where it begins and where it ends. And everything that comes with this ultimately is worth it as long as I get to still make music. That's special, that's incredible. Those voices saying you're tired, you need to record it right now. It does not matter if somebody thinks that that's weird, that you're just like... Because that's what a lot of them sound like. And then you wake up the next morning and you're like, whoa, what is that? Most of the time you're like, that was awful. But every once in a while, there was something there. Taylor Swift has made a name for herself as a singer-songwriter for the past two decades exploring different genres of music, including pop, indie, country, and other territories. But she says her country roots have only become more meaningful to her over time. During a conversation at the Grammy Museum presented by the Recording Academy's Songwriters and Composers Wing on August 18th, which was just released in full on YouTube, Swift fondly reflected on the songwriter she was when she released her debut single, Tim McGraw, and the artist she has become nearly two decades later. When asked by Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. what has remained the same and what has changed between herself then and now, Swift pointed to the country foundation that assisted in the launching of her career. I've loved, and I think this can happen as you grow up, my country roots more and more, Swift said. The further along this path I get, I want to honor them more and more, and I feel more and more tied and more loyal to them, the people that shaped who I am as an artist and as a writer. Those roots, Swift noted, trace back to Nashville, where she developed her identity as a songwriter. Earlier in the conversation, she recalled becoming fascinated with the city at around age 10 after learning that Faith Hill had been discovered at the Bluebird Cafe. Swift made it a personal goal to perform at the famed Nashville venue, while also teaching herself instruments and writing songs by studying the structures of the music she loved. That early immersion in country music did influence the picturesque storytelling that would become one of the distinctive and beloved attributes of Swift's songwriting. Looking back at Tim McGraw, she pointed to elements of the song that seemingly foreshadowed the kind of writer she would eventually become, I was 16 putting out an album in country music that was all about my life as a kid in high school, Swift explained during a conversation, recalling how some people around her questioned whether a teenager writing about her own life would connect with country's music-presumed audience. She decidedly trusted her instincts rather than conforming to those expectations. Swift famously pushed far beyond the country genre once her debut album Ignited. Audiences first saw her experimenting with her 2012 album Red, straying away from traditional collaborators and sounds before she made her official pop pivot with 2014's 1989, both of which debuted atop the Billboard 200. Even as her music evolved, however, the songwriting principles she refined in Nashville remained part of her creative groundwork. She pointed to Mean from 2010 Speak Now as one example of how her country background directly influenced her approach. At the time, one criticism she was hearing was that she wasn't country enough, so she responded by leaning into the genre's sonic characteristics, joking that she put That willingness to experiment did lead her to some of the more unexpected genre combinations of her career. Swift spoke about bringing the earworm hit I Knew You Were Troubled to Max Martin and Shellback as a sad piano ballad, only for the producers to suggest turning into somewhat of a dubstep-influenced track. She agreed to try it, and the result became the biggest turning point of her moving away from the country genre. Nearly 20 years after Tim McGraw, Swift seems to be looking back at her country beginnings with renewed appreciation. Her comments don't amount to an announcement that she's returning to country music or that another country music is on the way, but they do suggest that, as Swift continues to move through this new period of her life, the Nashville roots she once grew further from remain something she wants to embrace and honor rather than forget. Watch the full conversation with the Recording Academy below.