Taylor Swift Talks Honoring Her Country Roots ‘More and More’ in Rare Interview

Taylor Swift is feeling nostalgic for her country roots. In a career-spanning conversation with Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. for the institution’s Icon Sessions series, the pop superstar reflected on her early years in Nashville.

“I love my country roots more and more the further along this path I get and I want to honor them more and more,” Swift said. “I feel more tied to them, more loyal to them … The people that shaped who I am as an artist and as a writer, that all happened in Nashville,” she added.

The superstar named one of the musicians that influenced her deeply. “I had heard that Faith Hill got discovered at the Bluebird Cafe,” Swift recalled of the venue where was first discovered as a 13-year-old. “I started learning about the Bluebird Cafe, made it a personal life goal to get to perform there.”

Throughout the conversation, which focused on Swift’s prolific career as a songwriter over the last 20 years, the superstar often reflected on her self-titled debut album and her first single “Tim McGraw.” “If I look back at the song ‘Tim McGraw,’ there are actually sort of hints at everything that was gonna happen in the next 20 years,” Swift told Mason Jr.