Taylor Swift finally comes off shelf to express herself with an in-depth interview with Time for their 2023 Person of the Year, Swift opened up not just about her triumphant 2023 and her relationship with Travis Kelce, but the lowest points of her career — namely the backlash from the infamous leaked interview and ensuing feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian in 2016.
It was an extremely tough time for Taylor, who apparently thought the backlash — what she called “getting cancelled within an inch of my life and sanity” — would define her for the rest of her life.
Taylor Swift said, “You have a fully-manufactured frame job, in an illegally-recorded phone call, which Kim Kardashian edited and then put out to say to everyone that I was a liar,” According to her, the incident took her “down psychologically to a place I’ve never been before” and forced her to change her life completely.
She further revealed that she relocated out of the United States to a different country and essentially disappeared from the public eye entirely. “I didn’t leave a rental house for a year. I was afraid to get on phone calls. I pushed away most people in my life because I didn’t trust anyone anymore. I went down really, really hard,” she explained.
Taylor Swift who has been having ups and down in her music career have over the time try to kick back strong
Of course, Taylor Swift figured out a way to get her voice and her music back, embarking on the extremely ambitious Taylor’s Version project in 2020 in order to own her masters. “It’s all in how you deal with loss,” she shared of her motivation behind the re-records, which have been successful and industry-shifting. (Fans are eagerly awaiting the announcement of Reputation (Taylor’s Version).) “I respond to extreme pain with defiance.”
“Nothing is permanent,” she continued. “So I’m very careful to be grateful every second that I get to be doing this at this level, because I’ve had it taken away from me before. There is one thing I’ve learned: My response to anything that happens, good or bad, is to keep making things. Keep making art… but I’ve also learned there’s no point in actively trying to quote unquote defeat your enemies. Trash takes itself out every single time.”
