Taylor Swift gave a tour de force performance on “Saturday Night Live” this weekend of a 10-minute version of “All Too Well,” which is believed to be about Jake Gyllenhaal.
The performance was to promote her new album “Red (Taylor’s Version)” which is a re-recording of her classic 2012 CD. Swift is in the process of re-recording every album she made before 2019 to reclaim the rights to her music. Her older recordings are owned by Shamrock Holdings, which gets paid whenever someone streams or buys the songs.
Swift hopes that fans will opt to listen to the new versions that she owns over the older ones.
For Swift’s loyal fans, known as Swifties, the “SNL” performance brought the Gyllenhaal break-up back to the forefront and some, sensing a trend, took the opportunity to address another ex, musician John Mayer.
Swift eviscerated Mayer on the song “Dear John” which appeared on her 2010 album “Red.” Here’s an excerpt of the lyrics:
My mother accused me of losing my mind,
But I swore I was fine, you paint me a blue sky
And go back and turn it to rain
And I lived in your chess game,
But you changed the rules every day
Wondering which version of you I might get on the phone
Tonight, well I stopped picking up, and this song is to let you know why
Dear John, I see it all now that you’re gone
Don’t you think I was too young to be messed with?
The girl in the dress, cried the whole way home, I should’ve known
One Swiftie, who goes by the name @hoeforlouaylor on TikTok, wrote an extremely mean message to Mayer on Instagram.
“Fuck yourself you ugly bitch I hope you choke on something,” @hoeforlouaylor wrote. She then demanded a response adding, “answer me you bitch.” To her surprise, the “Your Body Is a Wonderland” singer gave a very polite response.
Hi Alondrea, It’s John. I’ve been getting so many messages like this the past couple of days, I decided to choose your message at random to reply to. You can feel free to screen shot, share in any way you like if you want. I’m not upset, I just tend to have a curious mind and feel compelled to ask. Do you really hope that I die?
After Mayer responded, she posted an image of the conversation on TikTok.
The TikTok user sent a follow-up video where she said she apologized to Mayer. The video has since been set to private.
“My friend literally dared me to do that,” she said in the recording, according to The Daily Dot. “She’s a Taylor fan and like so am I. It was a dare. I’m sorry. I did not expect you to see.”
Mayer responded by showing that he’s a human being with feelings, too. “So it’s a fun thing people are doing without taking into account that I might see it and be affected by it?” he asked.
The TikTok user reiterated that she didn’t think he’d read the message. Then, in a wonderful display of grace, Mayer told the woman who wished him dead that it was fine by him.
“It’s 100 percent okay,” Mayer told her. “Go forth and live happy and healthy!”
Mayer did a great job in taking the high road with the Swiftie by explaining that even though he’s a famous musician, he’s just like everyone else. One of the worst things about internet culture is the idea that there aren’t any real people behind the profiles on social media.
If more people saw the humanity in those they are speaking with online it would go a long way toward softening our national discourse. Mayer did a nice job by pointing that out.