October 3, 2025 • 11 mins
Taylor calls into the show and talks about her new album "The Life Of A Showgirl". Talks about her recordning process while on the Eras Tour and what it was like to collab with Sabrina Carpenter. Plus, she spills the tea about easter eggs and what it means for her when swifties find them.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Lie from the Mercedes Benz Interview Lounge.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
So unless you're living in a cave, and caves are
great living by the way, the Life of a Showgirl.
Taylor Swift's album is back. We caught up with her
on the road. She's on the phone, Taylor. Oh hi,
oh hello. Look who had time in the busiest day
of the year to give us a phone Callay? How
are you?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I'm so good. I'm so excited for this record. I
still very like, uncomplicated joy about it.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
You know, well, I have to tell you I sat
in a room full of adults and watch them cry
while listening to some of these tracks. I want to
go over these with you because I loved it too.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Really, this is going to be something special when everyone
gets a hold of it. And it looks like everyone
is going to get a hold of it.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Oh, I'm so happy. I'm really happy to hear that.
It's so nice to have feedback from this. It's like
it's been such a secret for such a long time.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
We'll just talk about that. Tell me the story now.
On the most crazy two year tour and you're going
to football games and you're baking sourdough bread and you
were writing, producing, and recording an album at the same time.
Tell me the story of how that happened. It didn't
(01:17):
drive you a little nuts, Well, it was actually.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Kind of the opposite of going nuts, because I think
if I hadn't started to create a process of making
this album while I was on tour, I think I
was way more exhausted than I was, because like this
album started to happen in the European leg of the
Eras tour, like last summer, and it was during a
(01:47):
time in the tour I was so physically exhausted that
like my feet were sore, my legs were sore. I
hit my neck, my back, everything was like in pain
all the time. I was also like almost two years
into the tour, so I was starting to get muscle memory.
I was starting to be able to do the show
without thinking about it. So I knew I needed to
(02:09):
like stimulate my brain and my creativity and like figure
out a way to like be excited every day. And
so I would do three shows, I'd fly to Sweden
and record, do three more shows, fly back to Sweden.
And it was actually that stimulation of the creative process
of making this record that made me finish out that
tour without like without ever like hitting a wall.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
You know, look at all those Sweden stamps in that passport.
Oh yeah, absolutely. I don't even know where to start here.
I'll start with the crying in the room and I'm
going to play it in a minute. The Fate of Ophelia.
Of course, add to the list of things you were doing.
You're restudying Hamlet again, so we'll get into that.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
But yeah, you know that story never leaves you.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
There is something about the way the music sonically hits
the words and it really kind of you by the heart.
It's beautiful. We're going to play that in just a second.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Oh, I'm so happy you'd like that one. That one
just like as soon as we wrote it, I had
a feeling it would be the one that we would
go with first, and the one I'd get to make
a music video for because it's just so visual and
also just like so infectious.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I love it. And I want to talk about your
Easter eggs.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Like so many of your fans, you know, hear these
Easter eggs or see these Easter eggs.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Are they really always there?
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Or is there times where you go, yeah, that's not
really a hint that's not really an Easter egg.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yeah, there are definitely some theories that are based in
absolutely nothing close to reality, but you know what, like
there are some that are so fun when they figure
them out. Like like just yesterday, somebody figured out that
if you line up the titles of all the tracks
of this album in order and you line them up
(03:54):
in the center of the frame, the shape of the
track was makes the same shape as the era's tour stage. Wow.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
So that was a real one.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
That was one that it took a while for them
to discover and then finally they figured it out and
it was really fun. But then there's somewhere like people
thought that somehow sourdough bread was a part of the
whole thing, when actually that's I bake. I love baking.
It's completely aside from my music. It's just a hobby
I'm obsessed with.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
There's a track on this album about sourdough. I know
there is, I know there's not, there's not.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
But yeah, it's been really funny to like to have
people care that much, you know, because ultimately Easter eggs
are always leading towards more art, They're leading towards lyrics
or art that's coming in the future. So I wouldn't
able to do that if the fans didn't care so
much about the music itself, which I'm very honored by.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
So we always say that your albums are really like
a diary, and then you just open it up and
you share your diary with the world. And you done
this twelve times, so twelve different diaries. But in doing it,
are there lyrics that you can think of right now
that were just incredibly difficult for you to write and
then open up and share with people.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Not really, I don't really operate that way. Like my
music is a way of like it's the art of Catharsis,
Like there will be times where I'll write the most
gut wrenching song of torment and heartbreak, and then as
soon as I'm done writing it, I'm done with that emotion.
Like it's almost been a way of just sort of
like you say the thing and then you can move
(05:33):
on from the thing. But I just have like kind
of learned, I've kind of gone by to sort of
deal with writing in terms of from the character or story,
arts or fiction or in this record, like there's a
song called Elizabeth Taylor which is sort of like my
emotions and my issues with same through the lens of
(05:54):
cause playing the life of Elizabeth Taylor, so you kind
of meld the two experiences together because she's always someone
that I've looked up to as being this very very glamorous,
very beloved but for some reason a polarizing figure, which
I found myself in that place too. So it's been
really fun, right, Yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Love writing well Elizabeth Taylor. Elizabeth Taylor. I've always been
a massive fan because I guess it's the you know,
the old gay thing. But uh, I mean she would
just navigate through life just looking flawless at all times.
But you know, as soon as the door closed, she
was throwing She was funny. She was hilarious, but she
was funny.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
And I think she's just a fabulous role model and
like person that I hope my fans will look her
up and see how much she went through and how
she was making her best art, like even at the
midst of people's outrage over something in her life, like
she continued being at the top of her game in
terms of her artistic output.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Well good, I mean, a whole new audience needs to
learn a lot more about Elizabeth Taylor, and so I
was listening to the song, I was thinking, this is
definitely an homage to her, but it's actually an homage
to yourself as well. And I love that. And also
opal Light talking the experiences talk about opal Light, Is
that is that the one that has the lyric It's
my favorite lyric on the album. You're Dancing through the
Lightning strikes? Is that that's from that?
Speaker 1 (07:12):
The song? Yeah, I'm glad you liked that one. That's
one of my.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Favorite songs on the record. But you can actually see choreography,
you can see someone dancing through the lightning strikes. What
a powerful line that is. Love that. And also it's.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
About it's about choosing happiness in your own life, you know,
like Opal Light isn't is a man made opal It's
just like you know how they have man made diamonds
now like. And so I love that sort of reference
and metaphor between making your own like gemstone and then
(07:49):
manufacturing your own happiness even when things aren't going your way.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Also, if you're a size queen, Father figures an ice selections, Oh, Father.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Figure's a great I love that one. I love that one.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
No one's going to ask you who that's about, but
it's sure is applatable to all of our lives.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
It's a song. It's a song about power, and it's
a it's got a really good metaphor about the way
that men moved through the world in a sense of power.
And it's kind of like you kind of can't tell
if I'm singing from the perspective of the angenou or
of the father figure mentor character and that's by design.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Wow, awesome, you know, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
You mentioned earlier you just talked about making your own happiness,
and when we started this call, you said that you're
feeling uncomplicated joy. What to you is complicated joy? Because
that made me really think about, huh, what does that mean.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
That that's a good question. Complicated joy around a record
release is when you wrote the album a year ago,
when you were in a very different place emotionally than
you are.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
When you wrote it.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Let's say you wrote a heartbreak album and now you're
very hap or let's say you wrote a happy album
and now you're very heartbroken like or any kind of
variation on that. When you feel that you're in a
different place and now you're putting out art that you're
proud of, but you don't relate to anymore. I really
relate to this record because I'm in the same exact
(09:18):
place as I was when I wrote it.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
I love that. Wow, we're about to play the Fate
of Ophelia, the one that makes people in the room cry.
But first, before you have one more second to talk
about life of a Showgirl. I mean this, this track,
I'm trying to figure out where it's from. I mean,
it's it is it so simple, it is exactly what
it is you out there on the road doing your thing.
(09:40):
Talk to me about that.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
The song the Life of a show Girls the songs
that I did with Sabrina Carpenter, because it's about it's
a story about meeting one of your idols and telling
them you want to do this too, you want to
follow in those footsteps. And I think a lot of
people in the entertainment industry have had this hap that
your idol warns you not to do it, not to
(10:04):
follow in their footsteps, because of how hard this industry is.
And it's about taking that advice and completely disregarding it
and doing it anyway. And I wanted the brain up
to be the person who did the duet with me
on it because I just think she's so smarked and
like cut out for this job, if you want to
call it a job, it's it's really a all encompassing
(10:27):
life path. And I think she's like just so brilliant
and tough in a way. She's very sensitive in terms
of being an artist, which she can handle herself. So
I just thought that she would be kind of a
great person to collaborate with on that song in particular,
And it's the last song on the record, so it
really ends out the story of the album.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
This is what you do, Elvis. If someone wants to
be in radio, you tell them run the other run,
run your life. Live to tell others the life of
a show girl. It's out today. There's so many great stories,
and you were the best storyteller. Let me give you
the fatal fephilia. Congratulations, Taylor, thanks for being on with
us today.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Thank you so much, Thanks for listening to music, and
I hope you guys have a great today.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Hi you too. Take care.
Lie from the Mercedes Benz Interview Lounge.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
So unless you're living in a cave, and caves are
great living by the way, the Life of a Showgirl.
Taylor Swift's album is back. We caught up with her
on the road. She's on the phone, Taylor. Oh hi,
oh hello. Look who had time in the busiest day
of the year to give us a phone Callay? How
are you?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I'm so good. I'm so excited for this record. I
still very like, uncomplicated joy about it.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
You know, well, I have to tell you I sat
in a room full of adults and watch them cry
while listening to some of these tracks. I want to
go over these with you because I loved it too.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Really, this is going to be something special when everyone
gets a hold of it. And it looks like everyone
is going to get a hold of it.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Oh, I'm so happy. I'm really happy to hear that.
It's so nice to have feedback from this. It's like
it's been such a secret for such a long time.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
We'll just talk about that. Tell me the story now.
On the most crazy two year tour and you're going
to football games and you're baking sourdough bread and you
were writing, producing, and recording an album at the same time.
Tell me the story of how that happened. It didn't
(01:17):
drive you a little nuts, Well, it was actually.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Kind of the opposite of going nuts, because I think
if I hadn't started to create a process of making
this album while I was on tour, I think I
was way more exhausted than I was, because like this
album started to happen in the European leg of the
Eras tour, like last summer, and it was during a
(01:47):
time in the tour I was so physically exhausted that
like my feet were sore, my legs were sore. I
hit my neck, my back, everything was like in pain
all the time. I was also like almost two years
into the tour, so I was starting to get muscle memory.
I was starting to be able to do the show
without thinking about it. So I knew I needed to
(02:09):
like stimulate my brain and my creativity and like figure
out a way to like be excited every day. And
so I would do three shows, I'd fly to Sweden
and record, do three more shows, fly back to Sweden.
And it was actually that stimulation of the creative process
of making this record that made me finish out that
tour without like without ever like hitting a wall.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
You know, look at all those Sweden stamps in that passport.
Oh yeah, absolutely. I don't even know where to start here.
I'll start with the crying in the room and I'm
going to play it in a minute. The Fate of Ophelia.
Of course, add to the list of things you were doing.
You're restudying Hamlet again, so we'll get into that.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
But yeah, you know that story never leaves you.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
There is something about the way the music sonically hits
the words and it really kind of you by the heart.
It's beautiful. We're going to play that in just a second.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Oh, I'm so happy you'd like that one. That one
just like as soon as we wrote it, I had
a feeling it would be the one that we would
go with first, and the one I'd get to make
a music video for because it's just so visual and
also just like so infectious.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I love it. And I want to talk about your
Easter eggs.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Like so many of your fans, you know, hear these
Easter eggs or see these Easter eggs.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Are they really always there?
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Or is there times where you go, yeah, that's not
really a hint that's not really an Easter egg.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yeah, there are definitely some theories that are based in
absolutely nothing close to reality, but you know what, like
there are some that are so fun when they figure
them out. Like like just yesterday, somebody figured out that
if you line up the titles of all the tracks
of this album in order and you line them up
(03:54):
in the center of the frame, the shape of the
track was makes the same shape as the era's tour stage. Wow.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
So that was a real one.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
That was one that it took a while for them
to discover and then finally they figured it out and
it was really fun. But then there's somewhere like people
thought that somehow sourdough bread was a part of the
whole thing, when actually that's I bake. I love baking.
It's completely aside from my music. It's just a hobby
I'm obsessed with.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
There's a track on this album about sourdough. I know
there is, I know there's not, there's not.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
But yeah, it's been really funny to like to have
people care that much, you know, because ultimately Easter eggs
are always leading towards more art, They're leading towards lyrics
or art that's coming in the future. So I wouldn't
able to do that if the fans didn't care so
much about the music itself, which I'm very honored by.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
So we always say that your albums are really like
a diary, and then you just open it up and
you share your diary with the world. And you done
this twelve times, so twelve different diaries. But in doing it,
are there lyrics that you can think of right now
that were just incredibly difficult for you to write and
then open up and share with people.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Not really, I don't really operate that way. Like my
music is a way of like it's the art of Catharsis,
Like there will be times where I'll write the most
gut wrenching song of torment and heartbreak, and then as
soon as I'm done writing it, I'm done with that emotion.
Like it's almost been a way of just sort of
like you say the thing and then you can move
(05:33):
on from the thing. But I just have like kind
of learned, I've kind of gone by to sort of
deal with writing in terms of from the character or story,
arts or fiction or in this record, like there's a
song called Elizabeth Taylor which is sort of like my
emotions and my issues with same through the lens of
(05:54):
cause playing the life of Elizabeth Taylor, so you kind
of meld the two experiences together because she's always someone
that I've looked up to as being this very very glamorous,
very beloved but for some reason a polarizing figure, which
I found myself in that place too. So it's been
really fun, right, Yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Love writing well Elizabeth Taylor. Elizabeth Taylor. I've always been
a massive fan because I guess it's the you know,
the old gay thing. But uh, I mean she would
just navigate through life just looking flawless at all times.
But you know, as soon as the door closed, she
was throwing She was funny. She was hilarious, but she
was funny.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
And I think she's just a fabulous role model and
like person that I hope my fans will look her
up and see how much she went through and how
she was making her best art, like even at the
midst of people's outrage over something in her life, like
she continued being at the top of her game in
terms of her artistic output.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Well good, I mean, a whole new audience needs to
learn a lot more about Elizabeth Taylor, and so I
was listening to the song, I was thinking, this is
definitely an homage to her, but it's actually an homage
to yourself as well. And I love that. And also
opal Light talking the experiences talk about opal Light, Is
that is that the one that has the lyric It's
my favorite lyric on the album. You're Dancing through the
Lightning strikes? Is that that's from that?
Speaker 1 (07:12):
The song? Yeah, I'm glad you liked that one. That's
one of my.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Favorite songs on the record. But you can actually see choreography,
you can see someone dancing through the lightning strikes. What
a powerful line that is. Love that. And also it's.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
About it's about choosing happiness in your own life, you know,
like Opal Light isn't is a man made opal It's
just like you know how they have man made diamonds
now like. And so I love that sort of reference
and metaphor between making your own like gemstone and then
(07:49):
manufacturing your own happiness even when things aren't going your way.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Also, if you're a size queen, Father figures an ice selections, Oh, Father.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Figure's a great I love that one. I love that one.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
No one's going to ask you who that's about, but
it's sure is applatable to all of our lives.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
It's a song. It's a song about power, and it's
a it's got a really good metaphor about the way
that men moved through the world in a sense of power.
And it's kind of like you kind of can't tell
if I'm singing from the perspective of the angenou or
of the father figure mentor character and that's by design.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Wow, awesome, you know, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
You mentioned earlier you just talked about making your own happiness,
and when we started this call, you said that you're
feeling uncomplicated joy. What to you is complicated joy? Because
that made me really think about, huh, what does that mean.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
That that's a good question. Complicated joy around a record
release is when you wrote the album a year ago,
when you were in a very different place emotionally than
you are.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
When you wrote it.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Let's say you wrote a heartbreak album and now you're
very hap or let's say you wrote a happy album
and now you're very heartbroken like or any kind of
variation on that. When you feel that you're in a
different place and now you're putting out art that you're
proud of, but you don't relate to anymore. I really
relate to this record because I'm in the same exact
(09:18):
place as I was when I wrote it.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
I love that. Wow, we're about to play the Fate
of Ophelia, the one that makes people in the room cry.
But first, before you have one more second to talk
about life of a Showgirl. I mean this, this track,
I'm trying to figure out where it's from. I mean,
it's it is it so simple, it is exactly what
it is you out there on the road doing your thing.
(09:40):
Talk to me about that.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
The song the Life of a show Girls the songs
that I did with Sabrina Carpenter, because it's about it's
a story about meeting one of your idols and telling
them you want to do this too, you want to
follow in those footsteps. And I think a lot of
people in the entertainment industry have had this hap that
your idol warns you not to do it, not to
(10:04):
follow in their footsteps, because of how hard this industry is.
And it's about taking that advice and completely disregarding it
and doing it anyway. And I wanted the brain up
to be the person who did the duet with me
on it because I just think she's so smarked and
like cut out for this job, if you want to
call it a job, it's it's really a all encompassing
(10:27):
life path. And I think she's like just so brilliant
and tough in a way. She's very sensitive in terms
of being an artist, which she can handle herself. So
I just thought that she would be kind of a
great person to collaborate with on that song in particular,
And it's the last song on the record, so it
really ends out the story of the album.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
This is what you do, Elvis. If someone wants to
be in radio, you tell them run the other run,
run your life. Live to tell others the life of
a show girl. It's out today. There's so many great stories,
and you were the best storyteller. Let me give you
the fatal fephilia. Congratulations, Taylor, thanks for being on with
us today.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Thank you so much, Thanks for listening to music, and
I hope you guys have a great today.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Hi you too. Take care.
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